Raf Simons x adidas Stan Smith Comfort Badge 'Power Red'
Colorway: Power Red/Power Red/Power Red · Style code: BB6887 · Release date: July 18, 2017 · Price: $125 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Adidas Raf Simons Bounce (B24080) · Raf Simons x adidas Bounce (B26074) · Adidas Raf Simons Spirit 5 (DA8760) · Adidas Raf Simons Ozweego 2 (AQ2641) · Raf Simons x adidas Stan Smith (AQ2647)
Where the Core Black Comfort Badge disappears, the Power Red version does the opposite. It is the same Raf Simons design, a Stan Smith with three hook-and-loop straps in place of laces and two oversized chenille letters, an 'R' and an 'S', filling the quarter panels; but every element here is Power Red, a saturated bright red that turns the shoe into a single block of colour. The patches stay tonal, so the initials show as a change in surface, chenille pile against smooth leather, rather than as a contrast graphic. It released July 18, 2017, at $300.
Simons's Comfort Badge arrived for Fall/Winter 2017 in three colourways, Power Red, Talc and Core Black, each at $300, and the red and black pairs released on the same July day. Red is the one that shows the idea most clearly. The design borrows a strap closure adidas normally reserves for kids' sizing and then scales the branding up to match, and a bright monochrome makes that scale obvious in a way the dark pair cannot: the straps, the patches and the raised chenille all catch light differently against the flat red leather. As a wearing proposition it is the loudest of Simons's Stan Smiths and the one that depends least on knowing who he is; the red does the talking before the monogram registers.