A wise man once wrote that All-Star Weekend is about more than just basketball. In 2015, that seems more true than ever from a footwear standpoint as adidas looks to unveil an array of sneakers that may never hit the hardwood.
While the possibility (near certainty) of a Kanye collabo launch has everyone on pins and needles, the Originals branch is looking to make their roster of retros more livelier than ever with the introduction of the “XENO” collection.
Inspired by the snakeskin styling seen on the original adidas Metro Attiude, a seminal shoe for the brand and their footing in New York, this new collection of kicks sees color-shifting scales bring more bite to the Superstar, ZX Flux and of course, the Metro Attitude.
Recently, we had the chance to talk with adidas Originals’ Josh Herr, the man behind the “XENO” collection. Read on to get the big takeaways on this big launch from the Three Stripes.
The Past
photo by Kin Kwan“Adidas first dropped the Metro Attitude just for New York back in 1986. It was the first time the brand had ever done kind of a special makeup and it was done just for New York. That shoe was covered in full Italian snake, it was the first time snake was ever used on a sneaker. It was crazy and truly lasted the test of time.”
The Formula
“One thing we do at Originals is look at our heritage and see how we can twist it a little bit. In researching snakes, we came across this snake from Southeast Asia that has a light reaction quality to it. We felt like that kind of direction was really true to New York and a reflection of the city being multicultural and all the colors and brightness at night. Once we knew that was the direction we wanted to go after it was just trying to figure out how to take that material to the next step.”
