Puma’s Gaming Shoe Reviews Are Peak Internet Trolling

Last year, Puma entered the gaming apparel world with its $100 Active Gaming Footwear, which are basically fancy socks with a bit of added tread. But now the user reviews are in, and reader, they are priceless.

Recently, I was aimlessly browsing the web (as one does during the pandemic), and after being largely homebound for the past year, the idea of socks with thin soles that you can wear around the house suddenly didn’t seem as ridiculous as it did before. So naturally I decided to check in on how people felt about Puma’s gaming shoes, and I was absolutely not prepared for the hilarity that ensued.

The socks have a five-star average rating from 16 user reviews, so initial reactions seemed quite positive, albeit maybe a bit too positive. It’s only when you expand the Reviews tab to reveal the actual responses do you get a sense of what’s really going on: internet trolling at its finest.

In a four-star review, user EPICFORNITEGAMER wrote: “We all know the feeling when your feet just are cold and you can’t aim. Luckily these socks are amazing. They fix all your aiming problems. All of the gamer girls give me their bathwater and they just can’t stop admiring my amazing Fortnite skills. These socks are the best thing since the coronavirus.”

User BABYRICKY added: “When I wear these I feel like a real man… No, not just a real man; a real gamer. I am now able to three-piece McNugget fools in Online Battle Chess.”

But perhaps the most expertly crafted review came from GAMERGOD64, who wrote an ode to Puma’s gaming shoes, praising the sneakers for being “absolutely life-changing” and giving him the power to dominate in Minecraft, Forza (doesn’t say which version) and countless other titles, and even real-life games like Rock, Paper, Scissors. The whole review is a treat, but it’s a bit long to quote here in its entirety, so check out the screenshot above to read the full thing.

User PETERBOAT even claims Puma’s gaming shoes made him so good at DOTA, legendary DOTA pro gamer Dendi “tried to add [him] as a Steam friend.”

It seems Puma’s Active Gaming Footwear not only significantly improve people’s gaming skills, the socks somehow make you more attractive and charismatic enough to become respected members of the gaming community. HAPPYCODER even claims Puma’s shoes are useful outside of gaming, with the footwear helping to increase “my coding efficiency by 35%.”

Now all kidding aside, with almost every review dating from between December 2019 and March 2020—around when Puma’s shoes were first announced—it’s clear Puma’s website has been the target of some relatively light-hearted review bombing.

And yet even with all the troll reviews and the snide remarks, I don’t think Puma’s gamer shoes are all that silly. They’re basically more contemporary house slippers with a tighter fit. And while I’m not sure I’d want to throw down $100 to try them out, they might actually be exactly what I’m looking to help keep my feet warm inside during the winter—assuming my wife wouldn’t laugh me out of the house first.