adidas Consortium Forum Mid 3way

When the project idea was pitched, we at Crooked raised our voices in favour of reworking the Forum Mid. For us, alongside the Rivalry, Attitude, Concorde and Conductor, despite being released before the second half of the '80s, the Forum represents that era of big basketball shoes, big jackets and Latin Quarter regulars during hip-hop's golden age. It's a perfect shoe, sought after in the early '90s too. We respected C.L. Smooth's shoe game almost (note the almost) as much as his Elektra stablemate Grand Puba, and he rocked the Forum well.

There's no single story as to how the makeup came about, but we can testify as to why we, alongside Tokyo's VA chose this simple mix of colours and materials. Grey and yellow worked extremely well on the Crooked aZX ZX 9000 model, and we wanted to flip it a little with a palette that's associated with running designs above court shoes like this, via the neon pleasures of 'electricity yellow' on the 3-Stripes, Dellinger Webbing and branding. We wanted the shoe to look like it could've been cut from the team in '87 at the last minute rather than looking 2009.

In terms of materials, the Harputs 25th anniversary Forum was inspirational in its mix of Americana fabrics on the shoe. They made an undisputed classic with the addition of mesh, but it proved beneficial in terms of wear too. Harputs set a precedent. We opted for a nylon and premium leather mix and made one extra tweak - for years, that Velcro strap, beautiful as it is, has been slipping and causing us discomfort. We're not in the business of replacing Velcro either. That throws the whole equilibrium of the shoe. Instead we requested a subtle pop fastening, tonally in grey, on the medial side to keep it in place. It makes for the perfect place to subtly showcase our logos, and those sporting these with shorts this summer will thank us - we've wanted this modification in place for a while now.

The inevitable contrast stitch debate raged, and the end result was its inclusion, and three sets of laces - grey, neon yellow and a patterned version complete this package. It's the Forum the way we all wanted it.

If you are picking these up we would highly recommend also purchasing one of the limited edition CT Varsity t shirts we have produced to coincide with this release.