adidas Matchplay
- MODEL: ADIDAS MATCHPLAY
- MADE IN: VIETNAM
- MADE ON: 01/13
- ART.NO: G95996
- FACTORY: LYV 029001
Ever since the drop of the Tabula Rasa pack, the adidas Match Play has been dropping bombs all over the spectrum. They’ve been in numerous consortium collabs, a variety of colorways and patterns, and they’ll be released in the Watercolor Animal Pack within months. This particular version decides to take it Charlie Brown style with a simple Zig Zag pattern.
Although adding an army of zig zags might overwhelm the majority of adidas models (due to the stripes and detailing), the Match Play has a simplistic upper much like the Stan Smith which allows it to take on a large variety of prints or patterns. And luckily, it doesn’t look like a straight up bowling shoe unlike the Stans. It maintains its old school tennis look and roots back to the Arthur Ashe Signature.
The Arthur Ashe Signature and Match Play are identical besides the name change. Arthur was signed by adidas around the time he won the The Wimbledon Championships in 1975. Unfortunately Le Coq Sportif snatched him up in ’83 and created a complete copy of the shoe with seven lines of perforations instead of three. So adidas ditched the name and kept the sneaker.
Almost exactly thirty years after Le Coq Sportif took the player, adidas decided to retro the model and go full blast with the production of it, although they decided to make them much less traditional. Each one has a unique personality to it, whether it’s made with extreme patterns or small accent colors. This pair has a brown on tan zig zag pattern with a solid colored tongue. It also resembles the “sub” blue maze-patterned pair which was released earlier this year. I see many more to come and possibly a new staple silhouette in front of us.
written by Kyle Zemborain
photography by errol
