THE JOURNAL
For such a casually minded shoe, sneakers can be deceptively tough to get right. What elicits compliments and likes on Instagram today may well get you a “what are those?” ticket from the fashion police tomorrow. To understand which sneakers will stand the test of time, then, you might consider swotting up on your sneaker history. That doesn’t mean diving into a Wikipedia rabbit hole of Vulcan soles and reading Mr Stan Smith’s biography, but instead seeking out footwear that already has a well-grounded legacy.
The brand that knows how to play on its past better than anyone? Adidas. The iconic three stripes that mark the brand’s identity are already woven into our collective consciousness, but it’s the legacy of its sneakers (it’s been making them since the 1960s) that really set adidas apart. With a history of memorable footwear that has graced countless tennis courts, skate parks and even red carpets, the brand has a rich archive from which to draw. Which brings us to the Campus 80.
Originally launched as a sports shoe for pro basketball players and athletes, the Campus has a clean-cut yet subtly chunky design with a spotty history. At first dubbed “The Tournament” by the brand, it broke free of the basketball court and was rebranded as the Campus. From there, it was adopted by style-conscious B-boys, eventually becoming a defining shoe of the hip-hop scene in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, pairs of Campus 80s were laced up by everyone from the Boston Celtics to the Beastie Boys, with whom the shoe took centre-stage on the album cover for Check Your Head. The cultural groundwork was laid for the Campus 80s; they became a street-style mainstay and a show of streetwise credibility.
Then, the Campus 80s kind of slipped under the radar. Despite deep hip-hop roots and a rich cultural legacy, the shoe has long remained one of adidas’s unlikely and unsung heroes; always a subcultural icon, rather than a straight-up cultural one. You won’t often see them lined up alongside the brand’s more famous styles (think Sambas, Gazelles or Stan Smiths), for instance, but in some ways this chronic under-appreciation has lent the Campus 80s the impression of being an insider’s sneaker – an underground icon valued by those in the know.
For autumn/winter 2022, its time has come again. To show its appeal to a new generation – and to play up on its nostalgia to others – adidas is lifting the Campus to the forefront once more, updated with new materials and colourways. This iteration is a light refresh rather than a reinvention, taking the retro panache of the original and tweaking it slightly to chime with the here and now. Though the shape and silhouette of the re-upped Campus 80s remains true to the original style, the brand is purposefully moving away from the pigskin suede that provided the traditional material for the uppers and has updated it with a vegan approved – but still buttery soft – material, giving the shoe new life and an inclusive, relevant message that welcomes everyone to don a pair.
With the satisfyingly wide, skater-esque tongue, the durable off-white sole and nylon laces that gently reflect the light, this is a timeless classic subtly redefined for the present. Then, of course, there are the colours: this new raft of Campus 80s come in a range of suitably autumnal hues, from dusty burgundy to concrete grey, indigo, and black with silver stripes. All eminently versatile shades, they’ll look the part with everything from corduroy trousers and jeans to tracksuit bottoms or cargo pants (and you can amp up their old hip-hop appeal with a thick pair of crew socks). They will also, ahem, make for an excellent gift if you act fast.
Overall, adidas’s new take on the Campus 80s is a masterclass in how a brand can revisit its history and build on it. The style might not have become a household name the first go around, but that’s precisely what makes it worth paying attention to this time. And maybe when 2062 rolls around, they’ll be talking about how you wore yours.