D

uring
uring his
his career
career as
as aa designer
designer for
for adidas,
adidas, Fritz
Fritz
Trumer
Trumer privately
privately filled
lled dozens
dozens of
of notebooks
notebooks
with
with his
his plans
plans to
to create
create the
the most
most original
original sneakers
sneakers
the
the world
world had
had ever
ever seen.
seen. Not
Not content
content for
for aa sneaker
sneaker
to
to remain
remain simply
simply athletic
athletic or
or aesthetic,
aesthetic, Trumer
Trumer
dreamed
dreamed beyond
beyond the realm of what
what is
is even
even thought
possible
possible today. More than thirty of his notebooks
have
have been
been recovered
recovered by
by adidas
adidas from
from the depths of
various
various estates, along with a precious and secret
collection
collection of seemingly
seemingly impossible
impossible sneakers
sneakers that
that
Trumer
Trumer quietly
quietly made
made into
into realities.
realities. Herein
Herein lays
lays
an
an inspirational
inspirational por
portrait
trait of a visionar y of vast
proportions,
proportions, a celebration of his mesmerising range
of
of sneaker creations and,
and, perhaps, the precursor to
an
an unrestricted
unrestricted future
future of sneaker design.

Fritz
FRITZ Trumer
TRUMER (1931-?)
(1931-?)
T he f i r st cor resp onde nce b et we e n Tru me r a nd t he compa ny t hat
h at we lcomed h i s or ig i na
n a l it y. A note f rom Tru me r to h i s la nd lord a nd ne ig hb ou r i n G e r me r i ng - neve r de l ive red .
Fritz Tru me r documenting one of his earliest days with adidas and the experience believed to have been the genesis of his cloud design. Stur M
STUR m (STOR
(Stor M)
m)

Water VA
WATER va POUR,
pour, ED.
ed. 1/1

310 x
X 140 x
X 130mm
LUFTSACK (A ir
LuftSack IR bag)
BAG) John Hetricks revolutionar y air cushion restraint system, developed in 1952 to protect his own family, was a direct
POLY ester
Poly ESTER bla
BL A dders
DDERS w
W ith
ITH compr
COMPR essed
ESSED nitrogen,
NITROGEN, ed.
ED. 1/1 inf luence on Tru me r who remodelled the technology to protect something equally as impor tant to him.
X 130 x
300 x X 160mm
An artists illustration torn from the
Herzogenaurach public librarys edition
of King Midas and The Golden Touch,
on loan to Fritz Tru me r for 48 years.

In his notes regarding the Midas sneaker, Tru me r makes the only recorded mention of a Midas
MIDA S

ram sneaker, which is believed to have been a hybrid Merino battering tool. Le
LE ather
ATHER and
A ND gold,
GOLD, ed.
ED. 1/1
300 x
X 130 x
X 140mm
 An advertisement for Fritz Trumer Sr.s
marginally successful Nice-Nose straightener.

Fritz Trumer Jr. (far left).

A keen inventor his whole life, Fritz Trumer Sr. (above) finally achieved minor fame through his patented nose straightening device,
inspiring a doting Trumer Jr. to follow in his fathers unconventional footsteps.

Siegfried Trumer and Herr Liebkosung, formerly

belonging to Fritz.
 Tru me r s fascination with species endemic to their
par ticular environments led him in 1965 to Antananarivo,
Madagascar. His major discover y there, however, was the
Chameleon, a species common to many par ts of the world
and per fectly adept at camouf laging itself through air por t
customs checks in Frank fur t.

CH
Ch A
amM
LEON
leon (CH
(Ch A MELEON)
ameleon)
A ND CH A MELEON, ed.
LE ATHER AND ED. 1/1

X 130 X 120mm
350 x
Roboter (ROBOT)
ROBOTER (Robot) Follow ing a self- descr ibed per iod of persona l creative decline, Tru me r s v isionar y f lame was reignited by
Nick
NICK el
EL metal
META L h
HyY dr
DR ide
IDE and
A ND microprocessor, ed. 1/1
MICROPROCESSOR, ED. pioneer ing developments in the robotics industr y of 1973.
300 x
X 130 x
X 160mm
Sy NTH
SY nth On loan from the pr ivate collec tion of Ra lf Ht ter, the sy nthesiser snea ker is believed to have absorbed more than t wo years of Tru me r s
L e ATHER
LE ather w ith MICROPROCESSOR,
W ITH microprocessor, ED.
ed. 1/1 life
li fe as he trained himself to wa lk each note of Comet Melody 2.
290 x
X 120 x
X 160mm
Though believed vacant for more than a decade, Fritz Trumers private sneaker workshop
was discovered littered with empty gin bottles and a still smoldering fire.
Tru me r would often find stimulation through travel
tra and send postcards to himself in Herzogenaurach as reminders, br imming Anti-R
A uber (A
NTI-R UBER (ANTI-ROBBER)
NTI-ROBBER)

unex
8 New York City transit str ike had an une
w ith new ideas. The 1980 x pec ted effec t upon the traveling Tru me r when his a lter nate route achine SPUN
M ACHINE spun META
metal w ITH
L W ith MIG
mig W
w ELDING,
elding, ED.
ed. 1/1

through the citys meaner streets motivated one of his boldest snea ker solutions. x 140 X
320 X x 220mm
 Originating with the increase in awareness of
globa l pollution in the 1980s, Trumers tree
sneaker was discovered and uprooted from the
garden of his former home more than two decades
after its creation, still in full bloom.

BAUM
Baum (TR
(Tr EE)
ee)
GENETICA LLY MODIFIED
Genetically SEED, ed.
modified seed, ED. 1/1

310 X 120 X 210mm

As he steadily began to recede from the outside world, public records
reveal that Tru me r failed to renew his driver license in 1987, requiring
him to retake the practical driving test he had passed more than
thir ty years prior. In a typical retor t against what he would describe
in English as bureau-crazy, Tru me r instead opted to pioneer a new
method of transpor tation by means of a voice-instr ucted limousine
at his feet.

Limousine
LIMOUSINE
Hand
H sh A
A ND SH a PED
ped META
metal ed. 1/1
L , ED.
x 110 X
280 X x 130mm
 | FRITZ TRUMER, ED.1/1 |

n a ls of Fr it z Tru me r, whose whe reab out s re m a i n s

T he f i n a l e nt r y i n t he re cove red jou r na
u n k now n but i s sp e c u lated to b e somewhe re e nt i re ly or ig i na l.