Gazelle

A significant silhouette

In its early years, adidas was focused on creating functional footwear for athletes both amateur and professional, but many of its sporting designs ended up becoming popular lifestyle models as well. One of these was the adidas Gazelle – a performance shoe with a clean, uncomplicated aesthetic which over several decades grew into its role as one of the most important silhouettes in the brand’s vast back catalogue.

A product of history

The story of the Gazelle began years before it was even created, with a number of different designs that can be seen as its predecessors. There was the Rom, which helped Wilma Rudolph to win three gold medals at the Rome Olympics in 1960, and the Olympiade, which was favoured by the German sprint team in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Both were high-performance shoes that paved the way for the Gazelle, which derived elements such as its heel and sole from these forerunners.

Two bold colourways

By 1965, the initial prototype of the Gazelle had been produced. For the first time, adidas used suede as the primary material on the upper, thus distinguishing it from other training shoes of the time, which tended to favour traditional leather. Just as durable but more lightweight, this plush fabric gave the wearer a touch more speed and had the added benefit of being able to take on vivid colours during the dying process. This preliminary model was a rich shade of red, and it was joined by a blue version when the Gazelle was officially released in 1966. Back then, the difference in colour was not merely a matter of aesthetics, it also denoted a slight variance in design. While both had a kangaroo suede upper with adidas’ signature three-stripes logo on the side, a shoe-horn heel tab and special arch support, the sole unit was individual to the specific colourway and therefore was adapted to its intended use. The red version had a transparent sole with a herringbone tread pattern that provided excellent traction and prevented any slippage on indoor surfaces. It was designed primarily for use in handball and, to ensure that it was an effective shoe for the sport, was tested by some of the best players in the world, many of whom were from Germany; one of the top handball nations at the time. In contrast, the blue edition was aimed at athletes based mostly outdoors. Its rubber outsole was optimised for general training, with a multicellular design that delivered extra grip on a variety of playing surfaces.

Experimentations and iterations

With its suede upper and different sole options, the Gazelle stood out from the crowd, becoming a popular training shoe that was used by many professional athletes and showing up in the sporting magazines of the time. It was also a great model for the brand’s designers to experiment with, and it provided the inspiration for new silhouettes like the Jaguar, which later became the adidas Athen. The Gazelle itself was modified repeatedly throughout this period, with some alterations, such as the newly shaped heel tab, updated sole profile and form-fitting tongue, becoming permanent, and others like the suggested zipper ultimately being rejected. One of the most significant changes the shoe underwent occurred in 1971, when a honeycomb grip pattern was introduced on the outsole of both colourways. This redesign incorporated rows of hexagonal microcells that greatly enhanced traction, thus making the Gazelle even more effective as a performance shoe and giving it the edge over its athletic footwear contemporaries. In fact, the hexagon outsole was so good that it is still used on many modern Gazelles.

A powerful endorsement

While physical updates helped to improve the Gazelle’s popularity, Horst Dassler’s pioneering work with athletes brought it to a global audience. Son of adidas founder Adi Dassler, Horst had joined the company in 1960 and was keen to harness the power of celebrity to market its footwear. In 1972, he gave American swimmer Mark Spitz a pair of Gazelles and asked him to wear them at the Olympics in Munich. Unconventional as it may seem to get a swimmer to market a shoe made for terrestrial sports, the plan paid off as not only did Spitz wear it during the medal ceremony for one of the seven golds he won that year, he also took his Gazelles off and held them aloft to really show them off to the crowd. The bold move, which Adi reportedly disapproved of, landed Spitz in trouble with the International Olympic Committee and sparked conversations around product placement in sports. Meanwhile, impressed by Spitz and his record-breaking Olympics, Horst went on to set up his own swimwear company called Arena and expanded his groundbreaking work with athletes to include exclusive apparel contracts with sporting federations and even the Olympic Committee, eventually becoming one of the most important business people in commercial sport around the world.

An early lifestyle sneaker

Like many of adidas’ designs, the Gazelle was originally created as a training shoe but eventually became a lifestyle sneaker as well. Thanks in part to its colourful suede upper, which distinguished it from other athletic footwear of the time, the Gazelle made this transition quite early on, appearing in a 1976 edition of Japanese men’s fashion magazine Popeye and being worn by high-profile celebrities like Mick Jagger. Despite this, adidas continued to focus on its sporting abilities while still making sure to give it a captivating lifestyle aesthetic for the casual wearer. At the end of the 1970s, this resulted in the Gazelle being updated once again, this time with the brand’s famous Trefoil logo shaping the grip formations of the outsole. In addition, the overall construction of the shoe was refined and the forefoot was reworked to optimise it for handball.

The Gazelle and footballing culture

This constant tinkering kept the model relevant going into the 80s, even as more modern silhouettes came out. Throughout the decade, the Gazelle continued its journey from training shoe to fashion item by infiltrating various subcultures around the world. It was particularly successful in the United Kingdom, where it was worn by passionate football fans known as Casuals. Members of this movement brought back items of clothing purchased while supporting their teams abroad in European competitions, spreading adidas and other foreign brands to parts of northern England and elsewhere. While several adidas models were popular choices, for many Casuals, the Gazelle was the best option because, even though it was still more affordable than many other branded sneakers of the time, it was a little more expensive than silhouettes like the Monaco and Madeira, giving it that premium feel.

A hip hop favourite

As the Gazelle took over the football terraces of the United Kingdom, it was also being adopted by another, quite different subculture: hip hop. The burgeoning music genre had spread across the United States in the 70s and early 80s, and was beginning to gain traction in the United Kingdom with groups like Run-DMC, whose members were well-known for wearing the adidas Superstar. Since this model and others associated with the United States hip hop scene were not so available across the Atlantic, British fans often opted for the more accessible Gazelle instead. The brand received even more attention in 1986 when Run-DMC released a song entitled My Adidas, in which they rapped about their favourite sneakers. This coincided with another relaunch of the Gazelle that included a range of new colourways aimed at the casual consumer looking for a fashionable sneaker for everyday wear. By this point, the silhouette was a truly global phenomenon, and adidas began releasing new variants like the Gazelle Super while also rebranding the shoe (in Japan it became the adidas 300) to suit foreign markets.

Entering the United States

Following this, in the early 1990s, a trend emerged for classic sneakers, leading many to return to the adidas Gazelle once more. Peter Moore and Rob Strasser, who had moved over from Nike in 1987, encouraged adidas to take advantage of this by rereleasing its heritage silhouettes, and, in 1991, a new version of the Gazelle came out. Soon after, influential skateboarders Eric Koston and Natas Kaupas began wearing it while competing in Europe before returning to the United States and popularising it as a skate shoe over there. Meanwhile, Beastie Boys star Mike D, who was known for wearing adidas shoes, invested in a Los Angeles startup called X-Large – a streetwear brand and clothing store which sold old-school sneakers alongside its own apparel. As a result of these various factors, the Gazelle continued to find new fans in the United States and was popular across the country.

Britpop stars and supermodels

Back in Europe, the Gazelle was a common sight in the Britpop music scene, which was rapidly becoming a cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. Popular Manchester band Oasis, whose style somewhat grew out of the football terrace culture of the 1980s, led the movement, and often turned up to shows wearing the Gazelle. By the mid-90s, other Britpop bands like Blur and Suede were donning it, and, wanting to emulate the look, their fans did the same. Elsewhere, it showed up on the feet of Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay in the British funk band’s video for Virtual Insanity, which was aired repeatedly on MTV in 1996. But it was possibly the era’s supermodels that made the Gazelle such a prized shoe during the country’s Cool Britannia period. One 1993 image of Kate Moss casually posing in some maroon Gazelles was particularly iconic; so much so, in fact, that adidas chose to reinvent it as part of a 2016 advertising campaign for a new version of the Gazelle. Another memorable picture was of Danish model Helena Christensen, who posed for women’s fashion magazine Elle in 1994 wearing nothing but a black pair, making the now decades-old silhouette a truly desirable fashion item as the new millennium approached.

A limited collaboration

In 2001, adidas launched its highly popular Originals range, and the Gazelle was brought back for yet another decade. Known as the Gazelle Vintage, this iteration was based on the 1960’s model and acted as the canvas for one of its earliest collaborations when Japanese streetwear brand Neighborhood designed two limited release colourways. Launched to coincide with the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin, they were decorated in details commemorating the event, with a black ‘Home’ version that was only available in the brand’s hometown of Tokyo and a white ‘Away’ one sold at adidas locations in both Japan and Berlin.

A shoe fit for James Bond

Despite this classy collaboration, the 2000s and early 2010s marked a relatively quiet period for the Gazelle, particularly in the United States. Nevertheless, adidas continued to champion the shoe, releasing new versions like the bulkier Gazelle 2 and even a model optimised for skateboarders. Its cultural cache was then reaffirmed in 2012 when James Bond, played by actor Daniel Craig, wore a dapper dark blue colourway of the Gazelle 2 during the workout scenes of his third Bond movie, Skyfall. The shoe’s skating credentials were also expressed in a 2015 collaboration with London’s Palace Skateboards, the clothing brand working with adidas to create two skater-friendly editions: the Palace Pro, which made use of adidas Primeknit to make it even more comfortable and lightweight without compromising on durability, and the Palace Pro Trainer, which opted for a more traditional suede construction.

Reviving a classic

Just one year later, the adidas Gazelle made its biggest comeback to date. At the time, people were still buying the shoe, but it was the brand’s decision to bring back the popular 1991 model that saw it achieve such a powerful resurgence. This particular version had a significant cultural impact throughout the 90s, and its effect on contemporary adidas footwear designers like Jean Khalifé, who grew up in northeastern France, where the Gazelle was a popular sneaker, meant that they treated it with respect and reverence on its return. None of the original design schematics existed at the time of the rerelease, so Khalifé and his team had to reconstruct the Gazelle piece-by-piece to create a faithful replica that they were happy to reveal to the public. They took extra care to reproduce key elements like the sole unit, the distinctive texture of the foxing tape and the moulded tongue to ensure that it lived up to the original.

Collecting collaborations

The 2016 relaunch was a big success as the ‘91 build had the perfect balance of nostalgia, vintage flair and versatile styling. This made it popular amongst older generations who could remember the shoe from their childhood and younger ones who wanted a casual sneaker with a timeless aesthetic. In the years that followed, the Gazelle became a favourite for creative collaborators, which included Italian streetwear brand Slam Jam, Los Angeles sneaker boutique Sneaker Politics and Brendon Babenzien’s clothing brand, NOAH, which produced two colourways with eye-catching cheetah and camo print uppers. As well as these, there were more unconventional collaborations like the one with Transport for London, whose regal purple design celebrated the construction of the London underground’s Elizabeth Line, alongside a collection from adidas’ long-term progressive associate Yohji Yamamoto, who crafted several refined colourways for the innovative Y-3 partnership.

The Gucci Gazelle and the Satellite Stomper

With such a diverse list of collaborative partners, the Gazelle became appealing to a broad range of people from all around the world. Then, in 2022, it became an even bigger global phenomenon with its most luxurious collaboration to date. British GQ foreshadowed the partnership in early 2022 when football superstar Mo Salah appeared on the cover of the fashion magazine’s February edition in a deep green pair of Gazelles and a large Gucci coat. The association of these two brands was quite prescient as, later that year, they would come together to create some of the most sought-after Gazelle designs ever made. The first of these came out in the summer of 2022 and were made from refined materials with unique Gucci branding that gave them a high-class and exclusive aesthetic. Over the next two years, the Gucci collaboration delivered dozens of colourways in a variety of eccentric styles and bold tones, all of which were made in Italy to ensure that they were of the highest possible quality. Worn by Hollywood celebrities like Olivia Wilde and Brad Pitt, the Gazelle x Gucci collection took the age-old silhouette to new levels of popularity, even experiencing its own viral social media moment courtesy of well-known adidas enthusiast Harry Styles. During the singer’s Love On Tour shows of 2023, he was filmed drinking out of a green suede pair of Gucci Gazelles while on stage in Australia, and when the video hit social media sites, it was immediately shared around the world by his adoring fans, causing a spike in sales of all Gazelles. So iconic is Styles’ affinity with the silhouette that the brand’s Australian website has a reference to his fans’ nickname for the Gazelle – Satellite Stompers – which originates from the stompy dance he does while performing the song ‘Satellite’. Even now, a search for Satellite Stompers on the adidas website will bring up the Gazelle page as the brand honours the superstar musician’s connection to the sneaker.

An influential silhouette

The compelling combination of Harry Styles, Gucci and the adidas Gazelle represented a high point in a whole list of outstanding moments from its long history. Since then, the footwear brand has continued to increase the variety of Gazelle colourways while also working with new collaborative partners, including sneaker enthusiast and streetwear expert Sean Wotherspoon, British skateboarder and artist Blondey McCoy, Edison Chen’s Hong Kong lifestyle brand CLOT and Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who produced two stylish designs with custom details and unique branding effects. The silhouette has also become a common styling choice for fashion influencers like Gigi Hadid, who turned heads after choosing it over the vastly popular adidas Samba while out on a shopping trip in 2024, and actresses such as Emma Watson and Jennifer Lawrence.

A diversity of designs and styles

Today, the adidas Gazelle can be found in a huge range of colourways to fit almost any style, with a diversity of models including the ADV skateboarding shoe, the Bold, with its triple-stacked platform sole, the Indoor, whose design brought about the Gazelle trend of the early 2020s and which the Gucci collaboration was based on, and the 85, which emulates the mid-80s version. Meanwhile, the standard model remains the ‘91 build, its design epitomising the timeless qualities of the adidas Originals line.

Half a century and counting

After more than half a century, the adidas Gazelle is still as relevant as ever, which is a testament to its ability to adapt to the plethora of fashion trends that have come and gone throughout its history. More than this, though, the Gazelle has influenced these trends, defining the styles of footballing subcultures, music scenes and prominent social media fashionistas. With such a broad range of fans, this heritage design has reached the height of its powers and shows no sign of coming down any time soon.