The Adidas were traditional shoes that needed cleats nailed to them. I didn’t remember seeing any Eddy Merckx endorsement on the box or the shoes. They really were nothing special, not much different that any shoes any of my friends owned.

The Puma shoes I owned were something different and really special. The soles were a single piece of nylon with a round nylon cleat held in by rotating it 60° bayonetting it into place. She shoes came with 3 sets of cleats, the slot forward or back 1/4″ from the mid position cleat.

The Puma shoes slid into the pedals like a dream due to the nylon soles. The cleats were easy to get into the right position and easy to make changes to get the fit right (unlike the nailed-on cleats that had to be set-up by a shoe repairman). They also wore like iron, I used them for years and years until my bike & shoes got stolen and my replacement bike had clipless pedals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl-WO9w77RI

…if i recall correctly, the adidas merckx cycling shoe used kangaroo skin for the upper section & that stuff was seriously tough back in the day of clips & straps…i had a pair that lasted for a long time…despite the fact that ‘eddy’ wore them, i cut the three white adidas stripes off because i didn’t think they served to fit the image of what had been for years, all black cycling shoes…
…& nowadays, hah, for contrast, you couldn’t pry me out of my white sidis…

…wore ’stan smiths’ as casual footwear for many years, also…a classic tennis shoe that could be worn off the court w/ shorts, jeans or even khaki slacks & a blue blazer for that all-american preppie look…

…& for years now, i’ve been sporting variations of the adidas ‘tuscany’ which itself is based on early ’70’s adidas track & field & driving shoes…

…whats old becomes new again or what goes around, comes around in the sports fashion world…