Sneaker Grails: Noel Gallagher’s Limited Edition adidas Trainers

Here’s a hypothetical question for everybody: If you could own one pair of adidas sneakers that were either designed or inspired by a musical artist, which one would you go with? My guess is that most people would probably pick any of the Yeezys by Kanye West, but I already have a pair. If they’re not feeling the Yeezys, maybe they go with one of Pusha T’s EQT Running Support collabs. How about a signed pair of Snoop Dogg cleats? I’m good with that too.

So if I have all of those kicks already, what else is there? Well, there’s the Big Sean Detroit Players and while that’s a viable option, I would have to go with a pair that is quite limited but also appropriate considering how much I loved this particular artist’s music during my formative years. In all honesty, even if I didn’t have any of the sneakers I already mentioned, I would still pick this pair of “trainers” over everything, which is the British term for kicks. In this edition of Sneaker Grails, let’s take a look back at the adidas NG-72, which are former Oasis member Noel Gallagher’s “player exclusive” kicks.

“A big, big bag full of money, two VIP tickets to the World Cup Final and they said I could endorse my own adidas shoes.” – Noel Gallagher and how he ended up with an adidas PE

In maybe not the most shocking news in the world, there was a time when Noel Gallagher was totally addicted to drugs (considering he wrote “Champagne Supernova”, I’ll just leave it at that). When he quit the habit in 1998, he found a new fix in the form of trainers. Considering he was a pretty rich guy and Oasis was at the peak of their popularity during that time, getting sneakers was no problem for the songwriter and occasional singer for the band. He started buying multiple adidas vintage trainers and hiding them in all sorts of nooks and crannies so that his wife wouldn’t see them.  He has since cut his collection down to a more reasonable number, but the itch is still there. See? Celebrities are just like us ordinary sneakerheads. They have that burning desire to accumulate as many pairs as possible, lose their mind, cut their losses and then do it all over again.

Anyways, in 2010, adidas Originals tapped Gallagher and Ian Brown to participate in a series of ads for the World Cup. It was there the relationship between the musician and his favorite brand started in an official capacity and a year later, they released the NG-72. Limited to only 200 pairs in the world and sold only in London and Berlin to coincide with the release of his 2011 album Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the shoe’s trainer’s signature feature are Noel’s picture plastered on the tongue on the shoe with the “Endorsed By” box in the same style as the adidas Stan Smith and his initials can be found on the laces and the heel tab. A quick Google search will reveal that while many of the shoes did end up getting sold, Gallagher seemed to have quite the stash for himself and has ended up donating many of them to various UK charities complete with an autograph.

With only 200 pairs in existence, finding any of these is going to be a pain and even then, the price that I would have to pay to convince a Gallagher/Oasis superfan to let go of them is probably unreasonable. Maybe my best chance is to tweet Liam Gallagher and ask him if he has a pair and hope he sends them my way out of spite for his brother. Ah well, don’t look back in anger, except for maybe this one time…

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