The adidas Top Ten Hi Celebrates its 35th Anniversary

The notion of basketball sneakers being worn for off the court purposes dates back as far as basketball sneakers themselves. Starting with models like the legendary Converse Chuck Taylor, sneakers intended for the hardwood have always found their way to the street as well, and each era since can claim at least a few iconic silhouettes that were the must-haves of their time.

Once the early days of canvas uppers gave way to the dawn of the leather basketball shoe, adidas was one of the first brands to step up and claim a piece of the pie. In 1965, the Three Stripes introduced their first ever basketball shoe, the Pro Model, which

immediately became a juggernaut for adidas, only to be trumped by the 1969 launch of the low-cut Superstar (Shelltoe) version.

Over a decade passed with those two models leading the charge for adidas and becoming the cream of the basketball sneaker crop in the eyes of consumers regardless of what they were using them for. After a good long run for both shoes, by the late ’70s it was time for something new and adidas raised the bar with the debut of the Top Ten in high and low versions, sporting a sleeker silhouette and some stand-out design features.

At the time of the Top Ten’s arrival in 1979, the idea of creating signature models for top athletes was becoming an increasingly popular approach for many brands, but adidas decided to spin that concept into something with a wider scope. With sights set on creating a shoe to be the pinnacle of comfort, quality and performance, rather than making it the signature for one particular player, the Top Ten was developed with loftier aspirations and intended to be the game shoe for the ten best players in the NBA at the time. With some design help from NBA great, Rick Barry, adidas set out to make the Top Ten the premier basketball sneaker

of its day and planned to have them on display all across the country on the feet of some of the league’s best. Whether or not the chosen ten names were actually the “top ten” players is debatable. The list goes as follows: Adrian Dantley, Bob Lanier, Doug Collins, Mitch Kupchak, Kermit Washington, Marques Johnson, Bobby Jones, Billy Knight, Sidney Wicks, and Kevin Grevey. In some cases, maybe calling it the “Top Ten adidas Endorsers” would have been more accurate, but it doesn’t have the same ring, and luckily, those semantics never got in the way of the shoe forging its way to the heights of sneaker immortality.

The Top Ten’s timeless aesthetic is easy to recognize as a classic build and a harmonious blend of flowing lines and shapes, but it shouldn’t be overlooked how great its original impact was when it first debuted in the late ’70s. Aside from being a technical design masterpiece on the performance end, its transition into the street helped pave the way for the sneaker revolution that was about to

explode a few years down the road.   Its high price point made it a status symbol and a source of envy on streets and courts around the world, particularly in cities like Detroit and Boston where it was held up on the highest of pedestals and revered to this day as one of the all-time greats.

Now celebrating its 35th anniversary, adidas Originals is bringing back the Top Ten, not only in its original colorway of white/navy/red, but also equipped with a redesigned construction to bring it closer to its original form. While the Top Ten has remained in circulation over the years, popping up in new and old colorways from time to

time, the general shape of the shoe had changed over the years in its retro iterations, so for the 2014 birthday edition, adi designers went back to the archives in hopes of tweaking the construction pattern to better replicate the look and feel of the original.

The 35th Anniversary version of the Top Ten features a flatter toe and higher ankle cut with less padding in the ankle and other areas. The end result is a truer representation of the game-changing 1979 classic and a fitting tribute as it celebrates another milestone year.

Similar to the Stan Smith which is also set to have a big year in 2012, the Top Ten is as iconic as it gets and deserving of a spot in any collection. To add a pair to yours, keep an eye out for this OG colorway of the Top Ten hitting adidas Originals retailers this Friday, January 24th.