The Simpsons x adidas Forum Low J 'Bart Simpson'
Colorway: Royal Blue/Cloud White/Royal Blue · Style code: GZ1775 · Release date: November 2022 · Price: $77 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Disney x adidas Grand Court 'Simpsons' (KK3539) · adidas The Simpsons x adidas Superstar 'Squishee' (H05789) · The Simpsons x adidas Grand Court 'Bart' (H02555) · The Simpsons x adidas McCarten 'Ned Flanders' (GY8439) · The Simpsons x adidas Rivalry High 'Scratchy' (IE7565)
adidas built a run of Forums around The Simpsons in late 2022, and this grade-school pair is the Bart entry. Royal blue dominates, matching the character's shorts, with Cloud White breaking it up at the Three Stripes, the laces and the cupsole. The upper is ripstop nylon rather than the leather the Forum usually wears, a choice that keeps the shoe light and lets the blue read as flat cartoon colour instead of dyed hide. It arrived in November 2022 at 90 dollars.
The series began as animated shorts on a variety programme before Fox commissioned a full show in 1989, and Bart was the breakout character of those first seasons, which is why he ends up on the loudest colourway in the group. Junior sizing means the hook-and-loop ankle strap does most of the fit work, and the padded collar is cut low enough to clear the ankle bone. adidas has leaned on the Forum for character work since reintroducing the model in 2020, partly because the wide quarter panel and the strap give an artist two flat surfaces to print on. Here the restraint is deliberate: colour carries the reference, and the graphics stay small.