Adidas Skateboarding

Adidas is a German sports goods manufacturer with a long outstanding history in the field of athletics, football and tennis. They have recently branched out into producing skateboarding shoes and apparel to complement their introduction into the skateboard market. Although it seems a strange transition for a traditional sports brand to break into what is thought of as an inaccessible sub culture but, like Nike, throughout the nineties skateboarders used the Campus as a skateboard shoe because of its great flat, grippy sole and soft suede upper so it seems that a range of shoes for skateboarding by Adidas has been long overdue. They initially redesigned some of their classic shoes styles such as the Adidas Campus, Adidas Stan Smith, Adidas Gazelle and the Copa Mundial which evolved into the Adidas Busenitz after one of their SF based team riders, Dennis Busenitz, wanted to break the mould by designing a pro shoe with a classic soccer look, rather than the more typical flat soled, wide, canvas shoe. The Busenitz has grown to be one of the most successful in the Adidas skateboard range.

The classic 3 stripes or ‘The Three Stripes’ as it is known is a prominent feature throughout the skate line where there is a prerequisite for premium quality leathers and suede’s, nubuck uppers, heel protection and shock absorbtion, soft grippy rubber soles and lace saving features which all compliment the prestige of the brand. The current shoe line consists of - The Busenitz pro, the Silas pro, the Gonz Immotile, the Eldridge Ronan, the Gonz Adi-Ease, the Skate, the Campus Vulc, the Campus Vulc mid and also Campus Hi bolstered by a small range of apparel including tee-shirts, hoods, shirts, jackets and hats.. They intelligently signed up legendary skateboarder, artist and all round style guru Mark Gonzales to the team which has certainly helped legitimise Adidas’ entry into a niche market which is often sceptical of multi-national companies infiltrating the often independent and individual world of skateboarding. The current skate team roster is Mark Gonzales, Dennis Busenitz, Tim O’Connor, Silas Baxter-Neal, Pete Eldridge, Benny Fairfax, Lucas Puig, Nester Judkins, Lem Villemin,Vince Del Valle and Jake Brown.