adidas Conductor Hi

• MODEL: ADIDAS CONDUCTOR HI
• PACK: ADIDAS WINTER PACK
• MADE IN: INDONESIA
• MADE ON: --/09
• ART.NO: G02321

While anyone that owns a pair of Conductors knows that they can keep your dogs warm in the cold weather, this pair particularly lets the whole world know.

Released alongside another pair with a flannel trim as part of the Winter Pack, the design of these winterized Conductors will send a toasty message to all who cross your path. Their wool uppers scream warmth, a necessity in the colder months, and the main eye catcher of the shoe – the ‘dark chili’ accents that line the heel tab and midsole – brings the idea of heat to mind, like a fire or a pepper (hence the chosen name of the orange hue).

But the detail that adds the most character is the herringbone pattern. It takes these high tops from a pair of bad boys to something you might see on a Harvard professor smoking a cherrywood pipe. Why does this herringbone pattern have such a strange effect on everything it touches? Well it’s not just herringbone, it’s tweed in general. A fabric that has been associated among the high class and scholarly for almost two hundred years. I’d better hand over some scholastic knowledge now so that you’ll feel the magic if you ever decide to sport these shoes.

First introduced as a hand woven fabric for small Scottish farmers, twill was anything but a wealthy man’s thread. The name we use today (tweed) came about when the word tweel (Scottish for twill) was misread in 1830 by a merchant in London as tweed because of the River Tweed which borders Scotland, where the material was coming from. So one of the biggest influences on this “scholarly” material was a semi-illiterate merchant. How ironic.

Tweed got its big break around 1840 when it was introduced into the British Aristocracy for hunting and shooting jackets. Eventually the middle class broke through to the use of tweed in attempt to appear wealthier. This lead to an overall decline and downfall of the material until its rebirth from the ashes in 1960. Nowadays it’s used in everything from hats to headphones and apparently now for sneakers. After over a hundred years, it still carries the essence of the elite class that it used to be associated among in its weaving.

But if it has such an effect on shoes, why should they choose a basketball model to carry this pattern instead of a more traditional or elegant model of trainers? I believe it was done to break through the boundary that separates the style of high tops and high class which many find to be miles apart. adidas succeeded at their mission on this pair although I’m not sure I can say the same for the other pair in the pack.

written by Kyle Zemborain

photography by errol