Puma Sneakers, worn by B-Girl Laneski

These shoes were made by Puma, circa 1984. The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was founded by Rudolph and Adolph Dassler, in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1924. The company manufactured track shoes for professional athletes and by 1948, split into two companies, Puma and Adidas.

These Puma Clyde model shoes, named after New York Knicks basketball star Walt “Clyde” Frazier who wore and endorsed them, were popular with graffiti artists in the 1970s and later with hip hop artists in the 1980s.

B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), wore these shoes around 1984-1985. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s.

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