You Can Now Buy Pixelated Atari Sneakers

Seemingly, Atari’s 50th anniversary is coming up on June 27, 2022. Who knew?

Imagine it or not, the legendary gaming company was integrated way back in 1972, while from what I can notify, Atari is a thoroughly distinctive entity these times. Absent are the pioneering aspirations of the beloved 2600, seemingly replaced by anything a little bit extra… confused?

The model carries on to get slapped on all sorts of items, from apparel to mousepads to actual lodges. At minimum the present day Atari VCS is an genuine video clip activity procedure, even if it didn’t evaluate all that perfectly. I guess the argument could be designed that Atari doesn’t actually know what it is any longer, and that is high-quality I suppose, but the burning nostalgia continues to be.

Situation in point: Atari has teamed up with sustainability-concentrated footwear brand Cariuma to produce a line of retro gaming sneakers. There are two styles out there, OCA Low ($89) and Caitba Pro ($98), and they’re available in a selection of shades. The red seems to be especially great, viewing as Atari branding has famously adopted that certain hue for its imagery and promotion in the previous.

The sneakers varyingly element the likes of the basic Atari ‘Fuji’ emblem, a pixelated Cariuma leaf insignia, as well as an similarly stylized (and somewhat generic) stamp of ‘game on’ phrasing. You know how we gamers like to ‘game on’, correct friends? Regrettably, there’s no recognizable Atari released game art, like from Centipede or Missile Command, so that is a bit disappointing.

Seeing as these sneakers are (purportedly) sustainably manufactured, Cariuma promises they are “crafted from quality components like GOTS-certified natural cotton canvas, organic rubber, recycled plastics, and lightweight cork + mamona oil insoles”.

Also notable is that, according to Cariuma, “for every single pair of sneakers purchased, the brand name will plant a pair of trees in the Brazilian Rainforest, the lungs of the planet, to straight support reforestation & the preservation of our endangered species’ organic habitat by our very own reforestation software.”

Definitely a commendable effort and hard work. So, regardless of the simple fact that it pains me to view Atari repeatedly fling its name all-around and h2o down what tiny integrity continues to be, I just can not criticize some slick retro sneakers.

Well, I could criticize them and say I’d somewhat have a environmentally friendly Pitfall variant, mainly because that title may perhaps be the most common Atari activity of all time. But realistically, that would demand Activision’s permission, and now that franchise is all tied up with Microsoft, so I’ll consider what I can get.