adidas Superstar II 'Core Black'

The shell toe was never meant to look like anything. Leather split where big men pivoted, so adidas wrapped the front in rubber.

Nearly sixty years later it is the most recognisable shape in the game, and nobody has found a reason to change it.

Details

adidas Superstar II
Smooth leather upper
Core black, cloud white and core black
Rubber shell toe
Serrated 3-Stripes
Superstar callout at the quarter
Textile lining
Padded tongue and collar
Lace closure
Textured rubber outsole
Style code JI0079

Background

It arrived in 1969 as a basketball shoe, the first low-top cut entirely from leather, and for a decade that is all it was.

Then Run-DMC put it on. Nobody paid them. They wore it unlaced, wrote a song about it, and in 1986 at Madison Square Garden asked the crowd to hold their adidas in the air. Thousands of shoes went up. An adidas executive was standing in the room, and the contract that followed was the first of its kind between a music group and a sportswear brand.

The shoe never went back to the court. It has been on the street ever since, and it has never needed a redesign to stay there.