adidas' All-Timer Tennis Shoe Looks Better as a Slipper (EXCLUSIVE)
The adidas Stan Smith is one of those shoes that came out perfect from the jump. Compare the early iterations to the modern versions that adidas sells to this day — the only thing that's changed is that there's a lot more of them.
So, why mess with success? To answer one question with another: What if you could improve upon perfection?
That's sort of the entire raison d'être fueling EVERYONE, a small Japanese imprint run by Ryo Miyoshi, former overseer of ultra-cool Japanese boutique 1LDK. This is a label that trades in perfection by way of refinement: The perfect pair of jeans, the perfect track jacket, the perfect hoodie. Classics made new through subtle retooling. And what it can't produce itself, EVERYONE creates with the aid of its talented pals.
EVERYONE already made one classic shoe that much better. Next, perhaps one of the most perfect sneakers to ever do it.
Wisely, EVERYONE didn't alter the Stan Smith too much.
adidas already hit the nail on the head with the sleek leather upper, similarly streamlined sole, and snub toe-box that's both barely there and just substantial enough to anchor pretty much every outfit. These are the building blocks of a sneaker once synonymous with the uniforms of fashion's best-dressed. Don't touch 'em!
EVERYONE's update instead reforms the Stan Smith from soft black or white suede, yielding a tennis shoe so plush that it becomes a slipper, with a solid leather heel stable enough to be neatly squashed underfoot.
This is a similar trick to the one that Balenciaga attempted a few years back, except the fashion house opted for total retooling with distressed uppers, barely-there sole, and inflated price tag. (Miyoshi provided several photos of EVERYONE's adidas Stan Smith to Highsnobiety but has not yet confirmed release date or price.)
By comparison, EVERYONE's sneaker is the very model of a mostly minor upgrade.
This sort of all-day all-attitude versatility is innate to EVERYONE. It specializes in unpretentious dailywear of the classic sort, providing wardrobe staples cut from fine fabrics in shapes that're quietly better than their ageless inspirations — a little looser here, a little boxier there.
Anonymous but obviously stylish stuff, not unlike the Stan Smith itself. Except, as a slipper, the Stan Smith takes on the form of something a little more obviously cool.
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