adidas Presents The Stan Smith Lux With Buttery Leathers

Retro footwear is still the dominant trend in footwear, with 1980s designs still commanding attention well into the 2020s. While the affordable tier of $80-120 moves the quickest, there’s a demographic eager to pay a slight premium for materials that are flat-out better.

The Stan Smith, perhaps the de facto “tennis shoe”, is the perfect example of how a sneaker can exist on different pricing tiers without cannibalizing itself. One of the biggest knocks on the Stan model is the creasing issues on the upper, but this new Lux trim alleviates that issue due to the use of buttery soft leathers. The leather patch on the interior of the heel adds to that premium look and feel, and at just $145, these might be the best bang-for-buck option on the market right now.

Three colorways of the adidas Stan Smith Lux are poised for a release on December 15th. For now, they’ll be available through the brand’s membership program, exclusively to those in the Level 3 and LeveL 4 tier (top-level members). This is certainly incentive to become an adidas member, but let’s hope the brand lets these go to the general public.