Four Stripe Legends: Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys faux adidas SL76

Yesterday we posted an old school adidas SL76 sneaker ad which reminded me that we had a reader of the blog reach out awhile ago looking for sneakers that were like the SL76… except with 4 stripes. They passed along this photo of Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys and Karen Lamm from 1977 right before Wilson released Pacific Ocean Blue. If you want to check out other 4 stripe celebrity sneaker photos we have also posted about Neil Young and Dale Earnhardt Sr and if you want to see a goldmine of celebrity sneaks you should check out the @trainer.spotting instagram account.

Four Stripe Legends - Dennis Wilson faux adidas SL76
Four Stripe Legends faux adidas SL76. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys 1977 photo with Karen Lamm
Adidas SL76 vintage sneaker ad @ The Deffest

Vintage sneaker repair and restoration - Sears The Winner retro runners

It’s been awhile since I posted a vintage sneaker repair here on the blog but today we’ve got a good one. This was a restoration project to see if I could revive these old 4 stripe yellow and black 1977 Sears The Winner retro running shoes. These sneakers were in maybe the worst condition of any vintage pair I have ever seen or owned. The soles were worn through the rubber and down to the foam, they had paint on them and were dirty as hell. It took a couple of hours of cleaning before I shipped them to our Instagram buddy and skilled cobbler craftsman @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over in the UK who fixed the worn, warped and brittle soles.

Before I post the photos of how gnarly these sneakers were here’s what they looked like after the midsole and repair. They came out great.

This is what they looked like prior to the repair. They were all jacked up with brittle, bent and warped soles. FUBAR…

The midsole had been worn all the way through the rubber. Damn.

Due to the level of grime on these shoes I went hard at them with detergent using an old toothbrush to clean the nylon and suede. I don’t usually recommend doing this with vintage sneakers but this case needed the next level of cleaning so I threw them in the washer machine. (Don’t try that at home if you care about your old school sneakers. Instead I recommend taking them to Jason Markk for cleaning.)

Here are some photos of the cleaning process. I removed the laces and let them soak in a mixture of water and detergent then I threw them into the washer machine with the sneakers. The washer machine removed a lot of the soot and brought out the color when they sun dried...

Here’s a before and after photo..

Before and after vintage sneaker repair @ The Deffest

If you have any pairs of vintage kicks that you want to get repaired I highly recommend checking in with @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over on Instagram. Tell him The Deffest sent you. 😎

John Lennon Revolution sneakers and the adidas SL72

We've covered a decent amount of bootleg sneakers on this blog but I am wondering if there are any adidas aficionados that knows the story behind these John Lennon 'Revolution' sneakers? They look like re-branded Adidas SL 72's. This "collab" came out around 2010ish (I think) and is a little weird because John Lennon wore a lot of Stan Smith sneakers and I haven't found one photo of him in SL 72s. These were for sale over at Amazon but are sold out. Bummer.

John-Lennon-adidas-SL72.jpg

Sotheby's & Stadium Goods auction 100 of the World's Rarest Sneakers

UPDATE 7/23/2019: These vintage Nike waffle sneakers sold for $437,500 today.

If anyone has $80,000 - $160,000 laying around Stadium Goods just posted the 100 'Worlds Most Rarest' sneakers up for auction at Sotheby's. Part of this auction is the 1972 Olympic trials handmade Nike waffle racing flat moon shoes.