Julian X
through the mid eighties when you had those
players. It was that specific four or five year
period that captured me from a sneaker and
clothing perspective.
I do have some of the Tacchini stuff in my
collection, like some of the track tops that
McEnroe used to wear, but it was primarily the
footwear. I owned one pair of original Lendl’s
when I was a kid. I never owned the Borg
Elites. I did own the Nike Wimbledon. It was
almost like a marketing campaign when they
walked onto the court. If you were a kid and
in the market for a pair of sneakers, that might
put you over the edge to get those.
My cousin lived in California and was the
same age as me, so whenever he would come
to England, he always had Nikes on. I have
pictures of us in London from 1983, and I’m
dressed out in all adidas and he’s wearing a
pair of Nikes with Izod Lacoste. That was his
world, and this was my world. Surely but slow-
ly, Nike started putting more great shoes out
during that era. Then they became part of the
scene. They put the Internationalist out, which
was a classic blue with a yellow swoosh, then
they had the Pegasus models. They weren’t
overly complicated shoes. They were just nice
silhouettes, and people started to catch on to
those.
What are some of the biggest differences
between then and now?
Now everything is so much more easily acces-
sible. Back then, you had to hunt things out
or even go to other countries to find whatever
you were looking for, or stumble upon it ac-
cidentally and end up buying it. The quality
and the workmanship of the products is com-
pletely different now too. There seem to be so
many ways to cut corners in regards to materi-
als and production. Back then, everything was
pretty much made by hand. If you wanted a
suede or leather for a shoe, you didn’t have a
hundred options. There were maybe only three
suedes to pick from. Now, you pick up a shoe
and you can just feel it. It might not even be a
real leather. A lot of them do synthetic materi-
als now. Many of the reissues I have now are
made from synthetic suede. It’s not even real
suede. The only thing I can really think of, is
that it’s a cost thing. It must be even cheaper to
make a shoe made from synthetic suede than it
is to make it from real suede. I just think that
the resources they would have had when put-
ting a shoe together thirty or forty years ago,
I’m just speculating, but they must have only
had a handful of suppliers. Now they must
have an endless amount of people to chose
from, and it’s who’s going to give us the best
price?
Every now and again, adidas will throw out a
Made in Germany or Made in France model,
and if you buy that shoe, you can see the dif-
ference. It’s how the shoe should be. I picked
up a pair of Superstars made in a factory in
France, and when you compare that Superstar
to the regular issue, in terms of quality, it’s
night and day. But obviously, you have to pay
double or three times the price now to get that
quality. I’m not a big fan of the Superstar, but
I like the 80s sha pe. It’s not as chunky as the
regular Superstar. I’ve got a couple pairs of
Campus 80s and it’s just such a beautiful qual-
ity shoe. They did a really nice job with the
Superstar 80s, and especially the Campus 80s.
It’s nicely put together.
If you’re in a position to afford a pair that’s
made in France, they come in a nice copy of
the original box, and a little story of how they
were made in the factory where the original
Superstar was made. So yeah, sure, you’re buy-
ing a pair of Superstars, but you’re also buying
a little bit of a connection to the history of the
shoe, which is kind of a nice touch.
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