adidas Pro Model Vin

• MODEL: ADIDAS PRO MODEL VINTAGE
• TYPE: BASKETBALL
• MADE IN: INDONESIA
• MADE ON: 10/06
• ART.NO: 014258

The Pro Model is such a classic, having paved the way for its little sibling silhouette, the Superstar, and these 2006 Pro Mod Vin’s show a nice treatment on our old friend.

Rare as they are, I actually have a pair laying around that never get worn because they’re just too tight. That’s the hard part about shell-toed shoes; they have to fit the shape of your foot perfectly or you have to go a half size up in them. And a lot of the Pro Model pairs of the past have been forgotten, which is hard to believe considering how luxurious most of them were made to be.

This pair is a perfect example of that. The mixture of the dark brown crocodile skin and black felt is superb. It truly gives them a relaxed feeling of elegance, but due to their shape and story, the pair can nearly never be perceived as prestigious or stuck up. That’s actually what I love the most about the Pro Mod: it’s mildly ugly in its bluntness and due to that affect it has an immediately humbled nature about it, no matter what materials are used or which colorway is applied.

Nearly impossible to find now, especially new and in the box – mostly because these pairs weren’t purchased to sit untouched by collectors or flung for reseller rates by hype beasts or even stored aside for future use by those that truly loved them – the closest I’ve come to seeing a immediately available pair was in the Paris Size? store as a part of their so-called ‘deadstock collection’. Stroll into the shop and ask them what ‘deadstock’ pairs they have in your size and you might just luck out.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol