That ubiquitous trio of stripes – allied to the familiar trefoil – are inescapable at the moment, and for good reason. The vast archive of sports footwear to be born of the brand founded by Adi Dassler deserves to be on permanent and practical display, via the feet of pretty much every section of society. And it is.
While adidas continues to push performance forward, the trailblazing shoes of yesteryear have taken on a more leisurely role in their retirement from sporting pursuits.
The adidas ZX 8000 wasn’t born for the pub beer garden, or to sit in rotation as the football season merges into a summer of outdoor gigs. Back when it landed ’88, it was made with a specific job in mind – that of covering many miles, keeping you steady, and stopping your feet from falling to bits halfway through your run. This was running tech, 1988 style. This was state-of-the-art back then, but while technology may have moved on, good design remains good design. The ZX 8000 boasted the Torsion System in the middle, SoftCell cushioning underneath and even back then, the performance setting wasn’t always a sporting one.
In tribute to this cross-cultural classic, SEVENSTORE selected two of its better-known faces, with a common appreciation for this shoe but different perspectives rooted simply in age.
Photographer Mark McNulty was on the scene for the Second Summer of Love in 1988, documenting it as it happened. Packed rooms, low ceilings, real life. And in amongst all that chaos, you’ll spot the trainers doing their bit, quietly getting on with it.
Fast forward a few decades and Shaun Peckham is looking at things a bit differently. Same world, but from a contemporary perspective. Both are perfectly placed to show why this enduring shoe is equally at home in the parties of the past and the present.
There’s a duality running through this editorial and indeed the ZX 8000. The world might feel increasingly polarised and binary, but the blurred lines in the middle are always where the really interesting stuff sits. Age separates Mark and Shaun but human nature is still human nature and music unites, not divides. The same can be said of this iconic adidas shoe. People still go out to lose themselves in music, still stay out longer than they probably should, and still wear stuff that lets them keep going. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
There are tracks for running on and tracks for dancing to. The ZX 8000 spanned both without ever really meaning to.
The adidas ZX 8000 is available at SEVENSTORE
