crooked tongues magazine News Features

This isn't a puritan's version of the adidas Superstar by any means, but it's pretty good. For a minute we thought this might be part of a pack, but it seems to stand alone in its slightly strange alterations. The palette in place here is classic adidas, with that bright red on white leather, and the shape is fine, if not some ultra-accurate rendition of the silhouette in its ultimate form. The black outsole throws things a little, but the eye-opener here is the quilted nylon collar, with a tonal jagged stitch detail - the 3-Stripe lace jewel however, needs to go. It's too much. We've scratched our heads over whether this Superstar holds any hidden meanings or references, safety vests perhaps? But it's just an oddball version of a shoe dear to our hearts.

A padded lining and a nylon rather than leather tongue makes this resolutely commercial in execution, and after the blue suede beauties of last week, the bar was raised. These can't top that - few shoes are effing with that design - but they're not bad at all. Good colours and no hype means we're not mad at them at all. These are set for a July release, and Summer adidas pre-orders are a-coming...there's a fair few Shelltoes appearing over the next few months, some ultra-limited, and others less so, but all very interesting indeed.