I hope you look after your footwear as well as I do. These Adidas trainers, pictured, and to my understanding, are now at least fifteen years old,  I bought them then, second-hand, on an internet auction site, for less than ten pounds. Not bad eh!

Unfortunately, these trainers were not handcrafted by a blind man who sat in the shade under a tree on the edge of a road in a Tuscan village, but by many individuals sitting or kneeling at a production line sweating profusely. So, there was never likely to be any Cathedral bells rung in celebration each time a pair of these were completed, just another output number displayed in a packaging and dispatch area.

Adidas, to my knowledge were one of the original Retro sportswear manufacturers, then along popped Kappa and Nike and many others, but the Samba has always remained a firm classic.

At one point this original design was taken out of production and an eventual reinstatement realised just how popular original demand was. None of this ‘glow in the sole insanity or multi coloured uppers’ ever worked for me. All I need is just the three stripes to make a statement, a clear indicator these were made by Adidas. Every time I see the same said word, I tend to repeat the mantra which takes each individual alpha that makes the word up and chant “All Day I Dream About Sex”, of course, that stems back to my teenage years and many long ones ago. Dream about sex all day? …. I probably once did!

Sadly now, these trusty blue samba’s are a little like myself and are getting rather frayed around the edges, and its now time to replace these once fine pieces of workmanship with another pair.

Have you noticed the immense choice of these sporty accoutrements in the sport chain and department stores, its ridiculous. However I am easily pleased, nope, none of that torment, staring at huge walls, all lined up, hundreds of them, touching the shape and being told,”don’t get much call for a size seven these days” Instead, I will be scouring the internet again for a second-hand pair, although with my tiny hoofs, it will be like finding a needle in a haystack, but that’s all part of the chase. No doubt if you are anything like me and you see something you like or are familiar with, no doubt you would normally goes to the ends of the earth to try to find it.

So folks, you will have to excuse me now, as i’m about to fire up my rocket with the retro blasters on. Off in search of the elusive Blue Samba, a rare species in decline and not that far away from extinction.

Fortunately us old poachers know how to keep an old relic or two alive, and make good use of them. Will I be hanging these old ones up as a trophy on display?  No, instead I shall just give them a decent send off and remember them with great fondness.