END. x Neighborhood x adidas Samba 'Black Leopard'
Colorway: Core Black/Core Black/Core Black · Style code: GX5005 · Release date: June 26, 2021 · Price: $350 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Neighborhood x END x Adidas Home Soccer Ball (211ADADN-AC02S) · Neighborhood x END x Adidas Supporters Scarf (211ADADN-AC01S) · END. x Neighborhood x adidas Campus 80s 'Leopard' (GX5004)
Three names sit on this Samba: adidas, END. and Neighborhood. The colourway is logged as Core Black in all three slots, so the shoe is tonal from toe to heel, and the Black Leopard nickname does the describing that a single-colour listing cannot. Suede is the upper material, and it carries an all-black treatment better than smooth leather does, holding depth where a flat finish would go dull under a light. The outline underneath is untouched: the low profile, the T-shaped toe overlay and the three stripes are all where the model has always kept them.
The release landed on 26 June 2021 at 160 dollars in the United States. Neighborhood has a long record of stripping brand signatures back to black and letting material and texture carry the design, and the Samba is an unusually good host for that approach because its shape is recognisable with no colour help at all. A blacked-out version also solves a practical problem the model's usual dress creates. White leather over a gum sole shows every scuff, while this one hides them. Against a family dominated by cream, green and burgundy, it is one of the few Sambas built to disappear rather than to be noticed.