crooked tongues magazine News Features

If you've been mourning the end of the KZK line, you can stop your crying for a minute. These adidas Originals Stan Smiths seem to be inspired by Kazuki's work in a major way, but they're excellent versions of one of the very best adidas designs. It's curious as to how many forms the Stan Smith can take beyond white/green and white/navy, but it seems to keep on working beyond those predominantly white variations.

This duo treads carefully between simple and secretly elaborate - check those metal eyelets in the three stripes of perforation, that more rugged top eyelet and the use of contrast stitching. The colourways are unorthodox in their combinations too. We have no idea if these are a direct homage to anything, but as remakes of the pimple outsoled classic go, they're some of the nicest we've seen since those magnificent JAM editions arrived (especially the white ones).

One day adidas will run out of applications for this silhouette (bizarrely, the impending Star Wars Wampa version is an unexpected return to form for the range too), but provided that it's treated with some respect, Stan's signature shoe stays winning. These are available now…