Handball Spezial

Sporting heritage

Handball has been popular in Germany since it was first played there in the early 20th century. Even during the years when the country was divided into East and West, the sport maintained a strong following on either side of the border and, come the 1978 World Handball Championships, both teams were title contenders. In the end, West Germany prevailed, defeating the Soviet Union by a single point in the final, while their East German counterparts overcame Denmark to take third. This success drew even more people to the courts, and with West Germany due to host the competition in 1982, handball was hitting new heights, making it the perfect time for German sportswear brand adidas to construct a shoe specifically for the sport. What they produced was a sleek piece of performance footwear known as the adidas Handball Spezial.

Built for agility and speed

Handball moves at a rapid pace, with players required to carry out sudden bursts of speed, perform sharp cuts and leap through the air to attack the goal. Since the predominant form of the game is played on an indoor court not unlike those used in basketball, any shoe made for it must have the necessary grip to support quick, precise movements and protect against slippage and injury. Adidas’ footwear designers of the late 70s were well aware of this and built the shoe to meet the exacting requirements of Europe’s premier handball teams. For its name, they took the word Spezial from the brand’s already extensive archives, which had been used on its sporting models as far back as the 1960s.

A grippy sole

The foundation of the Handball Spezial was its gum rubber cupsole. As well as featuring a tread pattern that delivered excellent grip, it was thin and low to the ground for good court feel, while soft cushioning helped protect the foot from the impact of jumps and solid steps. Its slender build kept the weight down, and the upper added durable style through the use of plush suede alongside a reinforced heel tab made of white leather. To this last feature, adidas applied its new Trefoil logo, which had only been used on the brand’s shoes since 1976, with the well-established Three-Stripes logo taking its usual place on each flank.

European growth

Although it may seem technologically simple by modern standards, when it debuted in 1979, the Handball Spezial was a high-performance indoor sports shoe, and it quickly became widespread on courts across Europe, particularly in those countries where handball was most popular, such as Denmark, Sweden and Germany. However, it wasn’t long before the Spezial found its place in another sporting landscape, though this time it was as a lifestyle shoe. 

A football fan’s favorite

Throughout the 70s and 80s, football fans traveled across Europe to watch their home teams compete in the UEFA Cup. While on the continent, they bought apparel made by European brands that was not yet available in the United Kingdom, thus allowing them to stand out when they returned home. One of the most popular was adidas, whose footwear became an essential part of the casual subculture of 1980s football terraces. The Handball Spezial was often chosen alongside other classics like the Samba and Gazelle, all of which came in simple colorways that could be used to show support for your team when the tones matched.

Spreading through the culture

Many of those wearing foreign brands were from the younger generations, who donned them in other cultural contexts. As a result, the Handball Spezial spread into areas such as the underground acid house music scene and the growing b-boy culture, which had recently been brought over from the United States. During the 1980s, the Spezial was discovered by many such people in the dance halls, football stands and urban streets of the United Kingdom. As a result, though the silhouette faded into the background in the years that followed, when it was revived several decades later, those who were there in the beginning remembered it fondly.

Gary Aspden

One man who had been a big fan of adidas footwear during this period was Gary Aspden. Having grown up in the small Lancashire market town of Darwen just north of Manchester, he was exposed to shoes like the Handball Spezial through football and music. Eventually, this interest led to a job as Aspden was employed by adidas in 1999. Working in the brand’s entertainment marketing division, he made a name for himself as a great collaborator, and his efforts helped to connect adidas with a number of celebrity partners. After almost a decade, Aspden set up his own company but continued to work with adidas as a brand consultant. In this role, he helped build the profile of the Originals collection and was also involved in organizing a series of special events centered around the London 2012 Olympics, which proved to be a huge success. Off the back of this, he launched a brand new project in 2013 which would revive the Spezial name, leading to the eventual reintroduction and return to prominence of the 70s handball shoe.

An extensive collection and an intriguing idea

While working for adidas, Aspden noticed how the brand’s shoes transcended their sporting beginnings to connect with other aspects of culture. He began to collect adidas sneakers, building up an impressive assortment of both common and rare colorways. Over time, he became known for his collection and would sometimes be asked to lend certain pairs to events on sneaker culture. However, his feeling was that, while interesting, these shows were too broad to tell the full story behind the designs. Inspired by this, Aspden decided to curate his own sneaker exhibition with a focus on one brand in particular: adidas. He contacted another of adidas’ consultants, Mike Chetcuti, to see what he thought and, with Chetcuti’s blessing, started planning the ambitious event. To help set things up, Aspden enlisted talented photographer Lee Stanley and graphic designer Gary Watson, who himself had discovered adidas while traveling to Europe as a young football fan. Together, they set about telling the story of the Handball Spezial and the brand’s other classic sneakers.

Celebrity connections

Focusing specifically on adidas would allow Aspden to delve deep into the history of the German company, giving people a real insight into its creative impact on sportswear and lifestyle trends, particularly in the North West of England. After pulling together hundreds of pairs from his own collection, Aspden reached out to some of the sneaker enthusiasts he had built relationships with throughout his career, including legendary Stone Roses singer Ian Brown and Britpop star Noel Gallagher, to ask for some of their most unique colorways and models, many of which ended up being a key part of the exhibition.

An insightful exhibition

When it opened in London’s Hoxton Gallery in July 2013, Aspden’s exhibition, entitled ‘adidas SPEZIAL: An Incomplete adidas History from a Fan’s Perspective’, contained over 600 pairs of sneakers alongside rare collectibles and other brand memorabilia. It included models from as far back as the 1960s, with little-known silhouettes, one-of-a-kind designs and editions signed by celebrity fans such as Naomi Campbell, Eminem and Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, who had helped to popularize adidas sneakers among the hip hop community in the 1980s. Crucially, all of the shoes in the exhibition came from the fans, with not one being donated by adidas. This made it a true celebration of sneaker enthusiasts and their passion for heritage silhouettes. Famous adidas collectors from the world of fashion like Jeremy Scott and Yohji Yamamoto also lent personal anecdotes to the event, providing those lucky enough to attend with an especially rich experience. Through this, Aspden was able to show how by designing shoes like the Handball Spezial with an authentic sporting purpose in mind, adidas effectively connected people from all different backgrounds through a shared love of sports, music and fashion.

The SPZL project

Although not specifically set up for the Handball Spezial sneaker, the exhibition brought renewed attention to its name, which for Aspden epitomizes the best of the adidas brand. Following the Hoxton Gallery show, the word Spezial returned to the top of adidas’ vernacular as Aspden was given charge of a new project called adidas SPZL. Over the next 10 years, dozens of sneakers were produced under the SPZL name, each one taken from the brand’s extensive back catalog. Using his expert knowledge, Aspden pulled out heritage models from various points in history and delivered them to a new generation of sneaker fans in a compelling celebration of adidas’ legacy.

The perfect moment

With its name once again in the mainstream, adidas decided to bring back the Handball Spezial silhouette, releasing a host of new colorways in 2018 and 2019. As part of the immensely popular Originals line, it saw some success, but it wasn’t until the 2020s that it really took off. At the beginning of the decade, epic collaborations and viral moments made the Samba and Gazelle a common sight on city streets around the world, and by 2023, sneaker enthusiasts were ready for another silhouette, presenting the ideal moment for the adidas Handball Spezial. In 2023, actress Gal Gadot was pictured in a dark navy pair while on the streets of New York, and the shoe began to spread around other fashion-conscious cities like Paris. Then, in the spring of 2024, it showed up on the social media feeds of influential fashionistas such as Molly-Mae Hague, who, on a day out in London, wore a charming brown pair that quickly sold out in many shops the following day. Meanwhile, Gary Aspden was busy spreading the Spezial name far and wide as he set up another exhibition called DECADE that celebrated ten years of the SPZL project.

Fashionable collaborations

Thanks to significant cultural moments like these, the Handball Spezial was firmly back among adidas’ most beloved silhouettes, and it was chosen as a template for collaborations with stylish fashion labels such as the environmentally conscious Sporty & Rich and Ronnie Fieg’s lifestyle brand, Kith. The shoe’s versatile, minimalist outer provided an excellent canvas for these masters of style and, while the Kith edition was defined by its smart leather upper, Sporty & Rich produced a set of four sneakers coated in traditional suede with classic retro tones and white Three-Stripes logos on the flanks. These classy collaborative versions of the Handball Spezial were accompanied by dozens of general release colorways with comfort-enhancing features like a spongy Ortholite sockliner, and the silhouette’s popularity reached great heights once more.

An icon of sport and fashion

After more than 40 years of history, the Handball Spezial has become one of the most popular of all the brand’s heritage sneakers. Like many of its peers, the shoe’s initial success was built upon its practical sporting function, while its later prosperity was based on a timeless esthetic, which allowed it to return as a sophisticated fashion item for the 21st century. Today, the Spezial remains a comfortable option for casual indoor sports, but its compelling vintage style is what has made it an outstanding icon of modern streetwear culture.