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

 February 17, 2022

#445

Gentle reader,

If this is your first encounter with my blog, then you may want to read the two previous chapters on this subject:

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

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

In researching this series, I looked at a LOT of photos of Adidas sneakers. The vast majority, if the shoes are white, the stripes are black, then red, then silver. Blue is way down the list. With light blue, like below, even more rare.

This pair, BECKENBAUER ALLROUND, and the one below are named for Franz Beckenbauer, Germany's most famous soccer (football) player, coach and team owner. Their shape is very similar to the Adidas ROM, which are indoor soccer shoes, which are my favorites.

Normally, I don't include photos of people in my articles unless it is I or someone I know, but since he is important to Germany and Adidas is a German company (founded in 1949) I am including this photo of him which is from an article of the Ten Best Soccer Players in History. Note that he is wearing Adidas.

Since I alphabetized my photos of white-with-blue-stripes Adidas, I will show them to you in that order, starting with a pair which's name starts with the number 11.

These are the 11pro 11nova which are soccer shoes without cleats made for indoor soccer. This pair was found on an Australian sports shoes website. They have been discontinued.

These Adidas BARCELONA are reintroductions of a series which they produced in the 1980s. The colors were meant to match the various professional Soccer teams.

These are COUNTRY TRAINERs, also reintroduced from the 1980's. "Trainers" is applied to a lot of Adidas, I have found.

These are GAZELLE models, of which I have a pair the same as these and a couple other pairs in different color combinations. From Adidas own web site:

"When adidas introduced the Gazelle shoe back in 1966, it dominated indoor soccer gyms and handball courts. The Gazelle was built for swift moves and sure-footed grip for athletes, but its casual style and minimalist 3-Stripes look brought it onto the campus into mass popularity. Over 50 years later, the Gazelle sneaker continues to be a mainstay of casual streetwear. The Gazelle has graced the feet of icons like Bob Marley, Kate Moss, and Michael Jackson."

These HAMBURG shoes which I at first thought must be like the BARCELONA, but are not. These came out in 1982 as training shoes.

These vintage KEGLER sneakers were made in Yugoslavia and are not the same as KEGLER SUPER shoes which are not the same style.

Note, MADE IN YUGOSLAVIA between the laces.

That is a sole pattern I have not seen prior to finding this pair being advertised for sale.

These are Adidas KICK sneakers which are made for Martial Arts. By the way, have you seen Cobra Kai, a series on Netflix? It takes place decades after the series of Karate Kid films with the same actors. It's intense at times, but so good.

These are KIEL, the first white-with-blue-stripes Adidas I was able to find and buy. They are canvas and I refer to them as Adidas Keds. Since they resemble the cheap canvas sneakers made famous by Keds.

They were introduced in 1972 for the Munich Olympics and are sailing shoes. KIEL is the German spelling for "keel", the central blade that extends from the bottom of sailboats to prevent them from capsizing from strong wind.

They are quite comfortable and I actually washed them with a load of clothes in the washing machine. I let them air dry, however.

Adidas has a whole line of L.A. shoes in many styles.

Interestingly, these L.A. TRAINERs have three round things on the sides of the soles. The KEGLER SUPERS, which are still made, also have such markings.

These are NIZZA high tops which are "70s Basketball-inspired Sneakers" which "are a lightweight textile alternative to leather high tops".

And these are the low rise version of NIZZA high tops.

Adidas JEANS trainers which came out originally in the 1980s and were named after the ubiquitous denim pants they were made to be worn with.

They were reissued in 2015 in many color combinations in leather or suede.

Adidas SAMBA and SAMOA are frequently confused since the names are so similar in spelling and the styles are very close.

In fact, back in the 1990's we were in a thrift store in Fairfax City, Virginia. I was looking through LP records which the store had in plastic milk crates on shelves. One of the crates would not go back in, so I pulled it out to discover a green suede Adidas SAMBA with white stripes was behind the crate.

"Hmm,", I thought, "there must be a mate to this shoe." And I began to look for it. I did find it and they were size 11.5 which I can wear depending upon the shoes.

Note that the shoe pictured above has the same soles as ROM do, and sure enough, like the ROMs they are indoor soccer shoes. 

Some years later, we were walking into a Home Depot store and a male employees came quickly walking towards me and breathlessly asked me where I got the SAMBAS. "Why?" I asked. "Because I collect Adidas and have never seen green suede ones." When I told him, he was crestfallen. "'collect Adidas'?" I thought...*

These are Adidas SL 72 trainers. Like the KIEL above, these also came out during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

These too are vintage Adidas made in Yugoslavia, which I just learned split up into seven separate countries after the civil wars of late last century.

I can find nothing about SUPER REKORD Adidas, only non-super versions which are still being made. I'm almost done.

These Adidas are called: The Sneeker. Yes, that is the way they spell it. German, I suppose.

They are trainers. And I just learned that symbol/logo is called a "Trefoil".

And lastly, this sad looking pair of Adidas are called: Venta. I can find nothing at all about them other than they were made in the 1980's.

*Remember those green SAMBAs? That stranger telling me he collects Adidas, got me to thinking. So, I began looking for, you guessed it, ROM Adidas on eBay. 

And the vast majority of sneakers I have found and purchased are of a traditional shape and size like the ROMs I first had as a kid in the 1960s in California.

My wife, Nancy, is SUPER supportive of my interests as I am of hers. She never hesitates to buy me a pair of new Adidas she finds. Most of them have been running shoes which tend to have wide, thick and long soles to help the runners with stability and comfort.

Nancy also surprised me with this big metal shoe rack some years ago which holds FORTY pairs! After years of having to rotate the shoes on their sides to get them in and out of the rack, it hit me, "Turn it around!" As you can see, the thickest/tallest part of the shoes are now facing towards me. The heels, which is where we all place our fingers in shoes in order to pick them out of the closet or off of the floor, are now easy to pull them out of the rack. 

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog! I started out doing this just for fun. I had no inkling that anyone would not only would read it, but it would be read worldwide!

Scott 

February 17, 2022

#445