Back for the first time since 2008, adidas has dived in to the archives, spotlighted one of the most beloved silhouettes, and reinstated two of its most iconic colourways to date.
Jacques Chassaing and Markus Thaler, both lifelong employees of adidas, played very unique roles in the birth and ongoing on the ZX family. Jacques is one of the most famous adi designers, responsible for all the ZX designs, whilst Markus was the shoe craftsman who brought all of the ideas and timeless shoes to life.
The A-ZX series of 2008/09 was a momentous collaboration project by adidas Consortium to celebrate the brands heritage in running and specifically the ZX ‘four-digit’ series. Featuring 26 different, limited-edition sneaker releases, each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet and designed in partnership with 22 of the world’s most renowned retailers. A testament to the legacy of the Torsion technology used in the ZX running line.
To conclude the A-ZX project, and honour the two people crucial to the legacy of ZX, Jacques and Markus created a premium edition of the ZX 8000 using the ‘stitch and turn’ method to ensure there were no exposed rough edges and featured both of their faces on the tongues. However, this pair was never for sale and never hit the market, leaving people still speculating to this day as to how many pairs were made.
Fast forward to today and upon highlighting the pair in the archive, the team alongside Jacques have had the task of creating a 1:1 and produce something as close as possible to the original. Due to the nature of the stitch and turn, which had never been done to this level before, there were a lot of challenges and ‘no’s’ within the development phase. The late Markus Thaler’s son, who works within the footwear technology department, provided prototypes and information to support the production. As this shoe technically ‘never existed’ there was zero information on the internal adidas systems. However, they still managed to come as close to the original without diluting the message from back then.
Whereas with the blue pair, the aim was to make it more technical than before, they wanted to lead it towards the future whilst reinforcing the classic ZX design language and appreciating that the silhouette was used more as a lifestyle shoe. Based on the debut Aqua colour way of the ZX 8000 C from 1989. This pair is donned with a torsion tongue loop, whereas the yellow pair has the Adidas trefoil.
This is a reminder of how far ahead the ZX line was.
