adidas Puffylette 'Samba'
Colorway: Core Black/Footwear White/Gum · Style code: HP6700 · Release date: December 2, 2022 · Price: $66 · Availability: Available now
The Puffylette arrived in the second half of 2022 as a padded slip-on: a wraparound ripstop shell with insulation inside, closer in spirit to a down jacket than to a shoe. Its lineage runs back through the brand's slides rather than its trainers.
The Fake Printed pack applied a trompe l'oeil treatment to that shell. Four pairs were printed with photographic imagery of four adidas classics, so the quilted upper appears to show a shoe it plainly is not. The midsole and outsole colours were matched to whichever model was being imitated, which is why the Samba version sits on brown tooling.
The pack reached retailers in late November 2022. The effect works because the printed shoe and the actual shoe disagree about their own shape: a flat image of a low, sharp indoor trainer stretched over something puffed and shapeless.