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Hi-Tec Tecs - a flash of pure trainer nostalgia and a Google let down

5/4/2012

6 Comments

 
The best pair of trainers I ever owned was a pair of red striped Hi-Tec Tecs basketball boots. I owned these in the early eighties at the dawn of the breakdancing era (and when still at secondary school – that now feels so long ago that it could be somebody else’s life). I enjoyed these boots and wore them until they fell apart. I even remember spending time interweaving yellow and red laces into the standard white ones to create a crosshatched lace mat (for want of a better description). I thought my trainers looked very cool indeed.

Why on earth write about vintage footwear now? Well today one of my work colleagues was looking forward to going home to see his new Etnies trainers (just delivered by the postie). 
 
I’ll admit that I had never even heard of Etnies, another confirmation of my long lost connection with youth and fashion. A quick Internet search revealed these shoes to be just the thing for young skater types (something incidentally that my colleague is not).

His enthusiasm prompted me to reflect on trainer excitement. As a keen runner I go through a lot of them (and they are expensive purchases too) but it has been a very long time since I got excited about sporting footwear. In fact the last time probably was when I was still in school, and before I grew out of peer pressure around fashion choices.

These days I am afraid that I am a member of the Jeremy Clarkson school of dress sense - jeans and brown brogues. You won’t see me in a sporting jacket but the decline has obviously set in.

On a wave of nostalgia, I visited Google to find an image to share with my younger fellow workers; and do you know – I couldn’t find an image at all. Google let me down! What is the world coming to when you can’t rely on Google?  I was genuinely disappointed.

Can you help? Does anyone have an image to put me out of my misery?

And Hi-Tec if you are reading, I’d happily buy another pair if you fancy a retro inspired relaunch. Why let Nike and its Jordon shoes have all the glory? I might not be target market anymore but I’d still wear them with pride.

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Important Update - Hi-Tec comes up trumps with Tecs shot
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Other relevant post - Tecs like Nike Terminator High Tops
6 Comments
ian
10/5/2012 06:55:35 am

i remember them .i loved mine two. fat red/ white laces tounges hanging out forward. ....ahh the memorys bmx and breaking got thru
3 pairs.my mum would not buy anymore...
tuff life ! bring em back .this ol fart would were em with old skool pride. proberly get me 70/s chopper out and to go with em

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inov8 crossfit shoes link
1/8/2013 06:58:13 pm

People who play sports need to have good athletic shoes.

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Paul tame
9/9/2017 06:42:04 am

I had a few pairs of these in the 80s me and a mate both bought a pair mine were red his blue and we swapped the left one so both used to wear a pair of one foot red one blue!! Hi-etc odds we called them!!

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Adrian Baldwin link
9/12/2017 08:19:03 am

Hi Paul,
Thanks for getting in touch. Hi Tec "Odds" ... brilliant.
Best regards,
Adrian

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Rob Gillibrand
1/24/2018 06:23:41 am

Good work with the picture - I had that exact pair back in the day! I was having a discussion on Facebook about Hi Tec the other day and their popular Silver Shadow model. We had a local shop called Peter Gammon that sold them along with LA Gear, Troop and British Knights - good times.

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Adrian
1/29/2018 03:07:37 am

Hi Rob,

Thanks for getting in touch and for sharing your memories. With regards to the Silver Shadow, you can still buy that shoe new. Just a shame that Hi Tec hasn’t reissued the Tecs as well. At my age, I’d look stupid in them now … but I’d buy them anyway.

Troop was an interesting US brand that imploded before I had ever really heard of it. If I remember rightly, rumours (untrue) about the brand being sponsored by the KKK did for its public image. Amazingly the brand still exists, you never know, maybe one day we’ll see Mike Ashley pick up the rights for peanuts and start flogging it through Sports Direct.

Ade

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