Non-suede Adidas Campus 80s are still pretty good

The adidas Campus is one of those shoes that should unify all walks of life. King Ad Rock wore them. So did Eazy-E. We couldn’t care less what your brand allegiances are — if you don’t mess with this model, your opinion is null. You know nothing. Anybody can pull off this classic and it has b-boy and skate credentials for eons. It is a shoe that, like the Chuck, Bruin, Suede or the Authentic, is innately cool. You can’t be trusted if you don’t own a pair either. We hate people that describe stuff as “funky” that isn’t — a wacky shirt, Jamiroquai or a novelty tie are not funky. The adidas Campus however, carries the funk. And if you’re bored of being preached at about shoes like this and their hip-hop credentials, bear in mind that the Campus’ parents; the adidas Green Star (a Boston Celtics classic) and the Tournament (basically a Green Star that wasn’t green which was later endorsed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) are OG court classics worn by legends too. Then there’s the shoe’s hardcore (music that is, not pornography, though we have a screengrab of some Sambas in a porn film) moments too.

Sure, we’d always prefer this model in suede, but this treated canvas edition isn’t going to get the shoe pattern baldness that plagues suede Campus after a night out. One stray heel and your forefoot has alopecia — once suede gets a scuff, there’s no going back. Not even those weird rubbers can restore it to its old glory. The Vivid Red upper here is alright and those chalky coloured stripes counteract it well and the suede tongue nods to our favoured Campus fabric. We believe that metal eyelets on a Campus ruin the shoe’s simple aesthetic, but we also appreciate that laces would slice through canvas with the quickness, so they’re kind of necessary this time. Is this our ideal version of this shoe? Nope. Is it a nice addition to the collection to break out when the clouds are looking gooned-out? Hell yes. The king of herringbone soled shoes — maybe even more so than the mighty Superstar. Then again, maybe not we’ve debated in it the office many times, and it tends to get a little shouty and emotional.