Have You Ever Seen White Adidas With Blue Stripes? Why Are They So Rare? PART TWO

February 11, 2022

#444

Dear reader,

Because this subject is near and dear to my heart, I have begun this second installment of the series the day after publishing the first one.

The first article, in case you have not seen it yet, can be found here:

The Robb Collections: Have You Ever Seen White Adidas With Blue Stripes? Why Are They So Rare? PART ONE

As mentioned in the first chapter, we walked the entire mall, and to my utter delight, (almost as if the sneaker gods were proving me wrong!) in one of the shoe stores they actually HAVE a pair of Adidas which are white with blue stripes! They are Superstars, which I like but don't like the thick "nose" which is ribbed. And not for your pleasure. And whatever fabric or leather the stripes and heal decoration were made from is furry. I did not buy them because they wanted $100 for them. Homey don't play that game.*

*I quoted Damon Wayans character, Homey the Clown from the wonderfully funny television show of the 1990's called In Living Color. Did you know that one of the Fly Girls was none other than Jennifer Lopez? And don't forget that Canadian comic genius, Jim Carrey had his US debut in the series and was hilarious in his many roles.

But I digress. Long time readers are familiar with my doing that. 

As I mentioned in most of the previous articles on my sneakers collection, my very first pair were ROM indoor soccer (football) shoes in white with blue stripes. Above is a brand new one and is one of the many "ORIGINALS" which Adidas capitalizes on with old folks like me who want to reexperience things they once had or coveted in their younger years.

Mine were made in Yugoslavia of kangaroo skin. Not that they are native to that area of the world. (I recently learned that Yugoslavia was a communist country, but it was never part of the Soviet Union. Which is how Adidas was able to build a factory there.) I, of course do not recall details of shoes I wore in elementary school in the 1960's other than the model and colors. 

In researching for these articles, I also looked for Yugoslav-made Adidas and found a number for sale on eBay. Which I will show you now.

If you wish to learn more about the former Yugoslavia and what became of it, Wikipedia's page can be seen here: Yugoslavia - Wikipedia

All of the following photos were made by the shoe's owners and I found on eBay. Since the US Supreme Court has ruled that any photo placed upon the Internet does NOT have copyright protection, I can freely share them with you.

Now, you may be thinking, "Wait a minute, if white with blue stripes are so rare, how are you able to find these pictures so easily?" I'm glad you asked. 

Firstly, eBay has become the world's largest Flea Market. There are billions of items on eBay on any given day. They have an excellent search engine and will find things on their sites in other countries to help potential buyers find what they seek.

NOTE: The adidas and ROM are printed differently than most of the shoes I will be showing you. Which indicates their being vintage.

Secondly, many of these particular shoes are either in Japan or within countries which made up Yugoslavia, such as Serbia. And the third reason will be revealed soon.

A couple of my ROMs have this dimpled leather tongue as well, but do not have anything printed on them.

Note that nothing is printed on the heel decoration panels.

I think this forlorn pair, which I recall are the ones in Serbia, most resemble my first pair in the 1960's.

These are the indoor soccer (football) soles that my original ones, plus the ones I bought in the 1970's and the ones I have now have contain.

Look closely and you can just see the adidas and ROM now quite faded.

Yes, looking at these, they are as close as I could find to what I recall.

This tongue resembles the ones on SAMBAs I have. They are quite stiff as this one appears to be.

This is a pair of track shoes, and that tongue appears to be fabric. These are the least expensive Yugoslavian made Adidas on eBay right now.

White with black stripes and also having the dimpled tongues. Note how far the suede toe pieces go towards the stripes compared to others. I don't think these are ROMs.

These are an incredible find having the original boxes. 

They are later models than most of the Yugo's since they have the three-leaves logos.

I never played indoor soccer, but my parents did (to my utter surprise, since they discouraged us from taking an interest in sports) sign me up for summer school to learn this new game called Soccer. 

That fall, they introduced it in PE (Physical Education or Gym) and since I knew how to play it, I watched in frustration as all the kids, save me and the goalies, were in a cluster chasing the ball all over the field. I yelled, "You have to stay in position!", to no avail.

Now, I have seen these soles on other vintage Adidas, but never on ROMs.

My original shoes may have had this type of label. But I clearly remember seeing kangaroo skin on a label. No photo of me from the 1960's exists with my Adidas on. However, in the 1970's my brother Jim shot this photo of me working on my 1941 Plymouth hot rod.

Six feet three inches tall and a whopping one hundred and fifty-five pounds well into my twenties. I look lean, but muscles are clearly there. See my Adidas? Those are too light to have been black stripes.

There is a book called Sneaker Wars, by Barbara Smit, which tells the tale of Adidas and PUMA and the two brothers who founded both companies. Nancy bought it for me and I learned so much! What I learned from the book especially, was to NOT BUY NIKE. The took over the industry and as a result, I boycott their products.

There is also and excellent film on Amazon Prime, made in Germany in German with English subtitles about the same story. 

I highly recommend checking it out. It is well done and very informative. 

I have three pairs of PUMA sneakers, two are driving shoes. I mentioned them in the first article but did not explain.

Real car enthusiasts, such as yours truly, drive cars with three pedals and a manual transmission. Or what we used to call "stick shift".

These are photos of the inside of my 2005 Volvo V50 T5 Sport. Which is a performance station wagon. Stop laughing, there ARE such things and Volvo along with other European car makers produce them. In the US, they are rare. Mine has a turbocharged five cylinder engine and a six-speed manual transmission.

The pedals are unusually small, but do the job. There is a technique called "heel and toe" in car racing in which all three pedals are worked at the same time. YouTube no doubt has videos showing the method. 

To truly enjoy working those three pedals while racing or driving enthusiastically, one should be able to feel the pedals.

I am wearing these POLO driving shoes right now. Normally, I do not wear shoes in the house. But felt like keeping them on since I put these on to go to the mailbox.

NOTE the rounded heels and very thin soles these shoes have. The better to feel the pedals and rotate one's feet doing heel and toe.

The soles could also be used on track shoes, since it looks like spikes would fit right in those round sections.

These are a pair of PUMA Ferrari driving shoes I used to have. Note how they, and the POLOs above, are form fitting and scarcely wider than the wearer's feet.

For some reason, PUMA splits the heels on some of their driving shoes. But, they are rounded, as all driving and racing shoes are.

A look through all the heels of these shoes, one can clearly see the rounded heels of the driving shoes. I count seven pairs. 

If you think about how we walk and the shapes of our feet, it makes sense that the heel shape of our shoes should mirror our feet. How many shoes have you worn the heels down from years of walking in them? Shoe companies, take note!

Once again, I have made this article longer than I planned AND, I have not told you reason three for white with blue stripes Adidas rarity. Which means, there will be a PART THREE.

Thanks again for reading my humble blog. I greatly appreciate it and all the comments left below or on Facebook.

Scott

February 11, 2022

#444