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Adidas Continental 80: the adidas without three stripes

Place the Continental 80 next to any other adidas model and something is missing. On the flank there isn’t a triple stripe but a braided cord, twisted in two colors, that runs like a thin rope over the leather. Beneath it is a row of round perforations. The trademark on which adidas built its entire identity is here replaced by a decorative line.

In 1986 that was exactly the problem. The original Continental was an indoor shoe with a tennis look, and without the three stripes almost no one recognized it as adidas. It sold poorly and disappeared from the range. When adidas brought the model back in 2018, that same absence proved to be its strongest asset: an adidas for those who prefer not to wear a big logo.

The number is not a year of manufacture. The 80 was added only with the reissue and refers to the decade, not to 1980. Anyone looking for that year is looking for the wrong shoe.

The rest of the construction is equally sober. A flat, thin sole rim without a raised cupsole, with adidas and the trefoil pressed into the rubber. On the flank a small rectangular label with the same wordmark, which on most versions is the only real logo. In the lighter colorways there’s a suede toe piece above a gum-coloured sole, and the Vegan versions replace the leather with plant-based material.

Next to the other adidas classics the difference is immediately noticeable. The Stan Smith places its stripes as three rows of perforations in the leather, the Samba wears them outright as leather bands, and the Continental 80 does away with them entirely. The Continental Vulc is the same shape on a vulcanised skate sole: flatter, more flexible and built to stick to a board.

On this page you can see which versions of the Adidas Continental 80 are currently hottest according to the Hypescore, from what price they can be found and how many shops have them in stock.