At Top League, we’re big fans of classic trainers – ‘sneakers’ to our American friends – but if we were to write about all the great vintage designs out there, we’d never have time for anything else.

This, however, is an especially interesting case with a great story to go with them. 

An exact replica of a bootleg shoe?

That’s what we have here in these 1980s Russian Military Trainers by Japanese shoe company Reproduction Of Found.

It’s a fascinating story set in the past and present.

Back in the 1980s Soviet Union, Western sportswear was impossible to get hold of, but the ‘look’ was incredibly popular.

So when a certain German sportswear brand left behind the means of manufacturing training shoes on Russian soil after the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the Russian Government created what is described as “the most iconic bootleg shoe of all time” they named the Mockba.

Yes, it looks like an Adidas shoe – give or take a stripe – but this classic look was actually produced for the Soviet Special Forces in the 1980s.

In time, it fell into military surplus sales and into the hands of the civilian market.

Reproduction Of Found started up in Japan in 2016 with a mission to reproduce classic military footwear from the 1950s onwards, all made with a keen attention to detail.

Now, the company has got round to remaking the Mockba.