ADIDAS SPZL & END. REUNITE TO CELEBRATE MANCHESTER

Two years on from By The Sea, END. and adidas SPZL are back for another round. The products are different, but the background is the same: a shared obsession with British terrace culture, archival sportswear, and local scenes. Since 2014, Gary Aspden’s adidas SPZL has raided the adidas archive to rework its silhouettes for the current day. Built alongside Aspden and the SPZL team, this collection reinterprets those classics next to apparel for a full fit-out.

No city has football, music, and style woven more tightly in its makeup than Manchester, and adidas has always been a thread running through that. Whether it’s on the terraces or on the floor at the Haçienda. It’s the ground SPZL stands on. Since 2014, the label has treated that lineage as source material rather than nostalgia, reissuing archive silhouettes for people who can date a shoe by its stitching. That’s the crossover END. and adidas SPZL share: football lads, record diggers, the ones who knew before it was obvious.

The campaign is rooted in this legendary culture. Black Grape founders Shaun Ryder and Kermit—two of the city’s most important musical figures—stand against an ever-changing skyline. It’s shot by Jamil GS, who spent the ’90s documenting New York’s hip-hop scene, capturing Jay-Z, A Tribe Called Quest, D’Angelo, Mary J. Blige, and countless others. For adidas SPZL x END., he draws the line between those New York icons and Manchester’s own.

Three footwear styles lead the collection. The New York II Outdoor SPZL reworks the retro running silhouette in dark grey and teal. A Munchen II SPZL comes from a pure terrace perspective, cut in soft green pigskin suede while the Lytham SPZL takes its cue from boat shoes for a more relaxed feel in tan suede.