adidas Forum Hi

  • MODEL: ADIDAS FORUM HI
  • TYPE: BASKETBALL
  • MADE IN: CHINA
  • MADE ON: 08/96
  • ART.NO: 079169

The adidas Forum Hi is one of those models that you either know and love, or completely slept on since its debut in 1985.

Despite its recent resurrection in 2011 for adidas Originals’ collaboration with Frank the Butcher, the Forum Hi hasn’t really received much of the modern day limelight it was destined for. More popular are the mid and low versions that can be found frequenting the shelves of O-Store’s across the globe, but the rare Forum Hi has yet to be seen. Jeremy Scott supposedly dropped a Forum Hi for the B-Sides series (at least that’s what it said on the box) but if you grab this shoe and hold it up to both a mid and high it’s beyond clear which model he really designed.

Now that’s not to say Scott hasn’t paid his love points over the Forum Hi back in the day. In fact, in 2002 he pushed out the Forum Hi “Money”. But before this, not much was heard from the legendary silhouette. Luckily we’ve dug down into our archives and with time and effort surfaced up this pair of navy blue Forum Hi’s from 1996. Such a colorway was incredibly common among the vintage Forum Hi’s, though the materials were normally more leather and less synthetic than what can be found on this pair. Shiny, plastic material makes up the upper underneath the iconic X-shaped ankle brace on the outer wall, and the rest is only debatebly real leather.

That aside all the greatness is here: thick, stitched, rubber outsole with a Dellinger web on the medial side, plastic supportive midsole beneath the sturdy, triple-layered heel, the beloved (or despised, depending on who you’re talking to) ankle strap, velcro and all, and of course that amazingly poppable tongue. What truly makes the forum Hi spoecial is, undoubtedly, the height of the ankle collar itself, as well as the diagonal positioning of the strap, thrown off a bit more than that of the Forum Mid (and especially the Forum Low) thereby leaving a wonky, almost drunken look to the shoe. In one word: definitive.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol

shoes contributed by Diogo Delgado

  • http://eatmoreshoes.com/12830/adidas-forum-hi-crest-073599/ adidas Forum Hi “Crest” | eatmoreshoes

    [...] For whatever reason (possibly to compete with the fabricated ‘prestige’ of other sneaker brands) adidas felt the need to upgrade their favorite basketball silhouette with an embroidered, dual-color, crest emblem, forever marking this style of the Forum to be the truly proud release representing their past basketball heritage. But this wasn’t the only change in design, as they experimented six years later, adding in more synthetic materials (and removing the crest) as can be seen on these Forum Hi’s from ’96. [...]