Future’s Past: adidas Previews 3D Printed Shoes and Dress Sambas at Shanghai Fashion Show
Quick Facts
- The adidas display shows a rejection of contemporary sportswear and a focus on 3D printing, bold design, and hard-bottom tooling on classic sneaker uppers.
- Starting with the dress shoes, adidas took the hybrid sneaker trend of mixing sporty soles and dressy uppers and flipped it on its head.
- On the other side of the spectrum, The Three Stripes went all out with its 3D printed sneakers.
If fashion is all about cycles repeating themselves, and we’re stuck in a perpetual 20-year turnover of trends, going from slim-fit to baggy to back again, adidas' latest fashion show in Shanghai was a push to break the mold, mixing futuristic 3D-printed designs with classic dressed-up leather versions of iconic silhouettes like the Samba.
In a series of photos from the show posted to Instagram by the man behind Japanese boutique atmos, Hirofumi Kojima, aka Koji, the adidas display shows a rejection of contemporary sportswear and a focus on 3D printing, bold design, and hard-bottom tooling on classic sneaker uppers.
Starting with the dress shoes, adidas took the hybrid sneaker trend of mixing sporty soles and dressy uppers and flipped it on its head, adding what look like hand-tooled hard-bottom soles on top of Sambas and Predators, bringing up memories of the ultra-exclusive Brain Dead x adidas bowling shoes.
On the other side of the spectrum, The Three Stripes went all out with its 3D printed sneakers. First up, the Futurecool, a two-in-one exoskeleton shoe with an interior bootie that looks incredible, plus the Climacool Celebration, another multi-part design with a separate sole full of gripping nubs that looks straight out of the Alien franchise.
There are a few Superstar colorways, including a snakeskin version, gorpcore-inspired hiking models, and more, but from a fashion standpoint, the clear push to embrace the past and future while leaving the present behind is an engaging and interesting take on the next step in sneakers. To be the first to find out if any of these models ever make it to shelves, download the Sole Retriever mobile app.
Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vice, Complex, High Times, and more. He is obsessed with skateboarding and bowling. He is still looking for his first 300. For tips, reviews, and anything in size 10.5 - zach.h@soleretriever.com
