If you were walking past the Opera Garnier in Paris over the last few weeks, then you may have noticed a couple men painting an enormous billboard green. Initially, passers by were left scratching their heads, staring up at the blank canvas with a small adidas Stan Smith logo tucked away in the bottom right hand corner. Either someone in the Three-Stripes marketing department was getting fired or a big promotion.
via @adidasoriginals
All was revealed as the enormous white canvas slowly turned to green, Stan Smith green to be exact, and it was then that adidas’ marketing genius was on full display.
Planning on turning the city green for Paris fashion week is all part of the brand’s current strategy for bringing the silhouette back into the conversation. But is adidas marketing the Stan Smith, or the idea of the Stan Smith? because increasingly those feel like different things.
Is adidas marketing the Stan Smith, or the idea of the Stan Smith? because increasingly those feel like different things.
I wasn’t born when the Stan Smith originally came out, or old enough to see the US tennis star rock them on court. However, I was around to witness the last two decades worth of trend cycles that the icon has managed to survive. I remember all the 2014 hype around the tennis shoe, which led to it winning the Footwear Network’s Shoe of the Year award. I remember the Stan Smith Ultra Boost 3.0, the Raf Simmons editions and the recent Balenciaga, none of which have fundamentally damaged the silhouette up till now.
The Balenciaga version certainly had its viral moment, but like most noisy moments, the echoes soon peter out, and people forget. Charging nearly £700 for a version of the Stan Smith that looked like it had been worn and donated to your local recycling programme was certainly one way to draw up attention. In the end Balenciaga took most of the flack and accusations for cosplaying poverty (a contentious subject in the fashion industry), but adidas and the Stan Smith walked away from the moment relatively unscathed. Once again, the Stan Smith’s legacy remained intact.
via @miketheruler
Charging nearly £700 for a version of the Stan Smith that looked like it had been worn and donated to your local recycling programme was certainly one way to draw up attention.
Even Edison Chen’s Espadrille take on the icon was lauded by Three-Stripe fans, adding his Hong Kong influences into the design mix as he had done throughout the decades. While the Clot x Stan Smith is far from its original grass-court build, most of the change takes place on the sole unit, leaving the upper’s panelling in that typical white and green.
The Raf Simmons and Brain Dead editions are also examples where one major design tweak proved to be enough. Transforming the dotted Three-Stripe on the sidewall into an R and Brain Dead’s head logo established the collaborators’ presence, letting every sneakerhead know this wasn’t any ordinary pair. So, either adidas’ have loosened its restrictions since, or the involved parties felt they didn’t want to alter a near-perfect shoe.
Another positive chapter in the tennis shoe’s history was the Homer Simpson collaboration. Sticking close to the shoe’s original form, turning The Simpson’s iconic meme into a Stan Smith turned out to be a match made in heaven. A few genius touches here and there turned it into a future favourite, selling out worldwide. This is the best example from recent where working within the close confines of the Stan Smith led to a brilliant execution.
The tooling is no longer sacred and unable to be changed, the restrictions are gone, the shoe open to the latest trends of today
Fast forward to today and we’ve got more versions of the Stan Smith than ever before, with adidas now offering a Ballet Flat, square toe and even Mary Jane edition of the tennis icon. The tooling is no longer sacred and unable to be changed, the restrictions are gone, the shoe open to the latest trends of today. It seems like adidas isn’t just collaborating on the Stan Smith anymore, but trying a more ambitious path instead.
adidas has taken off the guard rails, but will this mean the Stan Smith gains momentum, or falls off track completely?
We love to see the Stan Smith return to shelves, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on how the sneaker community is feeling about all the new iterations.
For more information on this iconic adidas trainer, keep it locked to The Sole Supplier!
