Holy Cow! What’s With All These Hairy adidas Sneakers?

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Feb 19, 2025 - 13:32
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Holy Cow! What’s With All These Hairy adidas Sneakers?

Nobody does cowhide sneakers quite like adidas. Actually, nobody does cowhide sneakers quite as often as adidas. 

The German sportswear giant is seemingly on a mission to make hairy, cow-print shoes its specialty. An increasingly large roster of its classic sneakers are covered in the textured, spotty, black-and-white stuff. 

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The most recent sneaker models to fall victim to adidas’ cowhide experimentations are the Samba and the SL 72 (two sneakers that were recently battling it out to be fashion’s hottest sneaker).

Arriving as a two-part capsule collection, the two sneakers come complete with a gum sole alongside white and light pink accents, but all the attention is on its faux animal fabrication. Cow print covers almost every square inch of both shoe’s uppers. 

Available now, exclusively from ASOS, the Samba and SL 72 join a wide-ranging lineup of similarly patterned sneakers. 

There is the adidas Taekwondo, the super-flat sneaker whose Bad Bunny co-sign thrust it into the spotlight, the equally flat-soled racing-inspired Rasant Mid, and the Jabbar Hi, a classic ‘70s basketball sneaker; they all have succumbed to adidas’ cowhide agenda.

It’s a surprisingly vast selection of cowprint sneakers for one brand. However, it hasn’t come entirely out of the blue.

adidas cow print adidas, Press
adidas cow print adidas, Press
adidas cow print adidas, Press

Wales Bonner was the trailblazer who set it all off, as is so often the case with any adidas-related trend. Her hairy collection of Sambas were an instant success and since their release, adidas has been testing the waters with more feral footwear

Leopard-print shoes came first but now a new animal is ruling the fictitious fashion jungle: cows!

And this isn’t only true of adidas sneakers, there’s a whole movement (or should I say, moo-vement) creating a widespread cowhide trend

Cow print is really the moo(d).

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