adidas Tubular Doom Primeknit Men's Sneakers

Product Information

On the bulkier side of things the Tubular 4 had an integrated pump on the side and four separate air chambers, clearly based off the beta version of the previous year. Those first 500 were recieved well, and just a year later the Tubular line launched, utilising all of the tech the Radical prototypes had pioneered. The concept behind the design was born from the ongoing quest for superior cushioning that could give athletes that little extra kick that might shave a fraction of a second from their best times.

The futuristic concept was also known as the X-29 and had four separate air chambers on the sole that could be adjusted using an integrated pump – they even had a digital LCD pressure gauge. There’s never been a one-to-one retro but the influence is clear, for example the Tubular 2 has heavily influenced the Tubular 93. It was offered as the lightweight option, without the inbuilt mechanics, but only had two adjustable air bags in the heel and a forefoot that was cushioned with EVA foam. Instead of focussing on the engineering, the sole reimagined the concept with new methods of production.It wasn’t until the sneaker was reissued in 2014 as the Tubular Runner that the style single-handedly ushered in a new era of sneakers.

It was made in a way that wasn’t previously possible, but stood up to the vision that the designers had in the 90s. The midsole was made from high-performance Pebax plastics, while the air chambers were made from poured rubber. More recent additions to the line incorporate elements of the old designs into ultra-modern concepts – like the Tubular Doom which pairs an old-school lacing structure with cutting edge knitted construction. Material Matters is our weekly tech section, where we take a peek behind the mesh curtain and break down the building blocks of the industry. It wasn’t so much the technical features that got him thinking, but more the concept that the designers had been working with – the prototypes and the thought processes they illustrated.

A discovery deep within the adidas archive had motivated adidas Originals’ VP of global design Nic Galway to revive the Tubular name, as well as the ambitious design ideals that kicked off the project almost three decades earlier. Originals released the Adidas Tubular in 1993, however it was deemed too ahead of its time with its futuristic aesthetic and shelved after only two years. Designers worked on one more prototype, an advanced version of the Tubular 4, but were forced to concede to the fact that the technology they needed to manufacture the shoe didn’t exist yet. The mind of a sneaker designer exists in a temporal limbo – creating for the future with constant reference to the past.

They were cobbled together using parts from the Equipment series, with a Torsionbar and some industrial looking connectors. From time to time concepts can stray a little too far into the future, resulting in ideas that the world is not yet ready for – such are the perils of the visionary. The idea resonated with Y-3 designer Yohji Yamamoto, so he and Galway came up with the Qasa – not strictly a Tubular but a hugely successful silhouette nonetheless.From its roots as a DIY-style fanzine to today’s global coverage, its pages have documented every colab, custom, limited edition, retro reissue, Quickstrike, Hyperstrike and Tier Zero sneaker released over the last two decades. In essence, they were thinking too far ahead, the Tube was the future but the collective mindset was yet to catch up. In 2013 the market wasn’t oriented around technical silhouettes like it had been in the mid-90s, so Galway decided to strip back the Tubular to its core. The design he came up with was comprised of two densities of moulded EVA, in a tube-like shape that was wrapped around the sole – combining targeted support and cushioning.