In advance of next Friday’s highly anticipated drop of the new adidas Manchester 89 SPZL shoe our mates at Hip have done a photoshoot with this hallowed trainer that features on their ace blog. Which really does look like it was taken on Factory records recording session during that pivotal year. They also asked the ‘Spezial One’ himself Gary Aspden to explain all about the inspiration behind this tremendous looking trainer, who had this to say:
“The ’89’ in the naming has clear cultural connotations for Manchester. It was a year when in terms of music and creativity Manchester was the most important and directional city on the planet. Manchester’s cultural impact in that year may be the first thing that springs to mind for many, but the naming primarily relates to the design language used in the shoe.
As with all things SPEZIAL, the design decisions connect back to the history of the three stripes. The 89 in the name is primarily about the fact that the use of parallel edged stripes was commonplace in the late 80s ‘City Series’ designs that adidas released around then. The reflective materials used for the stripes and heel are another feature that reference that era. If we were to do a new version of the Manchester, then the shoe needed to go somewhere new, but it needed to reference previous colour palettes of adidas Manchester releases and needed to stay with the Handball SPEZIAL silhouette that the lineage of the adidas Manchester is synonymous with“
