Today we’re going to mix it up and post a pair of old school tennies. This ad is from 1980 from a brand called Soma. Soma was a sub brand of Mitsui & Co. based out of Japan and lasted from around 1976 to 1981. They were all about the Duolite sole. Btw, nice use of the Mercedes-Benz hood ornament to show how "classy" these sneakers were.
Ad info is below:
STEP UP
Introducing SOMA. The no-compromise tennis shoe for the no-compromise tennis player.
Your tennis shoes are a compromise between what your feet need, and what a shoe designer can give them. A tennis shoe must be flexible, yet offer firm support. It should also fit comfortably, absorb shock well, and be durable.
In an effort to give you all that, conventional tennis shoes are built as a complicated structure of many little parts—each trying to do one job. Unfortunately, they can't do them all equally well. So your feet suffer. And so does your game.
Duolite. The no-compromise sole.
A SOMA tennis shoe is different. Simple, not complicated. Outside, it has the classy look you'd expect in a quality tennis shoe. But below, we've replaced all those little parts with our exclusive Duolite- sole—two layers of polyurethane permanently bonded together.
The layer closest to your foot is soft for comfortable shock absorption, and orthopedically molded for real support and fit The bottom layer is firmer, for superior durability and traction on any court surface. Together they're the first really new tennis shoe idea in decades. Tomorrow the world will be playing in SOMA. Today you can be the first player at your club to wear them. For more information, contact: SOMA Sports, Inc., 200 Park Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10017.
SOMA's exclusive Duolite" sole eliminates compromise—does the whole job with just two parts instead of many.
SOMA It's as simple as that.
SEE READER SERVICE PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION