Adidas Tubular X Primeknit 'Tech Steel'
Colorway: Tech Steel/Tech Steel/Core Black · Style code: S80131 · Release date: November 12, 2016 · Price: $391 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Adidas Tubular PrimeKnit 'Stone' (B25571) · adidas Tubular Primeknit 'Black Carbon' (B25573) · Adidas Tubular Doom Sock Primeknit (BY3562) · Adidas Tubular X Primeknit 'Scarlet' (S80129) · Adidas Tubular X Primeknit 'NYC' (AN7738)
The Tubular name goes back to 1993, when adidas built a running shoe with an outsole shaped after an inflatable inner tube. It was the brand's first inflatable shoe, sold with a small hand pump for adjusting the heel, and it disappeared without leaving much of a mark. Two decades later adidas revived the name for a family of Originals models with nothing inflatable in them, keeping the ribbed, tube-like outsole as the visual link back. The Tubular X was the tallest of that family, cut well above the ankle, and the knitted version wrapped the upper in a single piece with a leather cage holding the midfoot in place. Sock-like knit, sculpted sole, almost no branding: that combination is where the Originals range spent the middle of the decade. Tech steel is a cool blue-grey that leaves the construction easier to read than a bright colour would.