The Ugliest Shoes Ever.

So in an another episode of Flames fandom gone wild, I would like to introduce all of you to the ugliest shoes ever. But just because they are ugly, does not mean they are not absolutely badass. For many years, I never thought I could top the gem of a find I had found at the Puma Store on Newbury Street in Boston, circa 2006...the Puma RS 100 Gold Rush...

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Those shoes epitomized a golden era of Flames hockey and have been my go to Flames games kicks since AND you could wear them in public without coming off too flash. Yes, I wore them at the Heritage Classic too...which was not a super good idea cause I froze my feet in the process...but I represented, right?

Well I've topped the Pumas, I kid you not. And it wasn't really a find...I designed them myself on Converse's website and their creation is practically legendary. I have to credit Newsboy aka James Callsen of Calgary's X92.9 FM for informing me of the ability to design the shoes at Converse, so he definitely gets a high five for helping bring these masterpieces to life. For many years I had tried to create some Flames Nike Shox on Nike ID without much success. It was just too hard to capture the spirit of the classic NHL fan gear I was trying to create. The low top Chuck T's gave me the opportunity to capture all the glory of the NHL in the 1980s while remaining elegantly tacky. It is for this reason that while I contemplated including some black (which is a color in the Flames current color scheme) as a component of the shoe, but black did not make the final cut. In honor of the Flames bringing back the retro jerseys in recent seasons, the shoes' color scheme is straight throwback. Additionally, the shoes had to evoke the essence of the Magic Man....Joel Otto...the 86 Cup Run...and the 89 Stanley Cup. Honestly the only thing missing with these shoes is a mullet or a porn-stache. Truth be told, if these shoes existed back in the 80s, someone on the set of the "Red Hot" music video would have been wearing them.

With that said, it really takes a hockey enthusiast, and not just any Flames fan, to see magnificence instead of just an ugly ass pair of shoes. Hence the reason my girlfriend, a Flames fan, gasped in horror and exclaimed "Ronald McDonald called and wants his shoes back!" when she saw them. So if you're reading this blog, I am sure you are going to appreciate the pictures below. If you don't, this is probably your first time at htp or you are just an Oilers or Canucks fan looking to troll a Flames site...because a reader of this blog will just stare in amazement at the following...

Yep...they are ugly...and they say Go Flames Go on the side...but they are definitely #winning.