crooked tongues magazine News Features

Striders barely don't get their dues, but adidas Originals are going to drop them in seasonally until the majority concedes that this is a quintessentially brilliant piece of basketball design from the brand's most progressive period when it came to hardwood, when a batch of designs birthed some of our all-time favourite high and mid tops. 'Court' might be the lazy shoe copywriter's favourite word too - you can alliterate it with 'classic,' or create a bad pun, like "court in the act'...ah, the possibilities. This forthcoming makeup seems keen to play with that mode of playing surface too, giving a basketball shoe a distinctly tennis makeover. We know John Stockton rocked tennis kicks during a game, but this is even odder - the canvas, that Wimbledon-evoking teal and the purple brings to mind a childhood spent lusting after adidas's clay and grass court icons from the same era. Some hard-to-find Ivan Lendl type isht. Then there's a faux reptile texture on the 3-Stripes and rear panels that gives them some extra flamboyance too.

It's a strange, strange makeup, but we're feeling it a lot. Because ankle supporting heights just aren't an oddity, this genuinely feels like a lost racket sports piece, rather than the Decade's shorter brother. These stood out in the new season's amassed samples, and we're still liking them a lot. Seems there's no associated packs, plotlines or fancy stuff - just a genuinely colourway that successfully merges many of our favourite '80s elements together, and allows us to look at a personal favourite in a completely new way. That's got to be a good thing, right? In the store soon, and worth your time.