When you think of the words ‘adidas Originals’ and ‘subculture’, one shoe springs to mind: the Gazelle. No doubt the prototype for an endless amount of Originals to come, the Gazelle follows the winning formula of the terraces. Roofed by crinkled tongues and wrapped in a mass of 3-Stripe-crested suede or textured mesh that flows down to a bed of rubber; all neatly enveloped and signed off with the foil branding. We’ll just give you a proverbial click of the fingers to get you out of your Gazelle stupor, and now let’s delve into the past and present of this adidas Originals icon.

Inspired by running shoes of the early ‘60s, the first Gazelle landed in ’66 with two colourways. The red pair was more for indoor sports, hosting a herringbone sole unit for indoor sports, while the blue pair came with a microcellular rubber outsole built for training. These silhouettes soon lost their shoehorn heel tabs to become a more recognisable version we see today.

Nodding to its predecessor – the Olympiade (1960) – the Gazelle got its third official colourway for the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. Entitled the Mexicana, this bright spectacle was wrapped in golden suede with contrasting 3-Stripes and rubber soles.

The shoe didn’t immediately rise to prominence, being in and out of the adidas Originals catalogues throughout the following years, until the release of the Gazelle Special in ’79. This handball-ready revamp is the inspiration for the modern Gazelle Indoor, the more streamlined counterpart that sits on an iconic semi-translucent sole. The red and blue colourways dominated the ‘80s, with plenty more arriving in the ‘90s.

This leads us to perhaps the most influential era for the Gazelle. After taking over the terraces and becoming part of the subcultural uniform for many, the Gazelle is particularly etched into the history books of the unpopularly titled Britpop scene in the ‘90s. Most noticeably laced on the feet of the Burnage-born terrace messiahs – the Gallagher brothers – the shoes were a grail pair for this scene. Also famously worn by the likes of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the ‘70s, David Baddiel in the ‘Three Lions’ (1996) video, and frequented by Kate Moss in the ‘90s, this 3-Stripe icon is nothing short of seminal. Not to forget Michael Jackson in his Jackson 5 era, The Beastie Boys, and more recently, Harry Styles in the high-end Gucci Gazelle.

There were also less contemporary offerings like the Beach Gazelle (1999) and a dip into skating subculture for the Gazelle Skateboarding (2007), while there was also a selection of collabs with Chinese pianist Lang Lang in 2008, showing the shoe’s versatility and reach in full force. From breaking records at the Olympics to Bovril drippings on the terraces, and the blood, sweat and tears of the ‘90s – the Gazelle has endured it all. And for this reason, it has cemented itself as an immovable entity in the Originals history books.

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