crooked tongues magazine News Features

These are not bad — not bad at all. We've had a history of obsessing over adidas boots and casual styles - from Frezeit to the GSG9 to the Super Trekking to the high Torsion Special to the super comfortable Darwen's mix of runner and moc-toe and everything in between, adidas have been putting out classics that merge genres. Admittedly the ZX 700 Boat wasn't our thing, and we got flamed for that opinion (especially when we seemed to change our tune for the NBHD edition) but this upgrade of the ZX 500 — one of the greatest adidas shoes ever — is perfectly acceptable. When you've got the tooling, there's no shame in getting the most out of it — brands have been doing that as long as we've been living. It's just when that byproduct is bland, the trouble starts and the ZX TR Mid uses that 1984 shape well, mixing classic runner materials with some extra tweaks like that raised toe bumper for extra resilience and modified outsole for traction, even though you're liable to never take these off road. The plastic ghillie lacing in a Torsion shoe style, quintessentially adidas palette and avoidance of those sloppy little things that can confine "new retro" looks to the saleracks makes this a better-than-usual revamp — if you're going to use 'TR' in your name, you'd better be good. As the mood seems to get a little more techy and shift from browns, D-rings and oiled finishes, we're finding that trainer crossovers are getting interesting again. The ZX TR Mid arrives in the Crooked Tongues store next month.