Wales Bonner x adidas Samba Pony 'Cream White'
Colorway: Cream White/Mystery Brown/Cream White · Style code: IE0586 · Release date: November 8, 2023 · Price: $348 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Adidas Wales Bonner Sailor Jacket (JM8217) · Adidas Wales Bonner Quilted Jacket (KE9956SHAMAR) · Wales Bonner x adidas Samba 'Black' (FX7517) · Wales Bonner x adidas Samba 'Scarlet' (GY6612) · Adidas x Wales Bonner Shorts 'White' (KR8773)
The Samba Pony is where Grace Wales Bonner's adidas work stopped adjusting the model and started re-materialising it. In place of the leather and suede the shoe has always used, the upper is hair-on hide, which carries colour with a sheen and a direction no smooth material can imitate. This version is listed as Cream White with Mystery Brown, the palest of the three. Everything structural stays put: the low collar, the toe overlay, the quarter stripes, the flat sole.
Three of them came out together on 8 November 2023, this cream one and a black pair at 200 dollars each, plus a leopard-patterned make at 220. The price sits well above the 160 to 180 dollars the partnership had been charging for suede and leather Sambas, and the material accounts for the difference. Hair-on hide is also the least practical upper the model has ever worn. It marks in rain, it cannot be scrubbed and it forgives nothing, which puts these squarely among shoes bought for how they look rather than how long they last. By late 2023 the designer's adidas releases were selling out as a matter of routine, and the pony run drew exactly the attention it was built to draw.