Paying homage to his favourite football boot of all-time and to one of his sporting idols, Italian designer Leo Colacicco of LC23 fame has amalgamated the adidas Samba and the Predator Mania in truly unique fashion to create the one-of-one adidas Samba Mania.
Leo Colacicco’s LC23 label has made a habit of crossing the white line into the world of football on several occasions now, notably through collaborations with Kappa for SSC Bari and Umbro, for their 30-year celebrations of the Speciali. These collaborations are fuelled by Colacicco’s deep-rooted love of the beautiful game, and that’s once again on display with his latest custom creation which, frankly, we’d give our left foot for (it’s mainly only used for standing on anyway).
There are many Predator shoes out there, but not many are as unique as what we’re looking at here. Using the Samba (whose own resurgence shows no signs of letting up anytime soon) as a base, Colacicco takes focus on the adidas Predator Mania, which originally launched back in 2002. Back then, David Beckham was the poster boy of the Mania, which came with its iconic fold-over tongue, and the England man really ramped up the concept of personalising boots, featuring the names of his children stitched on the upper, along with nods to his signature number 7 (which then became 23), the flag of the English national team (which he then added to the flags of the nations he played in), his own initials and his wife, Victoria.
Through the use of handmade crochet and embroidery, the Samba Mania, as it has been dubbed, captures all elements of Beckham’s Predator Mania (red tongue, red heel with Three Stripes, elastic to hold the tongue down) and was further embellished with embroidery of the names of his four children, his and Victoria's initials, the Union Jack and Italian flags, and the numbers 7 and 23.
Surely a shoe-in (forgive the pun) for our recent list of best Predator trainers.
