Hello Kitty x adidas Forum Low J 'Floral'
Colorway: Cloud White/Cloud White/Core Black · Style code: IG0301 · Release date: December 4, 2023 · Price: $383 · Availability: Available now
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Yuko Shimizu drew Hello Kitty for Sanrio in 1974, and the first product to carry her, a vinyl coin purse, went on sale the following March; the character's name in Sanrio's own profiles is Kitty White. Nearly fifty years later she turns up on a grade-school Forum Low, worked into a floral treatment rather than printed flat across the panels.
The shoe itself stays quiet to let the graphics do the work. Cloud White leather covers the upper and the ankle strap, and Core Black is used only at the trims, so the floral detailing has a clean field to sit on. It released on 4 December 2023 at 90 dollars in junior sizing, twenty above the plain kids Forums of the same season, which is the usual cost of a licensed character. The basketball structure is untouched underneath: the adjustable strap, the X-shaped overlay, the perforated toe box and the wedge-heeled cupsole. Keeping the base monochrome was the right call, since a floral print reads far better against plain white leather than against a coloured panel, and it keeps the pair wearable once the novelty of the licence wears off.