Charting cool through vintage drops and never-before-seen prototypes

In a few years, Adidas will be a century old, but rather than waiting to celebrate their centenary, they’ve decided to release a book this summer that charts their story via 357 pairs of key releases.

Over their near 100 years, Adidas has been one of the most important brands in modern culture. While their Coke/Pepsi style rivalry with Nike has seen people go as far as to pick sides in the style wars, until fairly recently Nike has always maintained they were a sports and performance brand. Adidas, however, has embraced all aspects of modern culture and over the decades, played a part in shaping how it looks.





Authors Christian Habermeier and Sebastian Jäger take you through decades of Adidas designs – both classic and modern – telling the brand's story. It seems like a rather cool way to celebrate Adidas – after all, when we look back on our own past we often think of what we were wearing and inevitably Adidas appears somewhere, and as this book illustrates, some of their releases almost define style in certain eras.



Though the 656 pages this coffee table tome takes you on a tour of one-of-a-kind originals, vintage models, influential drops (back before anyone used the term ‘drops’), never-before-seen prototypes, and designs from the likes of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney, limited edition athlete-endorsed and modern rapper colabs that have seen people queuing overnight for a chance to buy. And yes, as you’d expect, Run DMC feature in there as well – they’d really have to, given their huge impact on the brand.



But more than just a nostalgic look back at trainers you may have owned – or really wanted to own – this is a record of milestones in footwear design, evolving though sports, street culture, fashion, music and more. It’s the story of popular style in 357 laceable stages.



The Adidas Archive. The Footwear Collection is available from August 18, priced $150