Adidas closed out 2015 with the release of the NMD, a silhouette that takes old school design elements — check out those chunky blocks — and recombines them in a way that's strikingly fresh.
Sneakerheads embraced the first run. After selling out in retail, they're going for between $300 and $400 on eBay. They arrived at the right cultural moment: "athleisure" has become the number one trend in apparel, and the NMD takes that trend in a street-smart direction.
More variants of the NMD will drop throughout 2016.
We emailed with Nic Galway, Adidas's vice president of Global Design and designer behind the NMD, about where the sneaker came from, where Adidas is going, and his collaboration with a certain rapper-turned-designer.
One of the first things you notice about the NMD is the 'blocking' on the sides of the outsole.
The blocks stabilize the foot while also looking super cool.
"I think it's important to couple technology and innovation with something familiar because it gives a design a context and something the wearer can connect with," Galway tells Tech Insider.
"The future doesn't necessarily have to be 'futuristic,'" Galway says.
'We talk a lot about collective memory at Adidas,' Galway says.
The NMD brings back elements from running shoes that first got big when the 1980s were grasping at the future, like the adidas Micro Pacer (which originally had a built-in pedometer!) and the Boston Super.
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