adidas Handball Indoor

  • MODEL: ADIDAS HANDBALL INDOOR
  • TYPE: HANDBALL / INDOOR
  • MADE IN: TAIWAN

It’s funny how many handball shoes one can see circling around the trainer collector scene and yet I’ve still not met a single human who’s actually playing the sport itself.

With no article number, production date, or factory code written into the tag on these adidas Handball Indoor trainers, we have no way (without the aid of catalog references or a time machine) to discern their birthdate. If we had to make an educated assumption we’d lean towards the 1980s, especially considering their initial appearance in the late ’70s at the German Handball Championship, shortly followed by their re-issue in ’82.

The key features of the shoe are the lightweight upper walls, thin comfortable tongue, and solid gum rubber sole. Note here that there is a bit of hard foam layering in the midsole itself to provide a more variable and cushioned feel, offering an upgrade from other handball shoes that were given an entirely solid gum rubber sole unit instead.

Now compare this model to the Handball Spezial from ’94 and you can see a lot of differences. On first look the shoes nearly have any entirely different feel, mostly caused by the change of materials (textile and nylon or mesh versus suede leather). In addition the shapes are skewed due to separate stitching patterns and varying panel work, and of course the sole units are completely unique to each other.

For those who like the classic, calm look, it seems that indoor trainers – adidas’ Handball models in particular – have become a staple shoe to lean on when in need of simple, yet satisfying support, whether that be solely for casual use or actually for sporting.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol