Why Did This Artisanal Label Dip Its adidas Sneakers In Coffee? (EXCLUSIVE)
When adidas sent 35 pairs of Stan Smith sneakers to Glass Cypress, they were manufactured to be perfect. The crisp tennis classic was all-white but for a green heel tab, slim and minimal with even adidas’ signature three stripes refined down to a mere set of punched-out holes. It’s a sneaker recipe so timeless that it’s remained practically unchanged for over 50 years. To make this shoe its own, Glass Cypress opted to bring more subtle, more personal flavors to the plate.
“The Stan Smith already has such a clear identity. It’s one of those objects that almost disappear because of how familiar it is,” says Saber Ahmed, co-founder and creative director of Glass Cypress. “It is a product that is subversive in its restraint, and we were not interested in making it louder. We wanted to touch it, age it, and shift its feeling through the hand.”
The essence of the decade-old Houston fashion label’s practice is in the laborious craftsmanship that brings its clothes to life. Saber and his brother Samee Ahmed, with whom he founded the brand, grew up in America and have Bangladeshi heritage, which they explore through centuries-old South Asian fabrication techniques — like Nakshi Kantha hand-embroidery and vegetable-dyed cloth — performed in its Bangladeshi workshops.
Working on an adidas Stan Smith is an entirely new proposition.
This is Glass Cypress' first sneaker (it prefers the term "interpretation" to "collaboration). But while its patient craft normally consists of small runs of handmade items, the Stan Smith is a mass-market item produced in the millions.
“The process became about finding a way to approach something as iconic and familiar as the Stan Smith without taking away its familiarity, while adding our design language,” says Ahmed, whose team dyed each shoe with coffee to soften and stain the leather before individually distressing and airbrushing dark stains around the heel.
“The goal was to make each pair feel handled, worn, and slightly displaced from the present,” he continues. ”It is not meant to feel perfectly uniform. Because each one is finished by hand, every pair carries a slight variation. Some are warmer, some are more worn, and some have different marks or tonal shifts. That irregularity is the point.”
Glass Cypress’ eye for detail even extended to the laces. The plastic eyelets were removed — “They had to come out,” says Ahmed, because "softness" is part of Glass Cypress’ “strict design language” — and the regular cotton laces were replaced by thick washed silk with loose thread wrapped around the ends to create yet more homespun irregularities.
For now, the ultra-limited results of Glass Cypress’ labor will be given to friends and family at a private dinner hosted by H. Lorenzo, the brand’s first stockist.
"It felt like a natural next step for us to come together and have an initial conversation," says Ahmed. "As for what’s next with adidas, our focus remains on this project and giving it the space to exist on its own terms."
For now, consider these exquisite adidas objects merely the beginning of something beautiful.
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