The story and influence of Dieter Rams over the Braun empire has been a topic of hot discussion over the last few years. While his reign ended some time ago, it seems as though we can’t get enough of the influential designer’s insights and thoughts into how he was single-handedly able to set the record straight recording modern design. This short video looks into the beliefs of Rams and how design should always embody a timeless approach to it.

Source: ONEEIGHTNINE

Starting on Saturday, March 12, the Victoria and Albert Museum is launching an exhibition dedicated to the work of avant-garde fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Known best for challenging the traditional notions of fashion, Yamamoto became internationally renowned during the early 1980s for his garments that seemed oversized and unfinished. The retrospective will highlight over 60 of the designer’s creations, including his menswear, in a series of site-specific installations that stretch across the city of London.

The signature shoe of several time world tennis champion, and still legendary George ‘Rod’ Laver, the adidas Rod Laver has been a mainstay for the brand, and now a central part of the Originals range since its 1970 launch. The key to its success? Utter simplicity. In line with court decorum and regulations of the era, the famous 3-Stripes were shorn for this shoe, and the purity of the Rod Laver set something of a standard for sneaker design – the move to pare down the corporate identity and let the silhouette do the talking is a landmark move too.

Beyond favourite colour combinations like the traditional white and green, the material mix of leather and mesh kept things breathable and lightweight without compromising looks. This bare bones approach gave the shoe an ageless quality. A follow-up, wider, chunkier in the sole and with added midsole and heel branding became another icon and a worldwide Summer standard, notably deified in NYC as the timeless hot weather choice.

Almost forty years after the original design’s introduction, it’s back in a tweaked form, retaining its iconic classicism for an ambitious adidas Originals Consortium project. Nine global Consortium partners, each famed for their innovative approach to retail, were given the Rod Laver to rework with their choice of colours, fabrics and more for release in extremely limited numbers at Consortium stores throughout August and September 2009.

ORIGINAL COLOURS AKA THE GRASS COURT

With its suede heel tab, ‘ROD LAVER’ lettering at the rear and mix of ribbed mesh side panels, embellished here with a slight vintage effect, and pristine leather lacestays, tongue and toe, this O.G. colourway of an adidas bestseller, decade after decade, is presented in that recognisable blend of green and white.

The tweaked sole unit, with its slightly altered outsole is an alteration that brings a pioneering creation up-to-date without compromising the shoe’s essence, while the Consortium tongue branding and sockliner detailing links these to the nine retailer re-workings perfectly. This makeup is defiantly steeped in the past, representing the Laver’s clean, stylish introduction onto the courts, and effortless presentation to a global audience of sports fans and nascent culture of shoe connoisseurs.

DQM

With New York’s Dave’s Quality Meats representing for the fixies, skaters and sneaker disciples, and their locale being a place that helped elevate the Rod Laver name as a style icon far beyond its performance origins, you’d expect a respectful treatment in their hands, and that’s what you get here. As simple as their recent 3Way collaborative output, a brick red is used throughout the upper in a number of materials – mesh, suede and leather.

A white heel patch, lining and ‘DQM’ heel tab branding matches the midsole, and the sockliners carry a topical “Recession Special” and price slashing design, that correlates perfectly with the design’s democratic simplicity and ‘everyman’ feel, finished with a beige outsole and branded lacetips for another example of the store’s focus on detail beyond the clean, unsullied feel.

LIMITEDITIONS

Barcelona-based boutique LimitEDitions doesn’t shy away from a bold approach to retail and design. Their Rod Laver takes a literal serving of court accessory influences, with a head/wrist band style toweling material mixed with a tennis ball feel fabric. Bright red, set off with neon yellow is a brasher look than some of its more muted collaborative siblings, but it’s guaranteed to attract attention, and has been created with Summer wear in mind.

A padded lining means extra comfort for day-to-day wear, and here, beyond the lacetips, logo heel tab and embroidered sockliner, there’s added branding beneath the white midsole, patterned on a dayglo coloured outsole design with a transparent outsole covering.

UNDEFEATED

Undefeated redefined sneaker retail on the west coast with their Los Angeles store. Having rolled out further branches with the same levels of quality control, their prolific number of collaborations is no exception. There’s no recurring formula to their output, other than their consistent appeal. Flipping a luxury look with a timely high-end holdall theme, their Rod Laver is made from a quality sand coloured canvas, with leather detailing that includes the tongue and sockliner.

The subtlety is reinforced by the stitched eyelets, bar the top metallic one, choice of coloured laces, and beige ‘UNDFTD’ on the heel tab of the white midsole, finished with a gum outsole. A perfect product of the Undefeated crew’s environment, this creation goes beyond sporty into smart dress territories.

V.A.

Whereas mesh was just one focal point and texture on the original Rod Laver. Tokyo’s V.A. have made it pretty much the sole ingredient of their interpretation. Rendered in their now trademark grey and bright yellow, the eyelets are stitched bar a tonal top metal one, adding to the featherweight feel, resulting in one of the lightest variations of this model to date.

Opting to crank up the level of branding, to make up for the singular fabric choice, V.A. break ranks to embroider their logo on the heel alongside the rubberized heel tab. Finished with a white midsole and yellow outsole, this store continues to keep it consistent in terms of both palette and easy-to-wear styling, while ensuring no one would identify this as anything less than a VA creation.

The third and final drop of the 3Way Consortium project from adidas Originals sees the series heading East for a work around between some of the most respected sneaker retailers and influencers of the region.

With the choice of working on the 5 models together in whatever manner they chose ACU, Crooked Tongues (London based but with strong ties to Thailand), D-Mop and VA decided to pair up on two shoes each and all collaborate together on the fifth.

Samba

When talking about the Samba, the most immediate point of reference for most is generally its origins as the indoor football-training shoe of choice since it was first introduced.

The version that ACU and VA have produced flips this notion on its head and comes correct with a new take on the iconic model, ostensibly for the badminton courts, the Samba Shuttlecock.

Keeping the shape of the original silhouette, the Samba Shuttlecock takes the upper and gives it a serious make over with a combination of clear plastic and suede teal coming together with contrasting purple, yellow and lime 3-Stripes. The clear theme is carried through on the ice outsole that works nicely with the clear and clean elements found on the upper.

The Trefoil is also given the ‘Shuttlecock’ makeover with the 3 leaves being swapped out for 3 shuttlecock feathers in a red blue and yellow on the tongue with ‘Shuttlecock Samba’ positioned directly underneath. The new make-up for the Trefoil is also executed on the heel tab while the shoe is subtly Consortium branded with a customised top lace eyelet.

Forum

The Forum Mid is a sneaker that initially made waves on the basketball court in 1984 and a year on from its 25th anniversary the shoe is still as sought after as it was when it first dropped, complete with its $100 price tag, over two decades ago.

This contemporary version is the result of a re-imagining of the classic between Crooked Tongues and VA and highlights everything that made the model great in the first place including the forefoot strap, unique shape of the toe box and webbing on the instep of the midsole.

On top of the traditional elements, the Crooked and VA crews, both fans of the model, had the chance to add improvements, most noticeably a small stud button to help the foot strap from slipping, which is CT branded on the left shoe and VA on the right shoe. Also included are three lace flips, namely, Ice Grey, Electricity and the two colours combined giving enough wearability choices to keep even the most jaded fan happy.

Featuring a combination leather upper in an Ice Grey colourway with electric Lime Green 3-Stripes, Trefoil and contrast stitching on the outsole, the shoe looks like being one of the highlights of the upcoming season and is certainly one of the more memorable takes on the Forum in some time.

Nizza

Since its first appearance in the 70s the simple, vulcanised silhouette and clean lines of the Nizza have made it an ever-present inclusion in the adidas catalogue.
This re-working saw Crooked Tongues and D-Mop working together and looking to stress the classic, everyday qualities of the shoe and demonstrate that it is a model that doesn’t need to be box fresh for it to just work.

Featuring a simple white canvas upper and rubber toecap with a bluebird contrast evident in the 3-Stripes, foxing and Trefoil on the tongue, the version is innocuous enough until you get close enough to notice the slightly pre-stressed effect that is used on the canvas upper, namely, some wearing and faux dirt stains which lend to the overall vintage feel of the shoes.

Finished with Trefoil and Nizza branding on the heel outsole and an embroidered, vintage styled Trefoil on the tongue, this sought after model is back, and looking like it was beamed straight off a ‘ballers feet from the 70s.

Stan Smith

Renowned for its timeless, clean silhouette the Stan Smith has been the subject of a range of iterations since its introduction in 1965 and an ongoing, best-selling make-up in the adidas catalogue.

This version sees collaboration between Asian heavyweights ACU and D-Mop that directly reflects the artistic heritage of original Oriental porcelain designs. It sounds a little heavy for a sneaker concept, but the proof is in the pudding and their takedown of a traditional Chinese ‘blue and white wares’ technique is both eye catching and effective.

The upper cleanly contrasts between the smooth leather that carries the motif of the blossoms and bird of prey while the toe box and tongue are constructed from a premium quality nubuck.

The famous image of Stan Smith on the tongue is replaced with the ACU and D-Mop logos while a gold trim on the lining of the inner and gold Consortium branded eyelet lend the takedown a touch of class.

Finished with a standout white Trefoil and ‘Stan Smith’ print on the heel tab, Kenji characters running down the heel and contrast stitching on the midsole, this take on the tennis classic is a straight up neck breaker.

Superstar

Mention adidas to a range of people and odds are that a fair proportion of them will immediately associate the 3-Stripes with the Superstar or ‘Shelltoe’.

Having transcended its status as a mere sneaker to an object of cultural significance, working with the Superstar now brings an inherent level of responsibility and inevitable scrutiny from the masses.

Chosen as the model that all the partners would work together on, the group design process, led by the heavyweights at Crooked Tongues have turned out one of the collaborative efforts of the year.

The upper is constructed from premium nubuck with a slighter coarser nubuck grain providing the contrast for the 3-Stripes and on the heel tab. Other features on the upper include the embossed ‘Crossed Lace’ logo that represents the group and is repeated again on the group tongue.

Revisiting the theme of swappable tongues that first reared its head in the Crooked take on the Campus Lo for the adicolor project means that the end result is essentially 5 pairs of the iconic Superstar rolled into one. Each partner has contributed their own tongue design with logo and matching laces while the ‘Crossed Lace’ tongue represents the group as a whole.

Finishing details include a subtle Consortium branded lace eyelet and black contrast stitching on the midsole.