How Grace Wales Bonner Cemented the Era of the Samba

When Bella Hadid stepped out in a pair of black leather Adidas Sambas in April of 2022, fashion publications everywhere raced to download images from Getty and write a punchy headline about the revival of the affordable sneaker. (We, of course, were one of them.) It was only a matter of time before millions of views tallied under #AdidasSambas on TikTok and the sneakers were added to “Blokecore” mood boards on Pinterest and got the street style seal of approval by the likes of Rihanna, Emily Ratajkowski, and Hailey Bieber. The soccer shoe designed by Adidas in 1949 to give athletes a better grip sneakily became the It fashion sneaker of 2022. And then again in 2023. And it shows no sign of slowing down for 2024.

I spot them everywhere: on a fashion director making her way into an Uber outside of Brandon Maxwell’s F/W 24 runway show; on my 19-year-old brother, who exclusively gains intel from his TikTok feed and ChatGPT; on a stylish elderly woman walking past the Nyhavn houses in Copenhagen. As a fashion editor, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the trends that pop up faster than I can report on them. But despite living in a digital world of ever-changing algorithms and viral aesthetics appearing out of thin air, the Sambas have managed to cut through all the noise. How exactly did the Sambas refuse to become a blip in the trend cycle? To those in the know, the answer is easy. Grace Wales Bonner supercharged the Sambas.

Since 2020, Graces Wales Bonner, a leader in British menswear, has designed 25 sneakers with Adidas, all of which have sold out almost immediately. Her label seamlessly blends her Afro-Atlantic perspective with the different preconceived notions of luxury. It’s sportswear with Black heritage stitched into every piece. Tracksuits with geometric motifs, embroidered tailoring, and vibrant knits are all elements you’ll find in her RTW collections. Her most recent F/W 24 show featured flannel suits, college sweatshirts, and leather varsity jackets inspired by the archives at Howard University and made the familiar athletic silhouettes feel sublime. In fact, Zendaya wears a full Wales Bonner look on British Vogue’s May cover. “What I do is quite subtle, but it’s about attention to detail,” the designer told Vogue in 2021.

With Wales Bonner’s unique voice on sportswear, it only made sense that she would collaborate with Adidas. The collaboration first previewed at London Fashion Week for F/W 20 when the designer introduced her take on Adidas tracksuits and sneakers inspired by her Jamaican heritage. Since then, Wales Bonner has offered iterations on multiple sneakers, including the Japan, Country, Gazelle, SL 72, and of course, the Samba.

Four years later, the collaboration and Samba’s lifespan continues. “Twenty twenty-one was a banner year for the Adidas Samba, but the collaboration definitely helped breathe new life into the retro silhouette,” shares Drew Haines, merchandising director at StockX. As other viral sneaker collaborations tend to dominate the algorithm and then fade out fast, much of the success of Wales Bonner and Adidas’s partnership lies in the fact that the British designer is so in command of her design personality. Haines continues on the designer’s success, “The unique materials and colorways differentiate the collection from other collaborations, and they consistently perform well on StockX.” And it’s not just new colorways Wales Bonner introduced to the sneaker. Her designs include intricate flairs like lace appliqués, crochet laces, animal prints, fold-over tongues, and high-shine metallics. Certain elements such as metallics or leopard print may be top trends currently, but Wales Bonner is always ahead of the curve, as both were subtle features she used in past runway collections.

Drawing from the design codes of her previous collections and her heritage, Wales Bonner reminds me that even sneakers can tell a larger story that goes further than the walls of today’s fashion realm. They help me push the boundaries of my style daily. I pair them with a crisp poplin dress on a rare warm and sunny day in Bryant Park, with sweats and a too-big T-shirt while running errands in the suburbs, and with relaxed trousers and a vintage Prada bag in tow during New York Fashion Week. On all those occasions, I feel like my best self.

It’s not lost on me that Grace Wales Bonner, a Black female designer, can invoke such powerful feelings through her designs—all while bringing in mass commercial success—and still be passed up for higher positions of power. In an earlier piece for Who What Wear, assistant editor Ana Escalante pointed out that “only eight creative directors of the top 30 major luxury brands and leather-goods houses are women, including Miuccia Prada, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Stella McCartney, Virginie Viard, Donatella Versace, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, and Sandra Choi. Out of the select few, none are Black women. Choi, who leads Jimmy Choo, is the only woman of color.”

She’s not the only one not getting her dues. Digital strategist Tariro Makoni, whose fashion analysis often hits viral status, shares with Who What Wear that Wales Bonner along with Rachel Scott, Martine Rose, and Aurora James are all prime examples of what it looks like to “create resonance and connection with your customer through intricate, complex, and authentic storytelling,” yet still be passed up for higher roles in the industry. “I’d love to see the industry expand toward embracing this logic conceptually and theoretically. I think once that becomes the standard, it becomes obvious that certain people require a seat at that table.” Until then, Makoni plans to celebrate these women as they build their own brands. As to the question of whether Wales Bonner is a luxury top contender, Makoni is simple and innately correct in her answer: “In my mind, she’s already there.”

Famed data account Data, But Make it Fashion recently reported that despite the assumption that the Samba is overdone, the style has increased by 60% in popularity this past month. Elle UK reported that in April of 2023, Adidas sold the highest runway of Sambas in the retailer’s history. With these facts in mind, it’s hard to deny that this new era of the Samba is solidified by Grace Wales Bonner’s collaboration. “Every collection is more popular than its last,” says Haines of sales. It’s only up from here.