Wales Bonner x adidas Samba 'Scarlet'
Colorway: Scarlet/Ecru Tint/Scarlet · Style code: GY6612 · Release date: June 23, 2022 · Price: $419 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Adidas Wales Bonner Sailor Jacket (JM8217) · Adidas Wales Bonner Quilted Jacket (KE9956SHAMAR) · Wales Bonner x adidas Samba 'Black' (FX7517) · Adidas x Wales Bonner Shorts 'White' (KR8773) · adidas x Wales Bonner Anorak 'Black' (HE6624)
Red is almost absent from this model's history, which is what makes the pair land. adidas lists Scarlet in two of three slots with Ecru Tint between them, on a suede upper, so the shoe reads as an almost fully saturated red with a cream break. The pattern goes untouched. Grace Wales Bonner's method on the Samba has consistently been to leave the architecture alone and work through material and colour, and a shoe this bright makes that argument better than a quiet one could.
The release date was 23 June 2022 and the United States price 160 dollars, matching the green and yellow pair that came out the same day. Those two marked the point where the partnership moved off the muted black, cream and brown range it had opened with in 2020. The designer, born in 1990 and running a London label she founded in 2014, had taken the LVMH Young Designer Prize in 2016 and by this summer was producing one of the most closely watched release schedules in footwear. Scarlet carries a practical advantage over the cream makes that dominate the collaboration, too: it is the only one in the run that will not show a summer of dirt inside a month.