“The Dassler” Twice as nice!
The Dassler: Number 2. Read on for enough 3 stripe goodness to satisfy the most obsessive adidas fanatic.
Welcome, Bienvenido, Salut, Khush Amdeed & Yōkoso to the second edition of The Dassler the bi-monthly magazine especially written for (& by) adidas lovers.
If this is your first visit then we’d highly recommend you run over (wearing your, Jacques Chassaing designed, adidas ZX runners of course!) to our first edition here
This is the second in a twice monthly newsletter, that will contain ultra rare deadstock trainers shared by legendary adidas collector Bobby Mac, new adidas releases & brand exclusive information from 3 stripe social media giant Craig (@adifamily_ ), adidas oddments & apparel reminiscences written by Woody (@dadidassler) plus loads of articles from special guest writers and we have some absolute adidas legends as guest writers lined up!
Why The Dassler? Obviously this newsletter is written for 3 stripe lovers (like ourselves!) and will contain as much adidas goodness as we can stuff in. The name of our newsletter is a homage to adidas founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler and an obvious reference to his dazzling adidas trainers (sneakers for our stateside readers).
This first four issues will be free to read and we are hoping that you will see how much we put into this newsletter to subscribe for the full edition, for way less than a cup of coffee per month or even cheaper if you subscribe for the year. After this only small extracts will be available for free, with the full newsletter only being available to paid subscribers.
If you take out a paid subscription between now and the end of May then you will receive ‘The adidas annual’ a specially designed hard back book cataloguing this years adidas releases at a highly reduced rate-but more on that very soon.
Bobby Mac reveals a legendary pair of adidas found in the back of a dusty sports shop in Denmark….
In 1972 the Klagenfurt factory in Southern Austria, 338 miles away from Herzogenaurach produced a range of Freizeitshuhe AKA Leisure shoes. They were quite different to the existing leisure shoe models that had been produced at the German and Yugoslavian factories during previous years.
Four low suede shoes were launched called Holiday with the product code - 385, Tramp - 386, Walker - 387 and Monte Carlo - 380. They were constructed using premium materials and they all had the “easy lace” system, Tramp had 5 eyelets whereas Monte Carlo, Holiday and Walker all had 3. They were made primarily from suede with velour and suede to the stripes and heel tabs with shades of browns and tans, all were constructed on a gum three zone tooling apart from Monte Carlo this shoe sat on a Combi Profile sole unit produced by Continental AG, the famous German rubber company based in Hanover, Lower Saxony.
adidas Germany produced their own version of Monte Carlo the same year with a very similar silhouette but with a bold and contrasting colourway of green suede and red leather with black foxing to the midsole, these stunning colours were inspired by the roulette wheels of the famous Monte Carlo Casinos.
All of the five models were produced during 1972 and 1973 in very small numbers making them extremely rare shoes fifty years on.
Tramp, Holiday and both colourways of Monte Carlo have been known shoes by adidas footwear obsessives around the world for many years whereas Walker had gone undetected…
This beautiful suede and gum pair had rewritten the 1972 Austrian leisure shoe story for the better..
Approximately three and a half years ago, my mate Chris Law sent me a message showing me two pair of dead stock vintage trainers that his friend Benny in Denmark was wanting to sell, he said that if I wanted to he’d hook me up with Benny and yes, of course I was interested..!
Chris sent me Benny’s details and we got chatting, he showed me a pair of Austrian Olympia with royal blue stripes and a pair of West German Buda, two pair that I’d wanted for some time. Over the following few weeks Benny and I talked quite a lot about all kinds of stuff.. vintage footwear, dogs, football, Star Wars, music, Maradona and graffiti!
Then one Tuesday afternoon I was driving with my eldest boy and my phone dinged, I asked my Son to see who it was, he said “it’s Benny, he has sent you some pictures of trainers” I glanced across and I could see a picture of Wien and Wien 2.. knowing that there was a very good chance that they were for sale I quickly indicated left and pulled into the pub carpark.
What Benny hadn’t told me a few weeks earlier was that the Olympia and Buda were part of an amazing vintage find that he had unearthed a few months before we were introduced to each other by our mutual friend.
Benny and two of his friends had founded a cool underground streetwear store called Le Fix in Copenhagen back in 1999, the flavour was based around Benny’s passion for art, clothing, footwear, tattoo art and street culture but Benny’s other passion is to search the Danish towns and villages for old sports store stock and these things we had in common were the topic of our conversations over the previous two weeks, Benny thought that his find would suit my collection and passion perfectly.
What was to unfold before my eyes was, in my opinion one of the most significant dead stock finds since Carlos’ store in Buenos Aries was brought to our attention back in 2014 by SPZL founder and good friend Gary Aspden.
Some of the footwear in the pictures from Benny I had only ever seen in my vintage product catalogues, many of which I will reveal in future issues of “The Dassler”.
Alongside these there was a very old pair of white and red kangaroo leather track spikes simply called “model 114” made in Western Germany, there were adidas Weightlifting Special shoes with wooden midsoles, boxing boots called Boxer and Knockout and it wasn’t just footwear, there were adidas tracksuits, bags, socks, footballs, laces, rackets, racket covers, football studs, football shorts, shin pads, sweatshirts, T shirts, vests, waterproof trousers plus 1970s and 1980s classic rain jackets such as the ST2 and ST8, the latter being made in Belgium, so much stuff, it was hard to take it all in, not only was all of this stuff in its original packaging and boxes, some of it was in its original brown cardboard shipping boxes complete with adidas sticky tape with pictures of various footwear on.
Over the next few weeks Benny kindly prepared it so that it could be shipped over to the U.K and that was it..
Every single piece was a great addition to my archive, some of the duplicate stuff went to fellow collectors and I gave some to a close friend.
Even though there were some seriously rare trainers amongst this amazing find, the shape and simplicity of the rare 1972 Austrian Walker blew me away, they are the only known pair to exist but there must be others out there somewhere surely? It amazes me what is turning up to this day in peoples cupboards, lofts, cellars, old stockrooms, tops of wardrobes and so on!
The popular 2005 Holiday reissue are now very sought after and in 2020, Spezial released the first ever Tramp reissue called the Stapfen SPZL, a great looking shoe and a nod to the OG classics, the details are spot on right down to the brown rope laces.. I think a Walker reissue would be greatly received by like minded fans of the three stripes!
The second adidas Spezial apparel capsule 2015-a revisit.
As last edition’s rundown of the first spezial apparel drop (here) went down so well I’d though I’d carry on with a review of the second Spezial apparel capsule S/S 15 (Spring/Summer) launched on 28th February 2015.
Revealed in conjunction with a Spezial exhibition in the Russian capital city, Moscow that ran from March 1st to the 9th. The second Spezial capsule contained 11 pieces of apparel and 7 trainer releases (see spzl.me for more info on the trainers).
Haslingden Jacket
Probably the most popular jacket in the Spezial range in its first ‘night navy’ iteration. Named after a place just outside Blackburn, famed for its acid house parties and designed with specific reference to the adidas Freizeit jackets of the 1970’s. It used a revolutionary fabric made in Switzerland but created in Manchester called EtaProof; organic, water repellent and believe it or not, made far less sound during movement than traditional materials. Also featuring a highly sought after small blue Spezial metal pin badge.
Settend Tracksuit
Named after a nightclub in Blackburn which Gary Aspden frequented in his youth. The Settend Tracksuit top was based on the the construction of the tracksuit below which was released in 1986. The white, navy and red ‘sporty’ colourway of the original is replaced with 2 shades of grey whilst the traditional polyester is replaced with adidas Climacool fabric.
Beckenbauer Tracksuit
Another re-issue of the trackie named after the legendary German football World Cup winning captain, Franz Beckenbauer. A modern redesign of a classic. Also featuring a reflective material underneath the collar beloved by the adidas running division. The trackie ‘bottoms’ featured a button and fly fastening with traditional pockets associated with adidas Frezeit leisure trousers.
This idea came from a conversation on a previous adidas project between Gary Aspden and Factory records designer Peter Saville. Peter stated that the lack of a fly on most tracksuit bottoms is the one aspect that lets the design down for a more mature audience.
Mod Trefoil Sweat
The first sweatshirt to showcase Gary Watson’s iconic Spezial logo, seen previously in the first Spezial AW14 capsule, supersized, front and centre, in a lovely felt flocking. It wasn’t supposed to be a logo but such was it’s popularity that football fans started to use it on their club banners. The design was inspired by a picture of Adi Dassler wearing a Deutscher Futball-Bund (German Football Federation) jumper and whilst playing around with an idea of turning the image 90 degrees, the graphic resembled a mountainous landscape with a river, reflected below. Gary Watson and the design team had by default created a modernist version of a Trefoil-hence the name of the sweatshirt.
ST9 Rain Jacket
Inspired by the iconic and packable adidas ST1 rainjacket. The ST1 was the first in the series of ST rain jackets from the early 80s that became a staple on the terraces. Beloved by football fans for its lightweight and waterproof (ish) elements. The adidas Spezial ST9 resurrected the original design and pack-away features and was made using adidas Climastorm (waterproof) technology.
Trefoil Polo
The first iteration of the adidas Spezial polo with classic 3 stripes on the collar. This design was based around certain elements of a Presentation suit jacket (jackets worn over football kits before the game starts) from the 1970’s. The Trefoil polo shirt featured a distinctive adidas colourway, a knitted collar and three stripe detailing, all inspired by the Presentation Jacket.
Graphic Tee
A tee shirt with an unusual Gary Watson design based on imagery previously seen on the Patch hoody with the print executed in flock to reflect the trefoil (and badge) of the adidas Nottingham Forest football kit of 1979/80-Gary Aspen's first ever adidas football shirt.
Jog-on Tee
Another Gary Watson design with the typography style based on an ironic take on one of adidas' most recognisable graphics from the 1980s. The Jogging logo provided the inspiration for the 'Jog-On’ (slang for go away!) tee. The text original was made using digital design software in the 80’s that allowed the user to stretch letters for the first time, something we take for granted now but was revolutionary at the time.
Witton Cardigan
The first Spezial cardigan based on classic Freiziet versions from the 1970’s. The adidas Witton Spezial cardigan takes this iconic piece and reworked it in a luxury Italian herringbone fabric, new snap button fastening were added on the collar and the cut revised to create a premium version of the original. Also featured a small metal Spezial pin badge. Named after a country park in the west of Blackburn, Lancashire.
Unreleased hooded smock
Little is known about this unreleased green hooded smock, no name was given to it and only this promo shot taken by Kevin Cummins exists.
Although it was due to be a part of the SS15 spezial capsule, late delivery of samples meant that it was shelved. Gary Aspden has released similar Spezial smocks in subsequent capsules but this specific design and colourway is still consigned to the samples bin.
Craig (@adifamily_) reviews adidas new releases for February 2023.
The second month of the year has brought some good drops but I would just like to go into a little more detail on the Munchen and Tobacco mentioned in my first article that have been brought forward and released, leaving us with hope the Berlin might also be seen before the end of next month as well.
The three Munchens are all originally Japanese releases, made in Japan (MIJ), what does this mean?
Most of you will be aware that adidas had products made in many different countries all over the world, often for different reasons but the reasons mainly were logistical and economic in nature. For Japan specifically, it was the law. Japanese law prevented foreign companies from operating on Japanese soil after the war, all the way up to the late 90s for foreign companies to make or sell their products in Japan, they had to employ a Japanese company and sell or give them a licence. In 1970 adidas issued licences to two firms, one called Kanematsu Sport and one called Descente.
At this point the Descente licence covered just textiles, as they had no experience with footwear and were known for producing football shirts and ski-wear this makes perfect sense. In fact Kanematsu Sport didn't start making shoes for adidas until 1977, as until then they sold imported shoes and models from outside of Japan. From 1977 to 1984 MIJ pairs were exclusively done by Kanematsu, and then in '84, something happened. What happened isn't known but it ended with Kanematsu having no adidas licence and Descente being given the shoes licence to go along with the textiles licence, leaving them the only producer and seller of adidas in Japan.
Laws changed of course, in 1998 adidas was able to open and operate its own regional distribution in the area, thus ending the licences and an amazing chapter in 3 stripe history. The 27 years adidas had products under licence in Japan, especially the 21 years of footwear being produced in Japan and specifically the 14 years under Descente, led to the creation of some of the most sought after and iconic adidas footwear and clothing from a collecting standpoint. Most of the top pairs at the time available around the world were available in Japan, but they did make a lot of styles and experimented with colour schemes and materials that nobody else was doing. Bright and vibrant colours adorning footwear are massively popular with Japanese consumers, much more so then consumers in Europe where tastes can be much more conservative.
The Guam is a great example of Japanese production at the start of the 80s. Using the Milano silhouette that came out of Yugoslavia in 1980/81, there were 3 different colourways but the most recognisable to most are the bright red and metallic silver stripes pair. Size? used the colourway recently as part of their "The Lost Ones" series and as far as I am aware, the Guam has never been reissued and incidentally was a Kanematsu trainer, not Descente. It was only ever made and sold in Japan. The colourway was a hit with Japanese consumers, so was then used on other silhouettes, this is what happened with several colourways, they appeared on different styles that was exclusive to the Japanese market, not seen by their european counterparts.
And that in its roundabout way, brings us to these Munchen. There is a few Munchens MIJ with these Japanese exclusive colourways, the originals are highly sought after and these modern reissues are proving extremely popular. The red/silver and sand/caramel colourways on Munchen can be found in catalogues as far back as 1981, while the deep navy/orange are from a 1997 Munchen pair.
Spezial have reissued Japanese exclusive colourway Munchens, as have Size?.
As far as I am aware, this is the first time adidas are making these specific Japanese colourway Munchens available to the wider and global market as a general release. Each of the 3 colourways available now are completely different from each other by looking at them, but connected forever through shared history.
This three pack released now has come about as "Terrace" style footwear such as Munchen and Tobacco are seeing a massive boost in popularity in Japan right now. Bringing us to the two 'baccies'. The brown are a reworking of the orginal brown Tobacco tonal colourway, while the other colourway has been "created" to sit exactly opposite the OG colourway. adidas made the decision to release two pairs and was looking through images, seen a picture of MIJ Tobacco at the side of some MIJ Tahiti, and while not wanting to do the Tahiti specifically, they liked the contrast and again looking through images they seen the colour of the rubber soles after decades of wear or storage, the miscolouration produces an almost unique look, which goes quite well overall as a shade of colour. They've worked hard on getting it just right for this pair, and the sole unit reflects the representation of the vintage rubber miscolouring. The three Munchens and two Tobaccos are a great example of adidas being more then aware of their history, of how to bring that forward to the present and doing so in a manner that adds to the prestige, the heritage, instead of just rehashing it. They're magnificent in every way.
Now to another iconic pair being reissued. As just mentioned the adidas Milano was first produced in Yugoslavia in 1980/81. Featuring a deep navy suede upper and tongue with metallic gold stripes and heel tab, the trainer has now seen many colourways and issues, but this latest one is true to a pair adidas have residing in the archive, marked 1981-83 Yugoslavia, featuring a navy/white tongue detail, different to the gold detail seen on most known pairs. The tooling was available to adidas so getting the shape correct was the hardest part, they felt it needed improvement from the 2012 release. By using good materials they've knocked these out of the park, with them being released exclusively at Size? last week, they'll be the only place you are able to purchase them, a retailer exclusive City Series. These are to be one of the last of these OG City Series reissues, with adidas looking to explore new lines by the end of this year, what this will entail we will find out soon enough but it is definitely going to be interesting.
Two Gazelle Indoors have dropped early, both in vibrant summer colours and looking to keep same aesthetics from the Gucci collaboration with the bright and in your face colourways, they're a definite continuation of adidas maximising the potential of the silhouette. There was some hairy suede Gazelle Indoor end of last year, there was also some high spec premium Gazelle Indoor and there is to be more of them premium pairs I'm told, same materials and high quality which is suede and nylon ballistics. But they're down the line, and so these were meant to be, not scheduled until next month at the earliest they've appeared with Offspring regardless and have both sold out as quickly as they appeared, not surprisingly as they're a cracking trainer. The two lace choices were done purposely, both can be swapped over to go in the other pair, just a nice touch of contrast from the design team.
Just a quick honourable mention to Y-3, who have released 3 colourways of the Marathon TR trainer, pictured here on shelf in Singapore for me by my good friend Murray, @88hoops88 on Twitter, they're top end materials and build, the innovations of Yohji Yamamoto continue to be a highlight for many.
And to finish this fortnight, of course is the recent adidas Spezial Pre-Spring 23 release. Featuring no less then seven pairs of footwear, here's a quick breakdown of them all;
Hiaven SPZL
Featuring the adi-tex waterproofing membrane, an outsole from the LA Trainer and taking much inspiration from a vintage pair called Trekking Hi, these are named after a place in the Cotswolds where the Spezial film for this collection was shot.
Hochelaga SPZL
After two colourways was first released in 2015, both of them going on to be more popular and sought after as time passes, the Spezial team felt it right to revisit the silhouette and bring another OG 'Montreal' colourway back. While unable to call them Montreal due to legal, the Hochelaga name comes from the word the Huron people called the area more then 500 years ago. They're a new pair, but as authentically retro as possible.
Hochelaga Super SPZL
Another masterstroke from the Spezial team, who designed most of this collection in the middle of Covid times thus unable to meet face to face, having to limit samples and limiting the amount of creation that can occur overall. So pairs they'd already created were just a sensible place for them to start sometimes. As they changed subtly the GT Manchester SPZL to the Manchester 89 SPZL, they have looked to change Hochelaga to Hochelaga Super subtly. Straight-edged stripes, change of materials, and the colourway with a fresh take on using a vintage pair of the Handball LXS as a cue for several features.
Hartness SPZL
Another Spezial addition using the adi-tex technology, these are inspired directly by a vintage pair called HRC which was Gore-Tex and a bright, almost unique feeling colourway. These however have been given the triple black treatment, and using a different tooling as the orginal has been lost to time and it isn't economically viable to bring about its return. Using that often quoted cliche, they look bombproof. Comes with dogtooth alternative lace change.
The shoes are named in memoriam to adidas collector, Archie Hartness.
Arkesden SPZL
I'm not saying much, as Chris Law is a legend and honouring us with an article for this issue about this trainer. A C-Law Spezial, that's all that needs saying.
Italia Denim SPZL
Last, but by no means least, the return of a much loved silhouette, a much loved trainer. Over 20 years ago a young Gary Aspden worked on the project between adidas and Levis to produce a shoe for the concept store Cinch in London. Two colourways, alternating of dark and light denim came from that project, and are now a rare trainer to find. With Spezial, a few of the new specifications that have been created and used make them a closer representation of the orginal Italia from the 70s. The previous Italia Denims had seen certain details from the originals stripped back, Spezial have them return with the gold foil branding, tongue detail and the lip at the back of the collar. The X across the heel also returns after it was left off the CP Italia SPZL. A great release, and a truly Spezial pair of trainers.
Newrad SPZL
Another silhouette created by Spezial sees a return, this time using different materials aswell as a different colourway. Leisure shoes are a cornerstone of any Spezial collection, and these are hugely popular. Named after Darwen (spelt backwards)in Lancashire, hometown of curator Gary Aspden, they feature an unusual tongue detailing pulled from a rare vintage pair of hiking boots
A big thank you to Neil Selvey and his blog vintage adidas and puma for help in researching this article.
An interview with Crooked Tongues impresario, trainer/shoe designer and adidas legend Chris Law.
-For those that don’t know you or what you do, give us a quick history.
Ok,so I left school at 15, was Royal Mail trained through YTS, got sacked, delivered car parts - got sacked, put myself through college in Luton, moved to London at 22 and put myself through College doing a graphic design degree where I met Chris Aylen, worked part time in Blockbuster and a streetwear shop (Bond International) where I met Russell - end of 1999 start of 2000, Russ, Chris, I and a few others started Unorthodox Styles that created Crooked Tongues.
I designed and Co -wrote for Crooked Tongues which led to brands wanting to work for us (that was the plan), met Gary Aspden who introduced us to Ben Pruess & Dean Loakes from adidas who asked us to work on projects for them.
I did some Co-labs with New Balance, PUMA, Addict and of course adidas and eventually got asked to join the adidas Originals design team in 2007 out in Portland, Oregon. Since then I’ve worked for adidas Originals for 10 years in total, mainly designing and directing the skateboarding and heritage basketball ranges, Converse for 3 years and Clarks Originals for 18 months as well as some other stuff, had 4 kids, 1 dog and a few real Mini Coopers. I’m currently working more on the fashion side of things for Axel Arigato to build their footwear back here in London.
-Which was first shoe he worked on at adidas?
The first ’New Shoe’, so to say which was an NU (New Upper, a TN is a Total New - upper and sole unit) was actually the first Busenitz signature skateboarding shoe for the rider Dennis Busenitz. I fully started out as an adidas employee back in 2007 and my role was that of a colour and materials designer. At that time I was the head design lead for the Skateboarding category. I was working alongside Danny Kinley and he was a ‘proper’ footwear designer, I was new to the game in the sense of silhouette design and that was my starting point, where I learned the actual process of designing the actual shoe with Danny.
Up until the Busenitz shoe adidas Skateboarding hadn’t really found its true personailty, when I came along I bought my love of the archive and adidas’ DNA to the table and Danny and Mark really appreciated my knowledge and passion for all the types of silhouettes that have a connection to the UK and terrace culture so to say.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that adidas Skateboarding has stayed on that path since, even in the work that Scott Johnston and Marcus Taylor, you can see that influence . In all my early work for skate, it’s pretty obvious where my inspiration led the team. So yeah, the Busenitz was the first shoe I helped out on, but can’t claim, as that was Danny’s shoe, I just sprinkled in the ‘terrace’ influence., I think my first actual designed upper that made it to shelf was a vulcanised skate lifestyle shoe called the ‘Culver’. Then came shoes like the ’Seeley’, ‘Etrusco’ and ‘Greeley’ from my first time at adi. One of my fave later ones was the ‘Akando’. I was never trained at college to be a footwear designer, I’m self taught through many many hours in the factories in Asia and the sample room in Portland.
-Now some questions on the Arkesden SPZL (Chris created the original Lacompas version) Why a Lacombe, why a campus?
It was a coming together of 2 slightly different worlds, the Campus has a bigger visual profile like the Superstar than the Lacombe or anything built on that last. (most terrace style shoes are built on the *41TUR last see below).
The Campus tooling is quite a non descriptive design, quite universal and democratic and the Lacombe has quite a slender personality, its elegant and graceful, the Campus is a bit more hench and hip hop. So I liked the idea of seeing those 2 silhouettes coming together. The 41TUR last for me is the iconic adidas shape that goes way back, it’s the skeletal DNA of the brand’s make up.
The last (no pun intended) project and shoe that I did for adi was the re-issue of the 1982 ‘Made In France’ iteration of the Superstar. Up until that point all Superstar design work since the reincarnation of Originals as a business unit of adidas starting around 2000 was done in Herzo, and by pure chance Portland’s team were assigned to doing the Superstar so I said to my senior partners in Portland, if we’re doing the Superstar, I don’t care what Herzo say or think I’m personally gonna make sure we make a ‘proper’ one.
So with the blessing of Eric Wise and the agreement with Sven Herrmann I created the ’Superstar ’82’. The biggest and best smallest difference with that re-issue is that I made it adamant that we had to use the 41TUR last and that the midsole texture had to be created by hand hammering the metal moulds to emulate the sidewall texture just like they did back in the day. Anyways, Im drifting now, what I’m saying though is that ‘Last’ is always first and is such a huge element in footwear shape. That combined with proportion, everything beyond that is just a skin and faffing about.
-What was your inspiration?
Well, talking with Ryan Case who was leading the skate range from a range planning perspective at the time we both thought a short vamped toe would be good to have in the collection but it needed a bit more of a substantial sole than the Lacombe. I started by doing an interation of the Gazelle, a ‘Gazelle Light’ that was canvas, stitched details and stripes with a bound collar in unlined canvas, but it was again a bit too unstructured, so I thought the Campus is a great sole for skateboarding so that was a good sole base, let’s build something up from there with a short T toe vamp.
-What was the most annoying detail when crafting this pair or was it all plain sailing?
To be totally honest, it was very easy. The great formula that adi has for this type of look was created in the 70s, it’s all about the very short vamp / toe area, the wide opening and a low heel height in the rear quarter. Once I had mastered that combination of those 3 sets of dimensions it just designs itself. So many of the training classics are built on those dimensions. In footwear design, especially when it comes to emulating the 70s it’s all about proportions. Millimetres are everything and a shoe can drastically change in shape if you don’t get that perfect balance of vamp length, opening width and heel height. They only thing I really had to take into account is that the Lacombe is built on a different last to the Campus, it’s also built using a different construction. The Lacombe is a cold cement construction, an upper sitting on a midsole and then wrapped with a rubber sidewall, whereas the Campus is a capsule, which is an upper sat in a rubber bucket so to say. So there was a little bit of playing around with the pattern file to get it right.
-How many prototypes did you use before perfecting Lacompas?
When I did the ‘Lacompas’ which was the original ‘potato head’ I think I nailed it on the 2nd round. At the time it wasn’t an official ‘brief’, just an idea that I had. What Gary has done with the Arkesden is a step forward from that but influenced by it. The Lacompas is unlined, it doesn’t have an internal heel counter and the rear of the shoe is different, It also has double stitches on the first stripe for better lifespan for skateboarding, but you can see they’re very closely related from the shape, the use of the small eyelets and the colour direction.
-Why that c/w (not Spzl pair) of your original pair?
The c/w was just me making something for me, like Gaz said. I actually first made the all white leather version with the quarter perfs. Then I made 3 suede colour ways just by going into the materials warehouse in the factory and pulling out some things I liked and just freestyled them here and then with the developer. The Lacompas isn't even really a ‘sample’ it’s what we would call a ‘look-see’. Just an idea put together. There’s the burnt orange colour way with the black stripes and semi transparent black outsole, I then made a full navy shoe with a semi transparent blue sole and then I made a tonal mustard colour way on a semi transparent gum sole. So all in all there are 4 living versions of the Lacompas, which influenced the Arkesden.
-How long did it take, roughly in hours, from design to conception?
It was just an idea from playing around really. Like Gaz has said I was working on a collaboration with Donald Glover and I went down to meet him in Nashville of all places. He was a lovely fella and didn’t want all the bells and whistles that rappers normally want. He wanted a shoe that felt simple in design, not so obvious to the US market and something that would gain its own personality the more you wear it. We talked a lot about materials and he wanted cotton to be a focus, cotton that would also get dirty as if it were ‘work wear’. I put a few proposals together and showed him, and after a few back and forth we came to a collection that was based around cotton, a concept that would fray and feel lived in.
I asked Gaz if he was cool with me bringing the Lacombe into the collection, which he was up for. At the time of me doing that project I had the idea of putting the Lacombe upper on the Campus tooling but for that release it didn’t happen. The Lacompas was actually gonna be bought into the skate collection, so when I put the shoe together that was gonna be its destination. The direction changed and what actually came out in the end was the ‘Delpala’ that I designed. That ended up being a vulcanised style but had nods back to terrace styles.
-Where did the colourway come from?
I just love burnt oranges and autumnal tones.
-What are your thoughts on the Special range?
What I like about the Spezial range is that it’s the purist interpretation of a collection that represents and pays homage to a golden era. For me as a footwear designer, you never really get such an open brief to create a range with so much scope. There’s not really a range out there from any of the brands that has this ideology.
You normally get individual briefs written by a range planning team that either goes after a certain look, a certain trend or a gap in the range. Designers just don’t get to just go off willy nilly and do what they want really within the big brands. There’s normally a target style or target consumer presented at briefing. Gary gets to create in such a way that I for one would love to have been able to do.
There’s always guard rails, that those on the outside wouldn’t ever know about that brings restrictions, creating a new outsole for example is a very big investment and can take from 6 to 12 months of development.
Another thing I like about the Spezial range is that it is curated well where each season is varied from a silhouette perspective, maybe a couple of flat terrace styles, a heritage jogger or hiker and some Freizeit inspired leisure styles. I like the seasonal narratives that are in some ways, always linked through that mix of sport, heritage and culture. It’s a very Spezial thing. / / /
Great 2nd edition of The Dassler. Particularly enjoyed the Chris Law interview and geeting to see the pics of the 4 concepts pairs of Lacampas as well as the Donal Glover cotton pairs. Really interesting stuff
Said the first edition sets the tone and how right I was. Brilliant read again lads. Keep up the great work. The knowledge and insight are first class!👌🏾