adidas' Materially Mixed-up Samba Manages to Make Leather & Fur Just Work

Leather and fur and chrome? Oh my! adidas is turning up the textural heat with its crackled-chrome Samba sneaker, an attention-hungry diva if we’ve ever seen one.

But for such a simple sneaker, it's nice to see the Samba commanding attention.

Far from standard, this Samba iteration wears a fur-covered upper interrupted by flakes of chrome scattered throughout the shoe. This crackly goodness is so peculiar in its presentation that it's unlike anything we've seen from the Three Stripes before. Sure, we've seen adidas do chrome. And yes, it's also done fur, many times in fact. But together? And like this? Not quite.

In addition to the chrome specs, adidas' dazzling Samba sports matching silver Three Stripes, blacked-out laces, and that signature flat rubber gum outsole.

Turning a beloved, if not a bit hackneyed sneaker, into an intentionally clanky gem is a practice adidas takes very seriously.

And for good reason, since adidas' sneakers are so ubiquitously stunning, the Three Stripes has to get creative and a little zany when it comes to making a shoe that stands out.

Whether it's putting baby-blue webs on the upper of an F50 Ghost Sprint or making Thom Browne-esque bowling shoes, adidas knows the importance of elevating its staple sneakers into the highly lucrative world of kitschy footwear.

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