I’M not quite sure when it happened but at some point over the last three or four years, I gradually fell out of love with buying new trainers.
Even writing that feels weird because for as long as I can remember, I’ve loved – and I mean loved – trainers.
At school it was the hip-hop and, for want of a better word, ‘casual’, scenes that inspired my purchases – Nike Cortez, Puma Clyde / States, Diadora Borg Elite, adidas Gazelles – and so it had started.
Any money I came by funded new trainers which, as I got older, pretty much excluisvely turned out to be made by adidas.
Abroad, I’d scour the back streets to try and find tiny sports shops that sold something you just couldn’t get in England. In fact, I’ve still got a pair of box fresh [not by choice, they’re too tight] adidas Gazelle in dark brown suede with a dark brown sole that I picked up in Amsterdam on a pre-season tour with Liverpool.
I love those trainers and I’ve never seen them anywhere other than that shop in Amsterdam. If I remember rightly, Mark Platt, then a journalist on liverpoolfc.tv, now a producer on LFC TV and celebrated author also bought the same pair. If he didn’t, then another mate certainly did – they were that nice.
They were also pretty rare. Which I guess was part of the fun. Buying trainers no one else had was the whole point. Now, with the introduction of the web, ebay, specialised trainer collector sites and all the rest, it seems everyone can get anything. Even going abroad to buy trainers now has lost a lot of it’s appeal as every shopping street in every major European city now looks the same – Footlocker, Gap, Starbucks and McDonalds.
Then came the re-issues, which were great at first – as you had the chance to buy some of the great lost trainers of your youth or ones you just couldn’t afford first time around. I remember being excited by the fact that adidas were reissuing their City series and promptly bought a pair of Dublins the day they went on sale in Open.
But now, they’ve re-issued the re-issue. It’s the same with the adidas London – I recently bought a pair in brown suede but as soon as I saw that everyone else had bought a pair too, I sold them on ebay without once wearing them out. Now, you can’t walk down the street without seeing someone in a pair of them – whether they’re red, black, yellow, brown, green or blue.
I still love adidas Originals – but these days you can’t be any less original if you kit yourself out in the brand with three stripes. The whole of Liverpool – in fact, the whole of the UK – is wearing adidas.
Now, I reckon it might just be an age thing and I’m turning into my dad or something – but I don’t want to go out dressed like every 16-year-old in town (or Jamie Oliver for that matter).
My tracksuit tops – the only item of clothing I probably spent just as much money on as trainers – were recently sacrificed to ebay – three Fila, four adidas – and now, when I do put on a pair of trainers, it’s my trusted (and now slightly battered) white adidas Stan Smith 80s which most often get the nod with a pair of straight leg jeans. (If they’re good enough for John Lennon on the inside cover of a solo album, they’re good enough for me.)
These days I’ll take a pair of Clarks Originals – in the last few years, I’ve bought a pair of suede Jinks, two pairs of suede Madison Magics and a pair of Desert Boots – or a pair of suede Pointers (I’ve got three pairs) anyday over the latest ‘limited-edition’ retro trainer reissue. ‘Limited Edition’ until the new colourway comes out or the re-issue is re-issued again in 12 months.
At the age of 38, I thought to myself, I’ve finally grown out of being obsessed by trainers.
Well, that was until I saw these little beauties below – due to be released next month. In limited edition, no doubt. Still, at the ridiculous price of £105 for the blue ones – £65 for the black or green ones – maybe it’ll price out the kids and it’ll only be me and Jamie Oliver knocking about in them.
Just picked up a pair of white and blue striped Rome after about 35 years of looking (really). Used to have a pair when I was 16 and being in Aussie nowadays they’re hardly going to be everywhere fortunately. In Sydney at least there are only a couple of what you could describe as speciality shops for not your bog standard stuff. It’s not so much an
obsession over here and it’s only the exiled lads (and there’s loads
of them) who ever seem to comment on who’s wearing what, but I’m made up with with finding the Romes even though they are now called Rom!
Good luck with the site people, its looking very impressive so far, just like those blue gazelles. Cheers
I had a pair of Adidas Forrest Hills bought (not robbed) from a sports shop in Blakenberge Belgium. Yellow sole, with a screw out cap on the sole that you could pump up the sole with for comfort fit. Alas do not know where they ever got to, but gained me incredible street cred accompanied with my gillet style Sergio Tachinni track top, with a a big ST on the back (also Blakenberge), which I remember most of the kids saying “eh mate, where did you get yer Talbot top from”
I’m 45 now BTW, so this must have been heydey for the ‘casuals’ emergance around 81-82ish
these are belters these trabs .adidas also doing a re issue of handball with the 5 peg sole again another classic for anyone interested go on transalpino website and go on the archive for adidas to see other 70s and 80s classics
Still love adidas but recently they have gone well a bit shite if im honest. you get the odd pair that are decent but nothing is original anymore. im approaching 34 and have decided that its highly unlikely ill be buying another white pair of trainees, dont know if that is just because im getting a bit older. some really lovely lacoste doing the rounds at the minute,(well the expensive ones anyway and not the sort you would get in the likes of jd) as for the future with adidas who knows but likely to stick with classics like samba.
Love my trainees,my favourite pair Forest Hills originals,paid £116 EBay,loving them Gazelles though,do you know wher i can order when they come out next month?? keep up the good work ,excellant site & podcast.
Great article and I totally empathise. I’m 34 and though I still love a great trainer I don’t have the compulsion to buy as much as I used to. Nowadays thanks to work I spend most of the my life in brogues. How old is too old for the shoe game?
At 37 I’m still buying the odd pair of rarer trainers. While in Berlin (an almost solid trainer town) last week I found a great pair of gray suede low top Chuck Tailors. They’re lovely but will not break in and kill me if I ware them for more than a couple of hours, but I still put them on with the faint hope they’ll get better sooner rather than later.
Only in my late 20’s have I got a bit obsessed with trainers and track tops, probably cos I couldn’t afford them when I was a kid. I’ve had a pair of navy nylon Nike Cortez for a while (from USA) to replace my red leather Cortez which were knackered. However, I now have a pair of white leather Reebok Classics, Adidas Super Samba and red Adidas Samoa all of which are hardly worn and will probably stay that way especially since I live in quite a rural area and they will get filthy. On the track top score, I have four or five Adidas Originals and a couple of ‘normal’ Adidas. A THTC hemp track top, and a couple of hoodies, Nike and Adidas. The Adidas is again unworn. This is all topped off with several pairs of Levi’s, naturally a couple of pairs are hardly worn. I blame it on working class alienation. I’m still looking from time to time at trainers, it’s fucking mental. I’ve been looking at some green Reebok Classic Evra and a blue, white and red Sergio Tacchini windbreaker.
I remember being lucky enough to buy numerous trainers throughout the 80s. I bought stan smiths on a school trip to Paris, red & blue gaselles, Nike bruin & wimbledon. The rarest and best trainers I ever bought were adidas sl82. Blue with gold stripes. They were never re-issued and you will never see a pair on ebay (I check daily) I used to wear them to watch Chelsea play & people constantly asked where I got them from. Google images is the only place you’ll see them.
im looking now, im 34 years old and i want a pair of red gazelles with the red around the laces not the white. Ive had gazelles since i was 17 nothing else, i feel old!! i hate this!!! ahhhhh!!!