Probably neither Messi nor any of the cracks that won the third star ever had them on their feet, but those of the 60s and 70s used them all. Antonio Rattín once recounted that when they went to the 1966 World Cup, between Adidas and Puma they put up $3,200 for the owners to use half of ankle boots Puma and the other half, including the captain, Adidas.
“Since I was the captain, they had to give me Adidas. But there was no size because I wear 45. “We don’t make booties that big, we don’t have them,” they said. So I had to give them Fulvence mine, the ones I always used. They took them away, they sewed the three strips on them and that’s how they became Adidas,” said the Boca midfielder, who experienced a historic moment when he was verbally sent off against England, the host country. At that time the cards did not exist, they were created after that particular episode.
National quality boots
In the 60s and 70s, the brand that ruled local football, the one chosen by professionals and national team stars like Rattín, was Fulvence. Founded in the 50s by Esteban Hrycyszyn, an immigrant of Polish origin about whom little is known, it set out to manufacture the typical quality sports shoes of national origin. The factory was located at Independencia 160, in Sarandí, and over the years it was also dedicated to the production of balls, gloves, and jersey and short kits.
From its inception, the company set out to innovate. In the 50s, the boots were all made of cowhide, the toecap was also made of that material, something that made them very hard. “Due to their own investigations and the suggestion of the footballers themselves, the toe cap became soft and the plugs, worked manually, adopted the final conical shape,” they say on their official Facebook, adding that in 1952, with the incorporation of new machinery, they managed to implement new improvements that the First Division teams of Argentine Soccer had sent them.
The color pioneers
Naturally, the team, made up of all local soccer players, also used those boots. The Fulvences were part of the equipment of the champion squad of the Nations Cup in Brazil, an intercontinental tournament organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation in 1964 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its foundation, which Argentina won by beating England in the final with a goal from Alfredo Rojas. Right away, there was a boom in demand for the model used: the Selección 64, which became a true milestone within the brand.
“Was a revolutionary loot for the time, which consisted of a light blue upper with three white bands that reproduced the Argentine flag. It was the first loot of color – says a page of the company. It took three decades for other world-renowned brands to make incursions in the aesthetics of bootiesapplying different chromatic variants to the classic black”, they say.
Around the 90s, the company went into crisis and the boots stopped being manufactured, but they had a revenge in 2005
Later, more models would arrive, such as Tres bandas, Mocasín, Clásico, Ligero and Universo, which would introduce another novelty: the rubber sole and removable studs. The first model with these characteristics was Mundial México 70 (in honor of the World Cup that was to be held in that country) and already in the 78 World Cup in Argentina, the aluminum plugs They signified another conceptual revolution.
those white boots
In the mid-70s Fulvence was also the protagonist of a curious and historical fact: Indio Gomez, fearsome striker from Quilmes who had achieved promotion to the First Division before the last date, jumped onto the Vélez field with white boots, which generated an unexpected repercussion, similar to what today, with social networks, would be an immediate viralization.
El Indio, who died in 2021, said that he never had the intention of causing such an effervescence: “Nueva Chicago asked to play the game on the Vélez field to increase the collection. That day the people of Fulvence donated equipment and booties so that we can get a photo that they were going to put in their factory. They chose us because we had come out champion and we used white, it suited them very well,” he recalled in an interview.
The well-remembered Fulvence boots from Indio Gómez.
The issue is that after the photos, you had to go to the locker room and put on the usual black boots to play the game. But there were 150 meters and I said: am I going to walk 300 meters to take off my shoes? No, I play with these”, counted. Two companions imitated him. That day Gómez broke it, scored two goals and Quilmes won 5-1.
Gómez did not use them again until he had to face River, with Quilmes already in the First Division, on date 8. As he could not find his usual boots, with which he always played, the kit man showed him those whites that he had used in Vélez and that had been stored in a locker.
“I told him: ‘You’re crazy, how am I going to play with these and against River!” But the other options did not convince him: hard booties, which were not softened and caused blisters. He put on the whites. “That day we won 3-1 and I scored a goal for Pato Filliol dribbling him,” he recalled. And there yes: with such a stained glass window, the true furor was unleashed and the Indian was marked by those white booties.
booties for kids
Towards the end of the 1960s, the company innovated again and launched the first booties for children on the market: the Fulvencito. In those years there were the Sacachispas, which were not true boots since they were made of canvas and they were little boots that only imitated the aesthetics of professional footwear. Launched in 1963 by Alpargatas, they became popular in paddocks and neighborhood clubs throughout the country, until, seeing their success among children, Fulvence decided to launch his children’s line.
The Fulvencito wreaked havoc: Made of black leather, they imitated the footwear of professional players, especially the Adidas boots that were imported. They also had a padded tongue that made them more comfortable to wear. There was no child in Argentina who did not ask for them for his birthday or Christmas. They were the Premium option in a market that did not include children much. “We are the only ones who treat the boys in a big way”, were one of the many advertisements that promoted them.
In the 1980s, the company continued its rise dressing several Argentine soccer B teams. Even, with the magazine Goals, they came to take out a photo album with the teams that played in those categories. Howeveras soccer became professionalized and a business returned and imports began to open up, the Fulvence ceased to be that object of desire and were replaced by international brands that today dominate the world market.
Around the 1990s, the company entered crisis and they were discontinued, but they had a rematch in 2005, when the Pugliese family “rented” the brand name to start manufacturing them again. He managed to bring out modern models, in keeping with the time, but the return, despite the enormous expectations generated, was not as expected, confirming the premise that sequels are never good.
The publicity attributed to it… and it was not
There is a very famous and remembered publicity that the Ayala Mouse in 1975 and was immortalized in the collective memory. Looking at the camera, the then forward of Atletico Madridwith a successful passage through San Lorenzo de Almagro, threw away the famous phrase that is repeated until today: “In Europe you can’t get“. Many attribute this publicity to Fulvence ankle boots, but in reality it belonged to another brand: Interminablewhich also made booties in the Argentina and that it disappeared, like all of them, when the importation was opened.
