Skateboarding began as an offshoot of surfing, but since surfers don’t wear shoes, skateboarders had to look elsewhere for appropriate footwear. Quickly, it became evident that basketball sneakers provided the technology that skaters need, such as cushioning, stability, and flexibility. Even today, retro basketball shoes offer classic designs that allow for updated state-of-the-art tech to meet modern requirements at a relatively low cost. Since designing a brand new skate shoe is laborious and thus expensive, many sportswear manufacturers opt to simply modernize silhouettes they developed around 30 to 40 years ago. Don’t call it creative bankruptcy if you can call it economically sensible. So without further ado, let’s have a look at Adidas Skateboarding’s Forum 84 Mid ADV designed by pro skater Diego Najera. Somewhere in that little press release blurb they send you before the release of a shoe, it says that Diego’s got a knack for car customization and that the design of the Forum 84 Mid ADV was inspired by it. The blurb also says that the mix of materials used throughout the shoe — full-grain leather panels, suede eye stay, and a lot of synthetic stuff — is a direct reference to custom car culture. Like, what the fuck? I mean, it’s a good-looking shoe, don’t get me wrong, but how the fuck is it inspired by tuned cars? Granted, the translucent outer sole reveals Diego’s name written in curvy letters. They kind of look like West Coast Custom’s logo, so yeah, whatever. Even so, it still feels like saying that zebras inspired the Bonkers logo because they are black and white, too. But what do we know? We don’t even have fucking car. You can buy Diego Najera’s Adidas Forum 84 Mid ADV from tomorrow July 24. At our web shop and our shop in Frankfurt.
