There’s no escaping it.”įor creative director Nate Brown, too, the Samba has always been a “simple, humble go-to” for his outings in the city. “By trying to buy a pair of Adidas that aren’t the white or black Sambas, by trying to stay off the beaten path, I’m still being influenced by the trend. He recently purchased a pair of orange Adidas Campus in an attempt at a kind of 4-D sneaker trend chess move. Not even the guy making Soho starter packs is immune to its influence. By dint of wearing a Samba, these days, are you telling people that you’re the kind of person who throws down 200 per cent over list price for Kith Sambas? Or someone who got them at their listing price before they sold out in a blink? But wait, does that mean you’re the kind of person that wants a pair of shoes so badly you’ll set a notification for the drop?Įxcept Hartman is now having to fire up a few brain cells to navigate this stage of the Samba trend. It’s a measure of just how far the shoe has begun to drift from its roots. The desperation of dropping your rent check on a middle-school beater shoe has created something of an existential crisis for the everyman Samba wearer. I wore and was obsessed with them back in 2003, when the classic (the best ones IMO) cost $60.” One commenter on Reddit-thread bashing Peters’ purchase spelt out the anxiety in full: “I hate the fact that Gen Z claims the Samba trend. The TikTok fashion influencer Audrey Peters, in a not-so-cool flex, posted a video showing off two pairs of green Sporty & Rich Sambas that cost her $500 a pair.

Take a quick look at StockX, the sneaker resale site, and you’ll easily find Wales Bonner Sambas routinely fetching over $600 a pair. Pharrell’s Humanrace just dropped an Ecco-leather Samba in a range of bright monochromes.Īnecdotes about obscene resale prices don’t lessen the complications. More collabs are incoming: WASP-leisure brand Sporty & Rich plans to unveil a second capsule of pastel-motif Sambas in the coming weeks. Back in March, Kith collaborated with Clarks on a crepe-sole Samba, and a second summer release boasting Clarks suede on the shoes is being teased now. Teaser images of a cream and brown Samba with a fold-over tongue have been making the rounds.

The aforementioned Wales Bonner drop, the collaboration credited with resuscitating this specific Samba trend cycle, is due shortly, and sneaker sites are counting down the days. “It’s the biggest Adidas moment since Yeezy.”įor a trend that should, theoretically, cool any minute now, there’s still a lot of activity on the horizon. “The original Samba is selling more and more, week over week,” Dunn-Pilz said. Davidde Dunn-Pilz, Stadium Goods’ commercial operations manager, told me the customers driving this phase of the trend skew towards “Gen Z” and “TikTokers”-groups, he believes, that want to keep up with the trend, but might not have the funds for the more expensive Samba collabs.

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