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In case you’re having hassle conserving tabs on—or are blissfully unaware of—which retro sneakers at present reign supreme, right here’s an especially transient overview: Up till very lately, the rankings started and ended with the Adidas Samba. However the present title-holder has by no means felt more imperiled—threats to its dominance have come within the type of throwback running shoes and the meteoric rise of the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66, and these days, from throughout the model’s very personal archives. The Gazelle, specifically, appears poised for a large breakout second down the road, however the retro silhouette vying for the throne proper now is a bit more obscure: The Adidas Handball Spezial, a slim, colourful sneaker the Three Stripes first launched within the ’70s.
New Yorkers may acknowledge an Americanized type of handball from the town’s public parks, however the recreation originated in Germany effectively over a century in the past, the place it grew to become so well-liked that Herzogenaurach-based Adidas started creating a gum-soled shoe purpose-built for the courts. In 1979, the Spezial was born.
All of that’s attention-grabbing sufficient, nevertheless it’s additionally secondary to our main enterprise right here. As a result of, like most Adidas sneakers from the era, the results of the model’s tinkering appears wildly cool in 2023. At first look, the prospers that separate the Spezial from its better-known counterparts may appear small, however they’re not inconsequential—they’re an enormous a part of the explanation people dig them over their indoor soccer-inspired cousins.
The Spezial’s wedge-like toe field and angular form, in tandem with its rounded laces, provides as much as a sneaker that appears equally street-ready with battered straight-leg denims and ginormous pleated chinos. (In case you’re a denimhead and wish to preserve the colours in the identical household, the navy-and light-blue mixture is looking your title.)
By now, in fact, the Adidas Handball Spezial isn’t precisely a sleeper-hit; as you may think, it is already plastered throughout TikTok. That mentioned, it is hardly reached the identical saturation level because the Samba or the Gazelle. So in the event you’re on the lookout for a sneaker that’s on the way in which up however hasn’t crested but—or might care much less what the algorithm dictates—it may be time to limber up and battle your native pickleball lovers for a activate the courts.
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