VIDEO: Adidas Introduces New Stan Smith Shoe

It's always interesting to circumvent that faulty truism, "Out with the old, in with the new." Why not just merge the two? The tennis gods have long watched the pro game's titans do battle with upstarts, and veterans continue to win some of the sport's biggest prizes.

A brand like adidas certainly knows how to home in on such a trend, too, as some of its own styles are ageless, even timeless. To drum up another convenient adage, "If it's not broken, don't fix it."

In conjunction with the release of its new Skateboarding Stan Smith kicks, adidas introduces a short film titled "The Legend of Stan Smith," replete with vintage footage of the former tennis pro, now 67 years old, in his younger playing days—both on tennis courts and on (wait for it) skateboards. Turns out he was quite the trick creator:

Of course Smith himself is thrilled that technical advancements have been made to his namesake shoe, and it's true that it has always looked like skateboarding footwear. A few of the star skateboarding team members at adidas speak to the shoe and to Smith's legacy in the clip. It may run a bit long at more than six minutes—does anyone watch online videos that long anymore?—but that's nitpicking at this point.

What we have here is a deft way to rebrand an icon, and his iconic footwear, for the new set. For those up-and-comers who have designs on seizing the throne. Whether in tennis or in skateboarding, they're everywhere—and well worth outfitting.

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