Adidas Rekord

In his hilariously clever science fiction series of novels, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the late author Douglas Adams invented a universe where time travel is as common as taking a bus. With all this inter-time traveling, history was being ‘polluted’ by the future! In his novels, Douglas even invented an activism initiative called the Campaign for Real Time, to preserve the difference between the ages!

Douglas writes: “The Campaign for Real Timers claim that just as easy travel eroded the differences between one country and another, and between one world and another, so time travel is now eroding the differences between one age and another. “The past,” they say, “is now truly like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there.”

While human beings have not been able to invent time travel yet, they sure have invented substitutes. Take, for example, the retro design phenomenon. In clothes, cars, furniture, architecture, everywhere you see the recycling of old designs being resurrected to evoke the feeling of a certain era. This is nothing new. Even in the 18th and 19th century Europe, architects were reviving Greek and Roman architectural styles under the label of Neo-Classicism.

Today, it is no longer necessary to reach back thousands of years into history to pick up useful, recyclable design styles. Take the sportswear company adidas, which has recently started tapping into its own glorious history, reviving what it calls ‘Sports Originals’.

One such Original is the Rekord training shoe. The Rekord was introduced in 1959 as an all-round training/competition shoe. This low profile updated version features full-grain leather uppers, vibrant color executions and a classic gum rubber outsole.

The classic adidas three stripes, which have been the branding hallmark of all the company’s products for decades, features prominently on this shoe and on its packaging. The reserved simplicity of its design stands in contrast with today’s over stylized sports shoes. The old adidas logo (which many of us fondly remember from childhood or teen days) also seems to be making a big comeback.

But the best of all is the marketing slogan that accompanies the re-launch of the Rekord. We are told that this is a shoe “from the time when your dad had thin soles and thick hair!”.

Check out www.adidas.com

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One response to “Retro design: the future isn’t what it used to be”

  1. bamss Avatar
    bamss

    i want to know about all adidas shoes design