crooked tongues magazine News Features

The Hanon Shop adidas Consortium Centaur (or CNTR as we have to call it now) is just the start of a collection of new colours for that 1984 running classic. If the monotone nature of these Consortium editions of the shoe fill you with panic, you can console yourself in the knowledge that the original makeups are pretty much a certainty and that adidas Originals does retros better than most. For us, the rerelease of the Centaur fills us with joy — we've had the Fire back in 2006, the Waterproof dropped shortly afterwards, we've had the New York too and the Phantom came back early last year (good luck getting hold of the Fires and Waterproofs nowadays though), so this pretty much completes the retros from the page in the German catalogue that we used to worship as a false god in the old Crooked Tongues office. We can live without the Velcro fastening Dallas in our lives for the time being.

The Centaur is awesome — a half man, half amazing kind of shoe that was originally released as a training runner for road and solid ground, made to be breathable and lightweight, support the rear foot and prevent overpronation and oversupination with those fancy elements in the midsole, finished with an adiflex patterned outsole. We always assumed that the name was a reference to the shoe's all-round abilities and how it embodied elements of several serious adidas runners, but, like the part human, part horse namesake, it's probably a myth. These Consortium editions stick to the original light and breathable concept, biut get all no-sew on us with some heat sealed touches instead of the stitched panels, plus a more minimal sole unit. In a pick of three colours — red, grey or navy, each tonal take on this silhouette echoes a key colour in the Hanon Shop makeup (which also happen to be some of the key colours of the old Centaur colourways), then it swirls them all around on the patterned outsoles. Will the purists care for a stealthed-out Centaur? We have no idea, but these are a solid supplement to the main event and they drop in the Crooked Tongues store in limited quantities on February the 2nd.