Guest Post - Northern Treads on Adidas

Hi guys, Mat has been kind enough to spare some space on his blog today for a guest post from Mark at Northern Threads. I've had my nose buried in Adidas' photography archive for the past few hours so I thought I'd share them, it's full of retro trainers and sports apparel. Without further ado let's get into it...

It’s a big summer for sport with the 2012 Olympics taking place in London and Euro 2012 kicking off in Poland-Ukraine everyone will be busting out their favourite sports gear for the occasion. One brand that has consistently revolutionised sports apparel design since 1949 is Adidas. Normally brands are known for working within one sporting field but Adidas don’t settle for that, they’ve put out ground breaking footwear that covers athletics, baseball, basketball, football, tennis and loads more.

Here’s a run through of the 10 greatest adidas retro sports shoes…

1949

The first sports shoe with three stripes makes an appearance. Adidas is registered as a company, named after its founder; 'Adi' from Adolf and 'Das' from his surname, Dassler. His aim was to provide athletes with the best possible equipment.

1957

The first ever all-round training shoe that Adidas released was the Rom, featuring extra padding to protect the ankle, heel and Achilles tendon with a reinforced heel counter and rubber toecap. This classic style is still commonly graced on streets today.

1962

It's retro styling makes it a fashion sneaker today, but originally the Chile 62 was created to be worn on the football field during the 1962 FIFA World Cup.

1970

These specially made shoes were handcrafted for boxing legend Muhammad Ali just 24 hours before his fight with Argentinean Oscar Bonavena in December 1970 - a unique 3-striped boot with red tassels. Ali won the fight in the 15th round.

1971

Adidas' first celebrity endorsed basketball sneaker, which was a must-have when it was produced. NBA star Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the man behind the shoe, with it becoming equally as iconic as Kareem’s signature ‘skyhook’ shot. Long before his “airness” in the 1985, the Adidas Jabbar was the first must have NBA signature shoe.

1972

SL stands for Super Light. This feather light trainer was originally designed for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and continues to be treasured with its distinctive traction tread outsole, built in heel counter and rubber toe-box reinforcements.

1975-78

The signature tennis sneaker was named after eccentric Romanian tennis champ Ilie Nastase. The chunky style has an illustrated logo of the player himself on the tongue.

1979

Endorsed by the top ten basketball pros at the time, the Top Ten was a sneaker that had a huge affect in both looks and performance features. When it was reissued in 2002, it gained plenty of attention and has been an ongoing fashion staple since.

1980s

The “granddaddy” of all trail running shoes - the Marathon Trainer - paid homage to Adi Dassler’s childhood love of trail running and its growing popularity in the 1970s. Its futuristic styling makes it a popular sneaker today.

1995

With the uprise of streetball, basketball typically played outside and much less formal than the game – Adidas released the Streetball trainer. Just like the game, this silhouette is all about flair. Their proud tradition of manufacturing world beating footwear is still as strong today and you can find the latest releases from Adidas at Northern Threads.

Just a quick message from me (Mat), I thought I'd try a guest post out for a spin. I'd pretty run down at the moment as my schedule has been all over the shop, so I thought this might be a nice edition. It seems quite appropriate with the Olympics and all that. This isn't a sponsored post or anything, if it was you guys would be the first to know.