Discover: How the adidas Samba Transcended Beyond Football To Become Fashion's Favourite Sneaker

While retro runners and basketball silhouettes have dominated footwear trends over the past couple of years, one unlikely hero has seen a bit of a resurgence too. Designed in the 1940s by the legendary Adi Dassler, the adidas Samba was originally designed to cope with icy football pitches, yet it's said to be the Three Stripe’s best-selling sneaker after the Stan Smith. Steeped in history, the Samba has seen it all – the football pitch, the terraces, and even the runway. Here, we unpack the history of the iconic model.

As mentioned, adidas’ legendary sneaker came from humble beginnings, designed as an extremely practical solution to a problem that plagued European football. Prior to the Samba's existence, football boots of the early-mid-century just weren’t equipped to deal with the icy conditions of frozen football grounds. To put an end to the struggle, Adi Dassler himself set to work on developing a shoe that provided enough traction yet remained suitable for the beautiful game. And so, with the innovative combination of a grippy gum sole and supple kangaroo leather making up its construction, the (yet unnamed) adidas Samba was born.

Realising he’d created something special; Dassler knew that the shoe deserved a big launch, and with the 1950 World Cup on the horizon, the stage was pretty much set. However, there was one fairly obvious problem – though set to take place during the midwinter, the host country Brazil wasn’t exactly known for having a cold climate. The solution? Name the shoe the Samba in a nod to Brazilian culture, and therefore make the style seem like a must-have for players worldwide. The ploy worked, and Samba sales took off. To this day, over 35 million pairs have been sold.

Between the 1950s and 1970s, the Samba gained traction with professional footballers, and like most fashion trends, it trickled down to those at a grassroots level. When 5-a-side football became all rage in the 70s, the Samba was the must-have shoe for many, its grippy sole and football pedigree making it an obvious choice whether the pitch was grass, hardwood or concrete. Around the same time, the style was also given a bit of a revamped look, replaced with the much more slimline silhouette, smaller tongue and t-shaped toe box we still see on pairs today. This opened the Samba to plenty more colourways, stylish enough to transcend the pitch and cement its place on the terraces.

With its roots heavily embedded in the football scene, the Samba was perhaps an obvious choice for one of football’s most notable subcultures: the casuals. As British teams made their way over the channel for the European Cup, they brought hordes of fans with them, who in turn made their way back with the finest hard-to-find sportswear that Europe had to offer – including limited-edition Sambas. Soon, trips to Italy, France and Germany pretty much became the football fan’s version of a pilgrimage, and casuals would return with armfuls of clothes to wear to matches. However, one-upmanship was prevalent within the casual scene, and some would argue that unless your Sambas were special-edition, they were more likely to be suited to a kickabout than worn with your match-day best.

By the mid-’80s, adidas had managed to find favour with yet another scene, thanks to the introduction of its classic Superstar silhouette. The shell-toed style icon found its footing on the feet of Run-DMC, resulting in the first-ever sponsorship deal between a musical artist and sportswear company. The move opened up a whole new world for the Three Stripes, allowing it to infiltrate the US market and the eclectic mix of subcultures that called it home. As time went on, it became clear that football wasn’t the only sport that relied on a grippy sole unit and the Samba began to establish itself in other disciplines. Though quite a pivot from the pitch, the model found its way onto the halfpipe, when it was quickly adopted by skaters who were looking for a shoe that provided enough control and traction, which the Samba was built for. In 2006, adidas went on to launch the Busenitz, a style that was very similar to the Samba but designed specifically for skaters.

Up until the late 2010s, things went a little quiet on the Samba front, but during the latter half of the decade, the sneakers had begun to grow a bit of a celebrity fanbase. Alongside street style stars like A$AP Rocky and Rihanna, the Samba found its way onto the feet of an unlikely style icon, when it was spotted multiple times on Jonah Hill while he was promoting his film, 'Mid90s'. Centred around a group of skateboarding kids, the actor’s choice of footwear at the time reflected his favourite adidas silhouette, while managing to pay homage to the shoe’s part in skate culture at the same time. Jonah Hill later went on to release his own adidas Samba collab in 2020. Digging further into his relationship with the model, he told GQ “I’ve worn it since I was 11 or something- it's always been my favourite shoe. I would wear them from when I was super into soccer when I was 9 or 10, and then through skateboarding.” He went on to describe them as “a beautiful shoe that wasn’t too techy or futuristic.”

Given Jonah Hill’s mass appeal, as well as Rocky and Rihanna’s ‘Fashionkilla’ status, the Samba was all set to break out of its subcultures and cement itself as a street style staple. While the Covid-19 outbreak slowed this process, the shoe emerged out of lockdown but gained traction at a slower rate than expected, as the Nike Dunk managed to dominate 2021. Fast-forward to 2022, however, and the style seems to have found its feet amongst the fashion elite. This year, the sneaker once again formed the focus of Grace Wales Bonner's efforts as the shoe of choice for her fourth adidas collaboration, taking on a premium yet retro look inspired by ‘70s and ‘80s styles. Although not her first Samba (her 2020 brown leather version is currently sitting on StockX with an average asking price of over 1k), it was the silky and minimal Wales Bonner x adidas Samba “Cream/Green'' that found its way onto every Instagram fashion mood board page going, yet luckily remains cheaper on resale than its earlier counterpart.

If you think you’ve been seeing a few more Sambas around lately, it’s not just in your head. Google searches for the adidas Samba have seen an increase of 42% YoY, and #adidassamba currently has over 8.8 million views on TikTok. While celebrity co-signs aren’t new to the silhouette, over the past couple of months the shoe has been spotted on Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Kaia Gerber, as well as influencers such as Josephine HJ and Sofia Coelho. Of course, none of these people are anywhere close to whom the Samba was intended for, but it just goes to show how versatile the sneaker really is.

But there’s no better person to comment on the Samba's history than someone who’s well versed in the world of football. Speaking to footwear designer Nathan Thompson, previously of adidas Football, he said; “The Samba has always carried a kind of ‘if you know, you know’ vibe in the sneaker market. Generally speaking, people aren't really shouting about them, and if anything that makes them cooler and more desirable. The shoes were of course originally designed for indoor football, but it was the skate market years later that first provided wider appeal. Performance-wise though, footwear has moved on a lot since the Samba first came out. Nowadays, ballers are seeking out lighter weight, slimmer fitting, and more agile football shoes to play in. But as with football shirts, the Sambas continue to have an immensely strong presence in football fan culture away from the pitch, in a way that no other shoe does or probably ever has.”

Having come a long way from those frozen football fields, the adidas Samba is a testament to great design, and has deservedly reached a level of cultural appeal that few shoes ever do.

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