Follow Up: Death Stranding
Metal Gear Solid x Puma: Watch Your Step
After walking through the in-game footwear of Death Stranding, we received a comment on Instagram about the collaborative pair of boots between Kojima Productions and Puma for Metal Gear Solid V. We decided that we had to take a closer look at this special pair which crosses the lines between the in-game and real world.
In his final outing for the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima spared no expense in making the game a technical and commercial success, collaborating with the german sportsbrand, Kojima released a series of promotional material alongside Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, with the line including several jackets, tees and what we’re here for - footwear.
With previous in-game promotions featuring AXE body spray, Mountain Dew and Pepsi, it’s widely known the Metal Gear series has never been one to shy away from collaborating with brands. When the Puma collaboration was revealed, Kojima took to twitter to show his appreciation of the sports brand and share that he had been “wearing PUMA shoes for [the] last 10 years” hence his decision to work with them for the game. The footwear release included two different sneakers and a pair of boots, all designed to incorporate the colour scheme and logos from the clothing available in the game. Now hard to track down after nearly a decade out of their release, the collaboration offers us a good opportunity to look at what this pair of boots represents as an indicator of how footwear design in games may offer us inspiration for footwear design in real life.
Like the preceding MGS titles, The Phantom Pain is a stealth-action game, this time focused on protagonist “Venom” Snake, with the gameplay focused on completing missions with a variety of tools and allies that you acquire as you progress, all while avoiding enemy detection. Dropped into large enemy-filled locations, the game keeps the player on their toes, constantly reminding you that a light step is key to survival in the world of espionage… and what better to help with that than silent shoes.
Across the series, perhaps the most vital piece of equipment in Snake’s arsenal is his Sneaking Suit. Designed by Yoji Shinkawa, the suit is a form of military wear used by the FOXHOUND and Diamond Dogs organisations to assist the wearer in completing their missions. Noted for being made from high-strength fibres and featuring a sleek form-fitting design; we here at Conceptkicks are more interested in arguably the suit’s most important asset - sound absorbing soles.
The perfect footwear for any infiltration expert, the boots attached to the sneaking suit are key to staying undetected in the highly dangerous camps and bases Snake finds himself in across MGS. Their inclusion acts as an indicator of how considered the character design is in the series, with Shinkawa drawing from existing military garb and techwear to blend it in relation to essential gameplay aspects, resulting in futuristic yet believable garments - something that he would further explore with his designs in Death Stranding.
Used here in the 1980s setting of The Phantom Pain, they have been designed appropriate to the time in most aspects, appearing relatively similar to standard military-issued boots of the decade, complete with protective- gaiters. The sole contrasts this however, having a stylised grip that looks more likely to have been manufactured today, acting as a sign of the progression of design in the world of Metal Gear. The noise-dampening feature of the soles further reinforce this, actually being an idea explored recently (especially after the popularity of Shuri’s sneakers in Black Panther) by engineer/YouTuber Jake Laser through the use of Aerogel, showing the direct effect fictional future-tech design can have on existing engineers/manufacturers. Through their combination of existing military footwear design and future techwear styles, these definitely seem to be a precursor of the Bridges Boot in Death Stranding, especially given the colour choices resembling those chosen for the default garment colours in-game and later adopted for the collaborative ACRONYM J1A-GT.
The details really come through with the real life product, with the sole details and interior padding being unique additions to a boot like this contrasting the standard military silhouette and laces. On release they also came complete with the gaiters, which reinforces the fact the real boots are also designed to be practical both in-game and in reality, yet it's also these touches that would certainly satisfy your detail-oriented Snake cosplayer. These boots run home with the practicality and purposefully sleek design that stays consistent in any game by Kojima Productions, especially when compared to the other promotional garments of the line, which favour the fashion-over-function style.
While the real boots may not be as quiet-footed as their video game counterpart we certainly appreciate how well translated they are from pixel to Puma. With this being another example of how Kojima Productions take such a considered approach to designing footwear in their games, it’s no wonder that in a series featuring a variety of massive mechs and scientifically-super-powered people, Snake’s silent shoes are still able to make an impact.