adidas Consortium Limiteditions Nizza Hi

One of the highlights of a trip to beautiful Barcelona either during tradeshow season or in a less hurried state-of-mind is a trip to LimitEDitions and any of Ricky's other stores, like the densely stocked Chikashtsu, often carrying things we never thought we'd see outside the Far East, and especially not in full size runs. Like the Biz, Ricky never sleeps. Seriously - he's always sheming some new addition or tweak to his Spanish retail empire. The image of the pristine Pythons from his January vintage apartment headfu*k is still embossed like a heeltab onto our retinas. LimitEDitions has a staggering amount of adidas Originals in stock at any given time too, and after the store's involvement in aZX, resulting in a sleeper from the range that shifted fast, the same effective simplicity has been applied to their Nizza Hi. Having sat around a table, and at various points, crashed and burnt in trying to play with this design, we're keen to reiterate that the simpler they are, the higher the stakes. High tech, fancy-pants silhouettes are a veritable playground for the adventurous Photoshopper. With designs like the Nizza, you can play it too safe and defeat the purpose of a collaborative partnership, or get all obnoxious with it and barracade the e-doors from mobs of irate e-torch wielding conniesieurs demanding to know why you ruined a perfectly good shoe. Nobody comes out a winner. Free of foxing, like last year's sandy shaded Classic Kicks Era proved, certain vulcanized shoes seem to improve, and the Nizza falls into that category. Matching the rubber toe bumper with the grey canvas upper works well too. Purple 3-Stripes and the looped heeltab on grey is a sureshot, while the teal top metal eyelet and Fleur De Lys/adidas tongue label is tasteful too. It's interesting to see the Nizza promoted with the same gusto as onetime performance favourites like the Stan, Shelltoe, Samba and mighty, mighty Forum, but it certainly fits into the current less-is-more climate. A nice makeup, and if previous examples are anything to go by, expect some window display craziness at the store to usher in the first wave of 3Way releases - they don't do things by half in Barca.