adidas Alexander Wang x adidas Skate Super 'Core Black
Colorway: Core Black/Core Black/Core Black · Style code: G28385 · Release date: November 14, 2018 · Price: $618 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Alexander Wang x adidas Wangbody Run 'Core Black' (EF2438) · adidas Alexander Wang x adidas Wangbody Run 'Sharp Purple' (EF2437) · Alexander Wang x adidas AW Run 'Black' (CM7825) · Alexander Wang x adidas AW Run 'White' (CM7827) · Alexander Wang x adidas Futureshell 'Platinum Metallic' (EE8489)
The shoe underneath this one was built to solve a basketball problem. In 1969 adidas cut down its Pro Model into a low-top and wrapped the front of it in moulded rubber, giving players a leather shoe with a protected toe at a moment when canvas still dominated the American game. It worked: by 1973 more than three-quarters of NBA players were wearing them, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and George Gervin among them, and the rubber front earned the shoe the nickname it has carried ever since: the shell toe.
Its second life had nothing to do with basketball. Run-DMC wore Superstars on tour through the mid-1980s, recorded "My Adidas" in 1986, and turned the shoe into the centre of what became the first endorsement agreement between hip-hop artists and a major corporation. Skateboarding picked the silhouette up on its own terms afterwards.
The Skate Super is a further step away from the original brief. Alexander Wang keeps the Superstar's panelling and shell shape but renders the upper in black suede, sets an off-white rubber cap at the toe, and raises the whole thing on the thicker platform sole introduced with the Skate model. It released in November 2018 at $220.