Barneys New York, the luxury specialty retailer, and adidas are pleased to announce an exclusive collaboration of the famed Stan Smith and Superstar sneakers for both men and women.
The iconic American retailer, which was founded in New York in 1923, has a rich history of collaborations with adidas, and this time has stepped up to strip-down the Stan Smiths and Superstars, two sneakers with New York histories of their very own.
At a similar time to Stan’s success, a basketball revolution was taking place in New York. The city began dominating the professional game, while outdoors, the courts of Rucker Park, Harlem became the established battleground upon which future basketball talents cut their teeth. The early 1970s are remembered as the city’s basketball golden age, and if there is one shoe synonymous with this period it is the adidas Superstar. Barneys New York gives the Superstar a similarly reconstructive treatment, toning down some of the shoe’s traditional embellishments and keeping the unmistakable rubber shell toes.
Sports footwear is fundamentally functional, while fashion seeks to push the vanguard, experimenting nearer the extremes of popular taste. Over the years, fashion has embraced casual footwear to a greater and greater extent. Both the Stan Smith and Superstar have reestablished themselves as the no-nonsense, casual shoes of choice, and Barneys New York’s stark minimalism pushes two uniform sneakers to their exposed extreme.
The Stan Smith and Superstar sneakers are available at all Barneys New York locations, and on Barneys.com. The Superstars can be purchased here and the Stan Smith here.