If there’s one thing the Brits and the Krauts have in common besides the beer belly, it’s their unbridled love for soccer (or football, if you’re not American – in which case you probably wonder what all the fuzz is about). With the European Championship coming up, both nations will face off once again and you can bet your bottom Euro that it’s gonna be a parade of flags, accompanied by abominable patriotism, incredibly stupid pop songs, Bratwurst and, of course, lots of beer. Anyway, in spite of all this – admittedly sportive – rivalry, it’s nice to see a traditional German brand uniting with Brit fashion’s hot topic: the second drop of Adidas’ collaboration with Palace is, so to speak, a bridging across the English Channel.
For one, drop two again is decidedly soccer-inspired. The track top 2, for example, is a classic 90’s training jacket, complete with hydrophilic material and reflective piping. It has PALACE lettering on the back and the famous three stripes on each sleeve. Correspondingly, the track pant 2 is made of the same material and matches the top perfectly. A little lighter is this drop’s black windbreaker which repeats the first drop’s toweling fetish with a towel loop print. Again, PALACE is featured prominently on the back while the stripes on the lower part of the sleeves indicate Adidas’ involvement. The windbreaker can be perfectly combined with the 5 panel cap and the printed short both which feature the same towel loop print.
On the t-shirt side of things, the second drop offers two 70’s inspired tricots, one in black and one in orange, with knitted stripes on the sleeves in black-on-black and orange-on-orange respectively, homochromatic Tri-Fergs in a knitted weave on the back and homochromatic Adidas leaves embroidered on the left chests. However, the most understated piece of the collection certainly is the lsl tee shirt: it’s an all-white long-sleeved shirt featuring a large Tri-Ferg in a different weave on the back. It’s probably the most sophisticated item in the history of Adidas x Palace collaborations, so expect this one to sell out quickly.
Anyway, no Adidas x Palace joint venture is complete without a special pair of kicks, or, in this case, two special pairs of kicks. The Gazelle-inspired Palace Pro Primeknit makes a return in two summery colorways: one in a turqois-ish, blue-ish colors and one in white and orange. Both shoes features Adidas’ very own Primeknit technology and reinforcements on the toe overlay (for either kickflipping or kicking footballs really, really hard).
You see, even if you’re not into soccer or the whole European Championship thing, it’s still an amazing collection that will make you stand out amongst the Bratwurst-chewing, flag-waving, beer-belching, shit-talking, never-kicked-a-football-in-their-life sort of public viewers. Let the games begin.
