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Once you set aside any disappointment that this isn't a Torsion Special (one of the greatest shoes ever designed. That's not open to debate), the adidas ZX Spezial OT Tech proves to be a decent shoe. There's been a few casual silhouettes from Originals lately, like the Greeley and Fortitude, which have hit pretty hard, but building on the ZX 8000 sole unit is a fair place to start. We'd love to see the smoothed-out, handcrafted styling of the Jacques and Markus aZX finale—reinterpreting the 8000 with a certain mastery—conveyed to the masses, but in the meantime, this kind of shoe offers us a well-crafted fix. The real litmus test here is whether you can accept a plain toe version of the classic runner. A couple of office dissenters cruelly invoked the Merrell name in their feedback, but the rest of us saw the positives. Post-Kazuki, the power of a Japanese aesthetic, fused with some timeless Germanic cool seems to be paying dividends, and in next month's drop, the Nizza's are the best OT Tech creations yet, but everything that's borne the tongue tags and triangles has been excellent thus far.

For some reason we never got the original spring colourways of the ZX Spezial, but these caught our eye in the showroom immediately. And just to clarify, the olive variation (the source of affordable dad-shoe comparisons) was dropped, so we've included it here because we still quite like it—especially the use of red on the perpetually futuristic heel counter. The mild level of midsole speckle, 3-Stripe lacestays and added height on the silhouette really work, with enough uniquely adi looks to stave off any unwelcome Visvim-lite talk. The black versions eclipse previous efforts, making the most of the added forefoot stealth. Where the 8000 proudly toted synthetic suede the name of lightweight performance, here it's affordable luxury all the way. Soft leather on the lining and around the collar, quality leather and proper suede. The blacks are available to pre-order in the Crooked Tongues store right now, set for an August release, while the olives are stuck in unreleased sample limbo. Much improved from the debut versions. Prettttty good.

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