Way back in 1983 adidas launched the adicolor line of sneakers. Each pair of kicks came with tools (e.g. paint brushes, markers, etc.) that allowed the buyer to customize their shoes and create a one of a kind apperal and experience. When I think about this concept today it still seems fresh and enlightening. A modern iteration of adicolor might be found in mi adidas or NIKE iD. A few years ago, though, adidas stayed ahead of the curve and re-issued the adicolor series in 2006.
This time however, they choose a series of popular street and pop-culture artists to create individual designs based on one of seven different colors (i.e. white, red, blue, yellow, green, pink & black). Each color was assigned to six different artists who designed a different shoe (a pair of adicolor hi, adicolor lo, century lo, stan smith’s and 2 pairs of superstars). The results were 42 pairs of very limited edition (10,000 or fewer), unique sneakers and accessories.
Concepts for the shoes ranged any where from Miss Piggy, New York’s 5 boroughs, Dark Horse comics, Trimmy (mascot for Germany’s 1976 national fitness campaign) and many others. My favorite (and the most unexpected) in the series were the adicolor blue series BL4 TRON themed Stan Smith CF’s. Remember, 2006 was way before the hype of Olivia Wilde (WildeThings.org) in a light suit or Daft Punk creating the soundtrack (available on iTunes). These particular Stan Smiths pay homage to the original 1983 TRON and are particularly good looking. I guess you can say adidas was helping to create a legacy for Tron 23 years after the original and almost 5 years before the sequel.
The shoes, designed by Disney, had a coordinating track jacket. Only 25,000 of the shoes were made and only 10,000 track jackets. Needless to say they sold out every where. The pair pictured above (and below) are mine. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. A small boutique on Melrose in Beverly Hills had my size (13) so I snatched ‘em up along with the black series BK4 TRIMMY themed Stan Smith’s (and the matching crew neck sweater). I’ve been on the hunt for the TRON track jacket ever since without any luck. I’ve worn the shoes a few times for good measure but mostly they’ve sat in the box since 2006 – until now. Both the TRONs and the TRIMMYs are now on display at our flagship store – LEAGUE, in Moreno Valley, CA.
In response to the new TRON: Legacy film adidas has released an updated line of TRON themed shoes and clothing – they’re no where near as cool.