Three Stripes, a Century of Experience: Adidas
Adidas was founded way back in 1924 by Adolf and Rudi Dassler in the quiet little town of Herzogenaurach, Bavaria — which is still where the company’s HQ is today. Over the past hundred years, Adidas has grown into Europe’s biggest sneaker brand. The brand with the three stripes started out making shoes for soccer players, runners, and track athletes, but eventually branched out into all kinds of sports — including skateboarding. Unsurprisingly, skate shoes take a serious beating. If they’re not made right, you can easily twist your ankle, break a bone in your foot, or rip off your big toe’s nail (the worst). Plus, the exterior of the shoe is subjected to excessive wear from the grip tape. So making good skate shoes is no walk in the park. But when you’ve got decades of experience making high-performance sports shoes — like Adidas does — you’ve got a home field advantage.
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Adidas Skateboarding: Advanced Shoe Technology
When Adidas stepped into the skate world, they mixed their heritage with new ideas. They took some of their classic kicks — like the ever-popular Adidas Superstar from the '80s, the sporty Samba, and the Campus Vulc — and gave them skate-ready upgrades. These included stronger soles, tougher materials, and better grip. Even the legendary Stan Smith tennis shoe got the “ADV” treatment (which stands for “Advanced”) to give skaters more control and board feel. But Adidas didn’t just rework their evergreens — they also asked some of the best pro skaters to design signature models. The most famous three-striped skate shoes are probably the Adidas Busenitz: a soccer-inspired pair of kicks designed by pro skater Dennis Busenitz himself. Newer models include the Tyshawn and the Tyshawn II. You probably won’t tre flip NYC subway tracks in them, but you’ll sure as hell look like you could.
27 Years of Collabs: Adidas x GONZ
When it comes to street cred, Adidas Skateboarding is in the big leagues. For starters, their team is stacked with some of the most talented skateboarders on the planet: Dennis Busenitz, Tyshawn Jones, Miles Silvas, Mark Suciu and Kader Sylla — and that’s just scratching the surface. In addition, Adidas has worked on a number of collaborations with Mark “The Gonz” Gonzales, one of skateboarding’s most influential figures. For 27 years, The Gonz has designed a plethora of sneakers and capsule collections for Adidas, starting in 1998 with his art performance at Städtisches Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Germany, where he wore the adiStar Fencing shoe while skating the museum. A notable example of Adidas x GONZ is the Aloha Super, which is directly influenced by the fencing shoe. The Gonz frequently uses his Shmoo doodles to adorn the silhouettes of classic Adidas models, making them coveted collectors items.
You can buy skate shoes from Adidas Skateboarding — and Adidas Originals sneakers, by the way — at our webshop and our store in Frankfurt.
