Our story begins with a midsummer excursion to the bayside suburb of Beaumaris to buy a pair of vintage Australian-made ROME. A quirk of history—largely unbeknownst to most—for decades, select adidas shoes were produced down under. At the time it was a chance to have something in the archives “just in case”. 

That all came together when adidas’ Consortium team approached us to create something new. The mission was clear: bring the City Series to our hometown. We had to make the adidas MELBOURNE. To cut a long story short, after a whirlwind of design and development it’s finally here…  

This is a shoe for the people. The fruits of our labour, UP THERE and adidas Consortium. This is the adidas MELBOURNE. 

The uppers are made from lightweight and breathable mesh, inspired by the signature adidas shoe of Melbourne sporting icon Rod Laver. This mesh combines with overlays of suede and leather modelled after a running spike used in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics—uncovered in the adidas archive while researching the project.  

Every feature is considered—no stitch or panel there by chance—each a deliberate choice informed by obsessive research. The tongue replicates the Australian-made ROME in excruciating detail down to the specific texture of the backing. The label was scanned and modified to read “Made by UP THERE”—worded to convey that, this shoe was made for Melbourne.  

In-store January 29 /// Online January 30, 6PM (AEDT)

Online Release Times: