adidas Enforcer Mid

  • MODEL: ADIDAS ENFORCER MID
  • TYPE: BASKETBALL
  • MADE IN: INDONESIA
  • MADE ON: 09/95
  • ART.NO: 074044
  • FACTORY: PRO 711

Certainly the most expected colorway of all the vintage pairs we’ve seen so far, these predominantly black Enforcers are super hard to come by, even with retros on the rise.

You heard that right. adidas Originals officially retro’d the loveable yet undeniably forgotten, Enforcer Mid from the ’90s. Unfortunately the first wave of colorways are quite hideous compared to the elegance of the OGs and they intend to maintain an even further awkward balance of white and black than the 1993 pair we previously featured.

While we’ve a cache of Enforcers to bring to the surface, the next most reasonable pair to show you is from 1995, also made in Indonesia like the ’93s, but possibly in a different factory due to the incongruent codes. With some deadstock pairs still floating around Tuscany in ridiculous small sizes, we’ve been lucky enough to source a small selection to share with you but as is almost always the case, we were gutted to discover that anything even in the realm of realistically fitting on our feet had long since left the shelf for a more active home.

Personal tears aside, here’s what we love about the ’95 blacks: they’re black. Simple. It’s the basic colorway flip on that ’90s standard all-white-with-minor-color-highlights look. We particularly loved the whites because of their contrasting gum sole bits, and here on these this aspect pops out even more effectively.

The downside though, is that while that non-marking sole is an expected rubber-make, the upper is entirely synthetic. Sure, it’s smooth to the touch to some extent, but that’s not nubuck as one might think. No sir. Straight up fabrication. So that’s a sad story in some ways, but thankfully the ’95 browns from the same production round (at least same date and same factory) are actually made with some real suede leather. And funny enough, the navy’s from ’96 (again, same factory) are a combination of synthetics and real leather. Seems to be that adidas was experimenting back then.

And they still are today, just with colorways now instead of materials so much. Not to say that the 2013 retros are shit, as they aren’t, per se, and it’s entirely cliche and even (one might say) easy to claim the OG’s are far superior (that same old sob story every purist is screaming when a major brand re-releases an ancient classic), but when holding the two shoes up next to each other it’s obvious which wins, despite their years or places of production. Keep it calm, keep it simple, and adidas, please leave the madness and mayhem of mashing together wild hues to the likes of Jeremy Scott so those of us that don’t partake can avoid it more easily. Or at least on the likes of the Enforcer, as this shoe somehow needs to take itself seriously.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol