Adidas Sambas, the It-Girls’ Current Favorite Sneakers, Have History

Hollywood’s most fashionably-inclined rotate their handbags like no other, but an It-sneaker is harder to come by. Adidas Samba trainers are both a pair that have managed to cut through the noise, and have stood the test of time. Classic as they may be, even sneakerheads who stay tapped into the latest buzzy drops agree.

The runners launched in 1950, and have since become one of Adidas’s all-time bestsellers, owing to their affordable price tag, accessibility (no queues for these retro lace-ups) and history.

Vogue’s Ultimate Adidas Sambas Edit: 

Having served many an athlete during its early years, the Samba is most famously associated with the 1970s, when the three stripes become an emblem of football terraces.

In the 1990s, the Gallagher brothers nodded to terrace culture during their Oasis heyday, meaning that the Sambas – and Adidas’s other popular shape, the Gazelle – became an emblem of pop culture. In Danny Boyle’s 1996 cult film Trainspotting, lead character Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, wears burgundy Samba Supers.

Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

Modern takes on the style today are more fashion than football, and evidence that Adidas Sambas aren’t going anywhere comes courtesy of the It-girls. Footwear fanatic Emily Ratajkowski, who also owns sporty styles from Nike and Reebok, is a Samba fan. Kaia Gerber dresses down her French-girl essentials with the trusty sneakers, and Bella Hadid offsets her bright vintage threads with classic Sambas while her sister Gigi Hadid, ever the fan of oversized, breezy essentially, styles Hera with a button-down and cut-off jorts.

Also a fan of Adidas Sambas with Jorts is Hailey Bieber who rotates the brand’s black and white vegan leather Sambas with a poppy red pair.

Photo: Courtesy of Hailey Bieber

A trainer needs little introduction when it’s received Rihanna’s seal of approval. At moments when her rare sneakers—which have hypebeasts frothing at the mouth—look too splashy, Rih swears by the Adidas original. Take her decision to wear Sambas instead of her go-to Amina Muaddi heels with a Nensi Dojaka LBD last summer. The singer’s partner A$AP Rocky is also a fan.