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The adidas ObyO David Beckham Doley Lux improves on a shoe that left us cold on its low-key debut. The Doley was never an adidas shoe we took to, but that's because it wasn't aimed at freakish characters who sit and scratch their heads, pondering a shoe's heritage. It was for folk who wanted a bite of the current plimsole and Vans phenomenon. What we always respected was that a budget-priced shoe was called the Doley, bringing back memories of job centre degradation and an instant noodle diet. Whoever was complicit in the naming of this shoe (we think we might know one of the culprits) deserves a pat on the back. But in the capable hands of James Bond, it's suddenly a lot more appealing. The solution to issues of blandness? Lux it out without compromise. Even the laces are leather this time around.

The fall/winter 2010 Beckham line includes a few more oddball, offbeat pieces, but this is by far, the most basic footwear silhouette. As vulcanized soles can catch wreck after mere months, there's always a certain contrast when rich leathers are employed for the upper. Potential longevity fused with disposable baked rubber, and adidas sure aren't the first to instigate that contrast on a shoe.

We're trying to imagine David rocking these with his oversized Dior denim. We can kind of imagine it, but they're a good shoe regardless. We've noted a faint Anglophile streak in Mr Bond's work, playing with the kind of shapes that Americans often sideline, and the dole-queue nod is brilliantly at odds with Dave's baller lifestyle, but it still reinforces his humble origins. But that's reading into something that's barely there. What we have here is a well channelled look: the striped and smoother midsole is better than earlier Doleys, and the leather toecap gives both makeups a spot of Americana. A reference to something deeply British fused with an iconic US look. As Harold Shand put it, "...'ands across the ocean". Which pretty much sums up the whole project. The brown and black (that oiled-style black leather is particularly good) variations will be in-store next month as part of the first wave of new Originals by Originals releases.

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