Shoe Palace Highlights Its Berryessa Flea Market Origin Story to Inspire Its 30th Anniversary Adidas Collaboration
Long before Shoe Palace became a go-to store for sneakerheads with more than 200 locations, the retailer’s founders sold shoes out of the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose, Calif. With its 30th anniversary here, these beginnings have inspired its latest celebratory sneaker collaboration.
Arriving this week is the Shoe Palace x Adidas “Flea Market” collaboration. The collab features two sneakers, including new-look iterations of the Forum ’84 Low and the NMD R1. To pull off the theme, Shoe Palace took inspiration from the vintage signs in the flea market.
For the Forum ’84 Low, Shoe Palace added a flea market logo to the lateral toe box of each shoe, and the straps feature debossed ticket icons. Also, it has custom insoles highlighting the flea market logo used in the early 1990s, and the lateral midsole includes both the year the Berryessa Flea Market started and Shoe Palace’s original stall numbers. The shoes are made with premium white leather uppers (with stripes executed in smooth gray suede), off-white midsoles and gray outsoles.
As for the NMD R1 of the collection, the colorway — which employs cardboard, dark brown and impact orange hues — was inspired by a vintage sign. The vintage sign inspiration also appears on the custom insoles. Further diving into the theme, the retailer added a flea market logo to the lateral toe, the pull tabs on the heels were designed to represent tickets that you would get for rides and games, and the lateral midsole includes both the year the flea market started and Shoe Palace’s original stall numbers. Also, the retailer printed “Shoe Palace” on the upper’s tonal 3M stripes.
The Shoe Palace x Adidas “Flea Market” collaboration arrives Aug. 25 in Shoe Palace stores and online via Shoepalace.com. The Forum ’84 Low will retail for $120 and the NMD R1 will come with a $160 price tag.
Last week, Shoe Palace revealed another collaboration to celebrate its 30th anniversary, a reimagined iteration of the On Cloudnova silhouette. The look was inspired by Shoe Palace’s brick-and-mortar debut, Store No. 1 Bascom, which was located in San Jose. According to Shoe Palace, the retailer’s founders took over an existing floral shop and transformed it into a shoe store. To pull this inspiration off, Shoe Palace dressed the On Cloudnova sneaker with flowers, including edelweiss, a Swiss flower, which serves as a nod to On’s roots, as well as the forget-me-not.