Adidas Samba is an athletic shoe manufactured by German multinational Adidas. It is among Adidas' most popular shoes, being the second highest selling Adidas design ever with over 35 million pairs sold worldwide, behind the Stan Smith model.[1] It has been produced in a variety of color schemes, yet the original black with three white stripes is by far the most popular. The shoe features a tan gumsole that distinguishes it from other Adidas shoes.
The shoe was first produced in 1949 to enable football players to train on icy, hard ground (hence the suction design on the gumsole). Its original design featured the classic three stripes, as well as the gold trefoil on the foldable tongue. As years progressed, the Samba evolved into the Samba Millennium (which was made without the extended tongue) and the Samba '85. Classic models of the shoe are still in production, under the name Classic M. The original model is sometimes used for training, street play, and futsal.[2][3][4]
In popular culture[]
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The popularity of the Adidas Samba as a soccer shoe has caused it to move into popular culture, mostly worn as a fashion sneaker, and it makes many appearances in movies and on television. Some of these appearances include:
Blue suede Samba
Owen Wilson's character Randy Dupree wears a pair of Adidas Samba K (a classic model that uses kangaroo leather) virtually the whole time in the 2006 film You, Me, and Dupree.
The song "Olé" by The Bouncing Souls features the lines: Lace your Sambas, get on out/Off we go to kick it about.
Sean Astin wears a pair of black Sambas in 1993 film Rudy.
The shoe was a favourite in the early 1980s Liverpool football casuals/scally subculture; indeed the shoe is a youth icon in the UK along with Reebok Classics.
