The Adidas Stan Smith Through the Years

The Adidas Stan Smith Through the Years

These days, adidas churns out many shoes and collections featuring new technology and flashy new designs, but lately, they’ve been bringing some of their original designs back into the rotation, starting with the Stan Smith. Popularized in the 70s by tennis player Stan Smith, the sneaker is still a fan favorite today.

Continue on for more on the iconic adidas sneaker.

While the shoe was popularized by Smith, he wasn't the original inspiration for the shoe. That role would go to French player Robert Haillet, who the shoe was originally named after. However, due to his obscurity outside of France and his retirement in 1971, the brand approached Stan Smith to take his place.

In this reiteration of the Stan Smith, adidas chose to replace the standard laces with velcro straps and it came in just one color: solid black.

One of the cult classic versions of the Stan Smith was the collaboration between adidas and designer Raf Simons. Simons chose to revolutionize the Stan Smith by creating this bold blue shoe with red straps as well as metallic sneakers.

In 2014, the Stan Smith shoe had an update to technology rather than just design with the introduction of Primeknit - a technique that allowed adidas to digitally knit the upper in one piece rather than putting together many different pieces.

The Primeknit Stan Smith did so well that adidas decided to add additional colorways to the inventory, such as this one in pastel pink.

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