adidas Superstar Skate (Silas Baxter-Neal)

When adidas decided to get things moving officially in the skate world, they didn’t half-step. Gonz has ridden for them for a while, but instead of ploughing all their funds into poaching 30 pro riders from other skate shoe brands, they’ve slowly grown the roster with a steady stream of amazing talent. Dennis Busenitz, Tim O’Connor, Nestor Judkins… even some homegrown talent in the form of our own Benny Fairfax. The team is a good mix of diverse skaters, picking points for style and originality rather than simply going for household names and superstar points.

So, to hear that Silas Baxter-Neal had joined the team was simply another step in the right direction. Having been voted Thrasher’s ‘Skater Of The Year’ for 2008 is no accident: if you didn’t already see his section in Habitat’s ‘Inhabitants’ video in ’07, you need to get acquainted. Habitat currently have a well-worth-the-download video clip (16mb Zip’d Quicktime file) of Silas on their excellent site, so definitely check that one out while it’s still there. Go on!

With the current glut of skate footwear monstrosities cluttering up the sale racks, I’d suggest that maybe one in three pro skate shoes is really deserved. Silas deserves to be part of the 33.3%. And, with the Portland adidas crew on the design duties, you could be sure that they weren’t going to release a metallic silver knee-high hockey boot for him to ride in either.

adidas had a big thing in their favour when starting up the specific Skate division – they’ve had a DNA strand in skate culture since people began skating. My personal affiliation was with the early ’90s EMB/World Industries scene, when everyone was rocking Campus, Gazelles and Superstars, reappropriating their intended uses and realising they were good to skate in. So whilst they’ve introduced some great new silhouettes, seeing updated Skate versions of these classic models is nothing but a good thing. Why disregard history?

Silas’s shoe is a Superstar Skate – a comfier and more supportive version of the iconic rubber-toed basketball shoe – but given a thorough dousing in the 3-stripe colour swatches. Black, brown, orange, grey… The combination looks amazing and sounds even better in the official adidas colour names (‘Loam’… ‘Lava’…). The suede upper is a nice touch too, giving you serious consideration as to whether they’re actually too nice to go skating in. The forest silhouette artwork around the heel panel is a nod to Oregon’s license plates, adding a considered personal touch to the shoe.

I’m not about to sit down and write sprawling reviews of every sneaker that comes through the Trashfilter in-tray, but these have had people talking every time I’ve worn them and have quickly become my favourite winter sneakers.

Thanks to C-Law and Danny over at adidas for the imagery and background info.

Filed Under: Reviews

Tags: adidas, Portland, shoes, Silas Baxter-Neal, skate, Sneakers, Superstar