Stan Smith: 40 Years of Sole | Hypebeast

Has there been a hiatus in terms of production, since the sneakers inception?

No, the shoe has been continually produced, but it has gone cyclically. There would be times when it would slow down and get popular again with the retro craze.

From an aesthetic point of view, the Stan Smith has a timeless, versatile look to it. Something you can pair with just about anything.

Exactly, I don’t think it has much to do with me…or at least I don’t think that much. It’s just such a classic simple, clean look.

[laughs]

A lot of the Stan Smith’s are marked by a silhouette of yourself. Who originally created the graphic?

Well it’s a photograph. It was taken when I didn’t have a mustache which is really only a four-month period over my playing career. From age 22 till now I’ve always had a mustache.

So by chance it was over this four month period you were mustache-less.

They took that original photograph and paired it with my signature. The signature was originally done when I was at an autograph session in a sporting goods store. A girl came in and she was sort of creative and said you should try something different and use only one ‘S’. I did that for about two or three years and then went back to two words ever since.

Did you ever imagine that 40 years later, you would still be the face of the adidas Stan Smith?

No, I never thought it would last beyond my initial cotnract with adidas of 5 years. After the first contract, we did another 5 years. I always thought that it would be the end after the end of each 5 years.

Everything has its life-cycle. But this thing has taken a life of its own. As I said before, most of the young people that buy the shoe might not necessarily know what kind of tennis player I was or even who I was.

Is that something you wish could have been changed up a bit? Maybe that your background as a tennis player was brought to the forefront more?

That’s life… I remember Bjorn Borg was one of the greatest players of all-time and I remember giving a clinic about 3 years after he had retired to 10 and 12 year olds. I asked “How many of you want to be like Bjorn Borg?” They looked at me with blank stares like “Who is he?”. Maybe that’s something that speaks about the shoe itself. A lot of people hear my name and they think of the shoe first and not tennis or me as a player. It’s a strange relationship.

I think in terms of adidas, there isn’t quite a model that resonates to the same effect.

Alongside my shoe there were some other notables like the Nastase which was fairly popular. The Laver was also pretty popular. But I think you can’t really do that much with the other styles compared to the Stan Smith and that’s something we’ve seen over the last 5-6 years.

If you look back on everything around you and the 60th anniversary of adidas, how do you feel as a long-time adidas endorsee?

I’ve been around with adidas for almost 40 years. It’s a great brand that started out with quality in their shoes and that was the whole emphasis of Adi Dassler. He was really committed to making a high-quality shoe. And since then, if you stick with that philosophy through footwear and clothing, it has seen its share of ups and downs as well but overall the brand has been tremendous. The tennis reputation has been great and I’m very proud to be affiliated with it. I feel like part of the family.