A casual adidas sneaking past Nike?

Terrace-style sneakers, rooted in football fashion and casual culture, are experiencing a resurgence in

There’s a lot happening in the sneakers market these days. Basketball-style kicks still rule the roost, but interestingly, terrace-style sneakers are shaping up to have quite their moment too, having gained the seal of approval from designer brands such as Gucci and Wales Bonner in recent months. With roots in football fashion and casual culture, these styles really took off leading up to the World Cup last year, but it’s looking like they’re set to stick around throughout 2023, too. As a result, German sportswear giants adidas and Puma have trawled their archives to re-release old styles in new colours, driving renewed interest in the shoes from the 1970s and 1980s, named after the standing section at soccer stadiums. I will explain this a little later.

The adidas Samba is undoubtedly the shoe of the moment. Starring in Wales Bonner’s most recent adidas collection, the retro-style Samba quickly found fame on Instagram, before storming TikTok, where styling videos have amassed millions of views. And the Samba has some well-known celebrity fans too: Bella Hadid, Jonah Hill, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have all been spotted sporting Sambas on multiple occasions. Having originally been developed as a football shoe, the Samba is now the preferred choice for football fans, skaters, and the fashion crowd worldwide.

Another set of hot favourites you really can’t go wrong with nowadays is a trusty pair of adidas Gazelles. The silhouette was chosen for the Three Stripes legendary Gucci collaboration — and for good reason: The starry pair has always been in style, and the sneakers look great in every colour. Another sizzler from the Samba range is the Handball Spezial. Introduced in 1979 for pro handball players, it still channels the same sporty retro vibe as its football-inspired cousin, but it’s a little more readily available these days. Nubuck suede uppers add a soft and supple touch, while a gum sole completes the shoe’s retro vibe.

By the way, the adidas Originals SPEZIAL collection — a big influence on the resurgence of terrace fashion — has been so popular among Liverpool fans that since 2011 they have been spray-painting a pair gold and giving them to the fans’ players of the season.

You are bound to ask where is Nike in all this? The Nike Jordans were so popular for so long because they were hard to get. You couldn’t walk into a store and pick one up at the retail price, so your only option was to go to a reseller who would sell the shoes at a premium. Nike figured this out early, and for a long time, they would only produce a limited number of the new Jordan shoes to make sure demand outpaced supply. In the last couple of years, Nike got too greedy and produced too many shoes at too high a price point. It was a kiss of death for Nike’s Jordan.

In Europe, when you use the words “terrace” or “casual”, you tap into a subculture, both ubiquitous in its backyard and obscure to outsiders. The terraces were where football fans used to stand before the introduction of all-seater stadiums, and the casuals were those fans most dedicated to style as they walked into those arenas. So when adidas recently reissued the Trimm Trab sneaker in its OG (original) Colourway, the German sportswear giant knew it was reviving a bona fide terrace classic.

Released in 1975 as part of a campaign to get lethargic West Germans to exercise more, by the early 1980s, the Trimm Trab had become the sneaker of choice for UK football casuals dressed in European designer sportswear by labels such as FILA, Sergio Tacchini, ellesse, Stone Island, and Lacoste (Fred Perry was a local favourite). In fact, it became so associated with the terraces that to this day the word “trabs” is synonymous with sneakers in Liverpool, one of the UK’s most football-obsessed cities and a major centre of casual style.

The Trim Trabb isn’t the only cult terrace sneaker to come back into vogue in recent times. A few years ago, Europe descended into full-blown Stan Smith mania. I remember a trip to Paris about 7-8 years ago and it seemed every second person on the street was wearing a pair of the iconic tennis sneakers. The Stan Smith was reissued in 2014 after two years off the market. They say, “Stan Smith is to trainers as Levi’s are to jeans and Kim Kardashian’s Instagram is to selfies: The ultimate expression of the form.”

Last but not least, there’s the adidas YEEZY sneakers — developed by famous rapper and designer Kanye West. adidas is known to make a limited number of YEEZYs for every new launch. If you wish to purchase the YEEZYs directly from adidas, you have to participate in a ballot system via the adidas website to buy the shoes at the official retail price — a steep $349. Any takers?

The writer is MD of Rediffusion