London-based industrial designer Mr. Bailey, best known for his shoe designs focusing on art meets streetwear, has teamed up with Adidas Originals to reinvent his classic Superstar. In a new project titled “Ammonite Superstar: The Evolution of the Shell Toe,” Mr. Bailey offers a personal insight into the Superstar, taking inspiration from the vast world of mollusk shells.
The new sneaker gets its name from the extinct subclass of marine mollusks that share the same family class as the octopus, and this shape has inspired many design cues around Mr. Bailey’s sneaker. The result is a wearable sculpture, which features a deformed sole with circular chambers in the cross-section, which, although inspired by the Ammonite shell, actually serves a functional purpose. These chambers mimic the buoyancy and stability of the cephalopod. The upper instead is made of nylon.
Finally, a series of reinterpreted Trefoil patches have been developed to add to the side of those as mentioned above.
Unfortunately for some of you, this shoe was developed by Mr. Bailey as part of Adidas Originals’ Catalyst for Change program to celebrate the Superstar’s 50th anniversary. Therefore, it will not be released to the market. Who knows, maybe one day we will see it at Christie’s auction like all Box Logo Supreme.
