Since 1996: the History of the adidas Ozweego
Depending on your age, geographic location and nostalgic memory bank, cultural reference points for the could span anywhere from 1996 to 2019. Newschoolers will have front of mind, while OG heads know the ‘Weegz’ from its days as an adidas staple in the late-90s, a creatively fertile period where panel-heavy aesthetics personified sports style.
With chunky footwear on fire across the last few seasons, adidas have revisited the Ozweego nameplate, lacing it with a modern makeover to bring everything up to contemporary spec. Unlike the countless retro rehashes out there in the sneakerweb, the new-gen design is equal-parts nostalgic and progressive, but we’ll cross that metaphorical bridge in more detail later. From the 1 to the 5 – and the beautiful behemoth that is the Ozweego Millennium – this Sneaker Freaker guide to the Ozweego will set you straight. If you know you know, but if you don’t, get ready for a little history lesson.
Building on the first Ozweego’s success, adidas designers buttered up and, as best as we can tell from our research and analysing vintage adidas catalogues, the Ozweego 2 arrived in 1997. The hard-hitting sequel maintained the tried-and-true formula of the original, tweaking the chunked-out runner ever so slightly while once again employing cushy adiPRENE in the forefoot. The following year, however, the Ozweego set sail in a radical new direction. The best was yet to come.
Fast forward into the early 2000s, and the Ozweego Millennium upped the visual ante by setting new standards of beastly chunk, while the silver palette added sci-fi flavour to the growing Weegz timeline. At this point, the nameplate pretty much vanishes (aside from a random Weegz designed for female runners) until a European fashion designer resurrected the shoe with a highly influential intervention.
The update also manages to pay homage to Raf’s resurrection of the model. A translucent ‘support tube’ connects the new design with the Simons-designed predecessors. The end result is an outré Ozweego that looks to its historic past to shape the future at adidas. Both oddly familiar and fresh at the same time, this is the ultimate distillation of Ozweego DNA – the shoe that set the stage for today’s chunky AF technical boom!