German sneaker maker Adidas rolls out a new line of Adidas Originals that will have all the kidz from London's Hackney to Tokyo's Naka-meguro to the Lower East Side of New York City salivating madly to get their mitts on a pair of these.

We especially like the Nizza Xtra Hi Camo shoe, pictured above, center. These are sweet, but just remember that these kicks will set you back $175.00.

The new Originals shoe line includes an awesome pair of graffiti-inspired sneakers called the SStar Graffiti M (above, left), which sell for $80.00, and the Originals APS shoe (above, right) that comes in "dark sand," orange and coffee colors and retails, like the Nizza Xtra Hi, for a cool $175.00

Of course, Adidas have been making well-designed athletic footwear for a long time. But since they started opening the Adidas Originals concept stores two years, first in SoHo, New York, then in Tokyo and Berlin, the German company has taken shoe design to the next level and heightened its profile through a series of expensive, stylishly clever commercials and hip advertising campaigns.

Like Puma, Adidas discovered several years ago that the huge and ever-growing market for athletic footwear was one where consumers were buying sneakers not for athletic use, but rather as a matter of personal style and fashion.

Especially popular in recent years were the company's retro sneaker designs. Retro styles not only became popular but have become "classics," with some sneakers having attained vintage status among a growing international legion of collectors. In some case, such shoes have greatly appreciated in value and have sold for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars on Internet auction sites like eBay.

And also like Puma, Adidas figured out that it could make a whole lot of money and promote its brand even better by setting up its own limited retail operation in key cities to showcase its latest designs and its fashion-forward style.

By the way, in case you didn't know it, Puma is also a German sneaker maker. It was founded in mid-century by Rudolf Dassler, the brother of the guy who started Adidas, Adolf "Adi" Dassler." (Puma was launched after the two Dassler brothers had a big dispute.) Adidas was founded in 1928.

Walk around in a pair of the Nizza Xtras or the SStar Graffiti sneaks this spring and you'll be sure to get a lot of envious looks. But, hey, keep 'em clean! These are destined to become vintage classics some day, so don't let 'em get dirty.

--Shibuya Kid

RELATED LINKS

You've been waiting for it. Now it's here. Kill Bill Vol. 2, the anxiously awaited sequel to director-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1, opened last Friday and went straight to the top of the box office.

If you had any doubts about Tarantino's genius and the substance (or lack thereof) of the first installment of Kill Bill (and quite a few critics did), then Vol. 2 will put those doubts to rest. Combined, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 add up to a masterwork.

Kill Bill part deux is the meat-and-potatoes to Vol. 1's high-calorie, low-vitamin and gratuitously sugar-coated pop cultural junk-food feast. Or, if you will, Vol. 1 is an exquisite hamburger served up by an exquisite French chef, say Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Vol. 2 is filet mignon as part of a seven-course meal by the same chef.

The story begins with The Bride, played to perfect pitch by Uma Thurman, racing along in a ... [MORE]