Aaron Kr. 
Earlier this year, adidas Originals had a huge hit on their hands with the introduction of the ZX Flux model, a stripped-down contemporary spin on the brand’s 90s running DNA. The more minimal approach was warmly received by consumers with the shoes widely praised for both their style and comfort. While it may not be directly tied to the Flux, the recently unveiled Tubular Runner silhouette seems to be the next evolutionary step from the groundwork it laid. Also taking some cues from the Y-3 Qasa, the Tubular blends several of these new and old design elements to create something progressive and original,
marrying the worlds of sports, fashion, and adidas heritage in a seamless way with versatile applications. Since photos of the Tubular first emerged, the shoe has had some serious buzz around it, and with the upcoming global release coming on November 21st, it seems safe to say that we’ll be seeing plenty more of it moving forward. Before the Tubular hits retailers, we caught up with adidas Originals Vice President of Global Design, Nic Galway (who also designed the Qasa), to get the inside scoop on one of the most intriguing Three Stripes offerings of 2014.
SN: This new Tubular Running model obviously takes a very different approach from the original Tubular series designs. How do the two relate to each other?
Nic: Basically, it was more about understanding the intention of the original shoe, so I wasn’t so much as looking to do a re-introduction, but rather to try to get into the heads of the designers who worked on that original product and what they wanted to achieve. What was really interesting was I took a trip to the archive, and in there, there’s four or five prototypes which led to the first Tubular shoe, and they start very simple and they get more and more complex.
Obviously, back in the early ‘90s, technology was not up with the challenge that they had set themselves. So it wasn’t about trying to remake the shoe as you know it, but rather saying, “What did they want to achieve?” For me it was about suspending the foot over a tire, so that was really the link back and the starting point for the project.
SN: Was there any internal hesitation or push back about resurrecting the Tubular name and how this new model ties back to the heritage of the line?
Nic: No, everyone was straight away on board. Adidas has always been a really pioneering brand. We often take on challenges which other brands might not, and the original Tubular shoe was one of those. For us, the name Tubular links to the intention and the brief as much as it does to the end product. So everyone felt very good about that and everyone felt that Tubular had a place today, but if we were to tackle it today we should do it using today’s thinking, and that was why we went the path we went.
SN: Speaking of today’s thinking, the shoe has a very modern, sleek look. Can you give us a rundown of the materials and construction?
Nic: Yeah, so what I really wanted to achieve with Tubular was I wanted to create a silhouette which would be instantly recognizable. So it wasn’t so much about worrying about the lines on the product themselves – they were secondary – but it was all about the silhouette, so this kind of very instantly recognizable sole unit, the Tubular unit. And then what to balance with that to create the overall silhouette, and what I wanted to create was a very dynamic sock look.
So to achieve that, what I did, I started actually looking at the lasts, and my feeling was that they were all too pronounced in the forefoot. I spent a lot of time in the workshops reducing the lasts and reshaping them, to give the dynamic shape that you know on the product today. That really led to the material choice, because obviously the product has to stretch and fit to the foot.
So I created the dynamic sock, but I still wanted it to be supported, so the neoprene was the base and then I looked how I could use stitch-free materials in the forefoot to make it more progressive. Then also how we could link to the collective memory of Originals – the key elements that people associate with this brand – to ground the product because everything else was so futuristic. I wanted to pull it back with these elements such as the gillie from the ZX series, some of the lines in the forefoot, and then of course, the ZX-inspired heel fit. So it was really bringing together the future and the past to create a compelling product and using materials which were right for the purpose.
SN: Aesthetically, there seems to be an obvious relationship to the recent Qasa model. Did the surprise popularity of the Qasa contribute to the creation of the Tubular Runner?
Nic: Yeah, interesting story. I actually worked on both products and my starting point was just rethinking. It was actually a conversation I had with Yohji (Yamamoto) a couple of years ago where I met him and he said to me, “I’m bored. Everything starts to look the same. I want to provoke,” and I said to him, “Well, I have an interesting concept which I haven’t placed yet,” and I showed him my original research and he really loved it. So that’s why we worked together on the Qasa. But in my own mind, I’d always seen the product as having a democratic reach. I’ve always wanted to get deeper into sneaker culture and to push the dialogue on a wider audience.
So I created a number of prototypes back then. The Qasa was definitely fully Y-3, but I saw this opportunity to create something using deeper into the memory of originals and that’s the product that we’re launching now, the Tubular. So it was kind of the right way around. We started, we tested, the response was absolutely overwhelmingly positive, and then we knew we were onto something really good.
SN: Coming from working on the Y-3 stuff and that very progressive design point of view, was it a big transition for you to move over to Originals and work on things that are a bit more mainstream and sporty?
Nic: In some ways, yes. I’ve been with Adidas for a long time. I’m 15 years in, and I’ve had access to every area of our brand. I’ve worked in performance, I’ve worked in style, and I’ve worked on some Originals projects in the past two. So it was an opportunity to really start to bring everything I’ve learned together. I hope you’ve seen that Y-3 was also on this journey. We went from just being more a fashion end to really connecting with what Adidas is all about which led to products like the Qasa. And I see in Originals, we really have the chance to amplify that. We’re one of those brands with such a rich heritage and I really want to take that.
We have the retro releases which are hugely important, but I also believe we have much more to offer and I think that was just the start. Now we really want to explore the potential for Originals too.
SN: This shoe really feels like an amalgamation of so many adidas products and idea, but presented in a new, fresh way. How do you approach balancing a shoe so that it’s versatile enough for the masses, but still has that very cutting edge, futuristic feel to it?
Nic: I think what’s interesting is that we’re a brand with a great heritage; people understand us. I don’t think it’s as simple as bringing a shoe back one-to-one. I think people understand Adidas on a deeper level. They’ll recognize a gillie or a fabric or a moment in time, and it’s how do we take those things? I think we have to take people on a journey, but they still have to see where the journey started.
Provided we can get that tension right between the future and the past, then I think we’ll take people with us. It’s all about creating product that people want to wear, but in a way that provokes and takes us forward. I really believe that a brand like Originals has the opportunity to do that. That’s really an exciting, new part for us to start to challenge.
SN: Going back to what you were saying about bringing in those historical elements while still moving into the future – what do you think it is about the ‘90s era aesthetic that still works so well within contemporary designs?
Nic: It’s interesting, because I was thinking about this. Our brand reaches much further back than the 90s, of course, but what I think is interesting about the 90s in particular was that it was a real boom in manufacturing. New techniques became possible for the first time. Whereas in the past, many products looked very, very similar, they were just appropriated for different sports, that era was the time when people really started to experiment and to try new things. Manufacturing had caught up and it was now possible. I think that was very important and created lots of very iconic things.
I think people can see a ZX heel counter on its own without the rest of the shoe and they’ll recognize, instantly, what the product is or some of the plastic gillies or these kind of elements. I think that really resonates with people and it’s kind of the anchor of our industry. I think tastes may change as we go along, but there’s always been this deep-rooted feeling for that type of product, and I think that’s really what allows us, then, with products like the Tubular to go into the future, because you always have that connection back. I think it’s just deeply rooted into sneaker culture.
SN: The ZX Flux has been huge for adidas and a big part of that has been due to the application of crazy graphics and patterns. What we’ve seen so far of the Tubular have been very simple tonal colorways, but are there any plans to take this shoe to wild places and experiment with prints and things like that?
Nic: We have a lot in the pipeline. What I would say is that, for me, the Flux has always been like a blank canvas. It’s a shoe which lends itself to print and color. The inspiration behind the Tubular was slightly different. It was to provoke through the silhouette. So I think we will view it maybe through a slightly different lens, but of course, we see great opportunity. What really excites me is looking at texture and materials as well as prints and graphics. So we have a lot to come, and I look forward to the reaction from you guys when we start to drop some of these.
