The original Italia featured a bold blue-and-white colorway, which Adidas has faithfully revisited for modern takes on the heritage model.
However, its newest interpretation adopts a white-and-green colorway reminiscent of the Stan Smith, a shoe often cited as Adidas’s best-selling model in history — and thus, ready to serve in my idyllic one-shoe rotation.
While most Adidas sneakers use only their stripes (and maybe the toe box) to showcase their accent color, the heel of the era-correct Italia features a green cross that versed collectors will recognize from the Tokyo (also dating back to the 1960s).
Finally, gold-foil branding in a unique script font give the shoe an air of elegance that underscores one of the coolest bits about it: true to the name, this specific Adidas Italia hails from Italy, where the leather and rubber are assembled by hand.
