Fashion Wire Daily NY - Whether Puma or Adidas like it or not, Pony is coming up strong in the urban lifestyle arena. What started last year as a minor-league, comeback-kid story with the re-introduction of a couple of 'old-school' sneakers like the Starters and City Wings, is now a full-blown brand complete with clothing, caps, sports bags, and a slew of new sneakers for Fall 2002, as the company revealed to a host of fashion editors on Monday in its new 34th Street showroom space.
"Our apparel and footwear are all starting to connect," told company president David Schulte, dashing around the showroom to grab a black, white and brick red warm-up suit and pair it with some matching mid-height basketball shoes. "The company is really starting to become a powerful brand."
So what's his favorite new style? Not the pony-skinned boxing shoes, which caused a stir at To Be Confirmed trade show last month, but the M100's, a re-released high top that's taken a year to create. "You can't really tell from just looking at it, but it's the original molding, and we used the same leather rawhide, and rubber," explained Schulte excitedly.
Giving Pony an added boost of street cred now is their new ad campaign shot by "Back in the Days" photographer Jamel Shabazz. Images of kids chilling in Pony gear with retro Cazal glasses and a Lasonic boombox, as well as an original 1979 photo of a man riding the L train in a pair of the company's kicks gives Pony an authenticity that its earlier ad campaign -- featuring Pamela Anderson naked on an enormous shoe -- was just shy of.
"So many other companies over-design their sneakers," told Ronnie Zeidel, Associate Publisher of Slam magazine. "What's so great about Pony is that they're simple. They keep up with modern day technology without killing their old school flavor." And so why was he wearing a pair of re-issued Keds in lieu of the much-praised Ponys? "Ahhh, I put them on just to mess with David," he slyly explained.
