The latest installment of size?collections saw us pack our bags and travel all the way to Jakarta to visit Harry Novianto. You might remember him as the man who started DIEHARDADIDASFAN, the South Jakarta platform which connects members of the Indonesian adidas collecting community. It was shoes from this collection that inspired our ‘The Lost Ones’ Trimm Trab – ?exclusive pack from last year.

Harry’s collection is so expansive that he isn’t exactly sure how many pairs are in it; nor does he want to know, explaining, “I don’t know the exact number of collections that I have because I’m not brave enough to count.” His worry is that if he were to count them all, he might lose his passion for collecting adidas – but for context, he was shocked when a friend informed him that he has bought 500 pairs from Harry alone.

It started out with other brands like Camper, PUMA, Nike, Onitsuka Tiger and Patrick, before he received a pair of adidas SL 72 from a client as a gift – and the rest is history. Today, Harry has been collecting adidas for around 9 years, with the first pair he actually purchased being an adidas Plimsalao series, made in Indonesia.

Currently, Harry is focused on collecting vintage adidas from the ‘70s and ‘80s, with these pairs having a uniqueness that sets them apart from the others. One such example is an adidas Amsterdam which Harry came across in Germany. That particular series was produced with different versions, which piqued his interest; “maybe the difference is not significant, but that’s what makes me interested and challenged to reveal what are the differences.”

The rarity is also a draw for Harry; the rarer it is, the more he wants to add it to his collection. He recalls that one ‘Holy Grail’ silhouette took him seven years to find, with six years spent searching around the world. So, you may wonder… what exactly is the rarest pair in his collection? Well, there’s a few.

There’s a first edition adidas Tobacco that was made in France, and an adidas Java Made in Romania; “my friends said that I was the first to reveal that the adidas Java made in Romania exists.” Completing the rare trio, Harry also has a first edition adidas Riviera which dates back to 1969 or 1970. As for his favourite? The adidas Java Made in France; it’s blue with blue stripes, which holds extra appeal as blue is one of Harry’s favourite colours.

On the collecting scene in Indonesia, Harry feels that vintage adidas collectors and lovers are few and far between; there aren’t more than five vintage adidas collectors in Indonesia that he knows of – perhaps due to the effort required and the cost of collecting vintage adidas. On the contrary, there are plenty of modern adidas collectors. “I honestly feel like I have a responsibility to have more people here especially in Indonesia to start collecting vintage adidas, because I feel like we need new people to love adidas so that it will live forever.”

Forever on the hunt for adidas series that he’s not got yet, Harry’s not afraid to travel around the globe in search of rare vintage pairs. Whether it’s an adidas Spike from the ‘50s-‘60s that he found in a Barcelona flea market, an ‘80s adidas bag from Munich, or thirty pairs of vintage adidas that he’d never come across before in Japan – the search takes him everywhere.

Explore more size?collections here.