Not many 3-Stripes hold their own in the adidas Originals lineage as strongly as the Forest Hills. From tennis courts to football terraces, the trainer took the familiar sporting shoe plunge into the world of subculture, hailed for its innovation and statement-making guise. So, how did this tennis icon venture so far from home? Let’s start with its origins.
Every new sporting shoe needs a unique selling point, and with adidas Originals’ rich history, it gets harder with each release to make shoes a cut above the rest. For the Forest Hills they had an idea – to make the lightest tennis shoe yet. Advertised on the shoe’s legendary ‘Our proving grounds’ campaign, the silhouette was just 8.7 ounces with a NASA-inspired sole ventilation system to make this the pinnacle of innovation in ’76.
Side by side with innovation was its links to Championship tennis; the shoe was named after the Forest Hills Tennis Centre in Queens, New York – a place with US Open status. Besides sporting credibility, the OG came with an utterly unique setup.
Premium white leather kept things traditional while shiny golden details coated the overlaying serrated 3-Stripes and Trefoil-crested heels. Perforations layered up on the toe box, while others were sandwiched between the stripes. Keeping things bright, the lightweight rubber soles were coated in yellow, with a smoky suede strip on the front to protect you from scuffs. The tongue was made with breathable mesh, while the lateral sides had the ultimate sign-off – shiny foil branding.
In the ‘70s and ‘80s – as football fans started to indulge in designer sportswear from their trips across Europe – supporters from Liverpool had an infatuation with 3-Stripes. The Forest Hills offered the city’s football fans a pair that would help them look different to the rest too, and when Robert Wade Smith stocked them in his store, he managed to flog 500 pairs in one month that struggled to sell elsewhere. The shoe had won the hearts of casuals in the city. This pair also featured in Pat Holden’s film adaptation of Kevin Sampson’s book Awaydays (2009).
It’s hard to compare the Forest Hills to anything in the adidas Originals lineage. The pair takes elements from classic tennis shoes, then combines it with NASA tech and one of the most striking colourways you’ll ever see. This inevitably helped engrain the trainer in the DNA of football fashion, most noticeably in a city where the fashion propelled forward – Liverpool. From the courts of New York to Merseyside, the Forest Hills has had quite the journey.
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