adidas ZX 380

The ZX 380's been lurking in the Crooked store lately, looking sullen in some neutral colourways, but we’ve been holding out for the shoe in some original palettes that mix gloomy tones with a spot of red. This one’s a classic, dating back to 1986 when it messed with our minds and it reflects the adidas knack for the simpler, ageless combinations and ability to throw a pop colour in to increase visibility while on the move but retain the grown man looks of the model. We’re still none the wiser as to how this one was picked for return over some other ZX favourites (just to reiterate, we want the ZX 930 back asap), but we're just glad it's back and hasn't been stripped down, remade in patent or themed after Chewits in some kind of "confectionary" pack. The ZX 380 is perfect shoe in shape, fit (especially if you go up half a size).

We actually assumed we weren't getting this in the Crooked store, because the brown suede version was our entry into the reissue. It turns out that we were wrong and that adidas Originals had their pairs first because they're adidas, and they're getting a release elsewhere (including us) in April. 1986 styling with Dellinger and Vario technologies from a time when modifying a shoe didn't make it look remedial and gimmicky keeps us coming back to these. We don't want to get bogged down in the past, but did it ever really get much better than the era when these classics dropped? Probably not. We love the 380's width too — there's some other runners from the mid '80s that are evocative and equally pure in the looks department, but this model ticks all the boxes.

No other makeup (incidentally, Livestock's excellent Toronto collaboration has shades of this makeup in the design) of the shoe can compare, and one day, anyone interested to didn't grab some will face the eBay markups — adidas Originals seem to be doing a decent job of resurrecting some fan favourites, and we suspect that these are just the tip of the archive iceberg for 2011 when it comes to raiding those archives for inspiration. Anyway, they’re on pre-order now in the store (alongside two other variations) for a release next month…