Cast your mind back to the glorious 80s. Basketball is doing big business, and everyone and their mothers wants a piece of the leathery pie. adidas, having conquered just about every sport there is, is no exception, and spilled onto the courts like Jack Nicholson’s chilli in the mid-80s with the Rivalry High, a high-topped basketball shoe that was, for a time, considering the peak of b-ball shoe technology and design.
But that’s not why we’re into them.
See, far away from the well-buffered floors of the America’s NBA stadiums, the Rivalry became a major ingredient in the unofficial of the uniform budding thrash rockers in the cluttered garages and post-industrial wastelands of England. These long-locked teeth-grinders swerved the hairspray and tight, tiger-print pants of glam and hair metal bands in favour of what they could realistically get their hands on – washed-out jeans, battered leather jackets, white basketball shoes.
So yeah, before we headbang straight into a full-blown history lesson, this photoshoot thing was inspired by those rageful forebearers of thrash. Scroll down, take a look, and HIT THE LIGHTS!
