A 1976 Tennis Icon Gets a Chaotic Twist in This Experimental Collab Dropping April 25, 2025

It takes guts to remix a classic. And Brain Dead, the LA-based creative collective known for its genre-defying output, has never lacked guts. This spring, they’re teaming up with adidas to take a swing at the Forest Hills — a heritage tennis silhouette with a clean history and cult following. But don’t expect anything restrained. Dropping globally on April 25, the Brain Dead x adidas Forest Hills project reimagines the shoe as a colorful, textural, and totally offbeat experiment that lives right at the edge of nostalgia and disruption.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a subtle update. It’s a full-on reinterpretation. The kind that challenges what “classic” means today.

The Foundation: Forest Hills’ Legacy

Before we get into Brain Dead’s overhaul, it’s worth looking back at what made the Forest Hills matter in the first place. Launched in 1976, the shoe was originally designed as a performance tennis sneaker. What made it different was its lightweight construction — thanks in part to its distinctive yellow polyurethane midsole developed by NASA — and its sleek leather upper, which gave it a clean, polished profile. It was a high-performance sneaker with understated elegance.

In the decades that followed, the Forest Hills evolved from court essential to subcultural staple, embraced by terracewear fans in the UK and retro collectors worldwide. It’s not just another archive silhouette — it’s a piece of sneaker history.

That’s precisely why Brain Dead’s involvement is so intriguing. They aren’t in the business of reverence. They’re in the business of reprogramming icons.

Design Chaos with Purpose

In true Brain Dead fashion, this collab doesn’t just tweak the Forest Hills — it dismantles and reassembles it. Each pair from the collection features shaggy suede uppers that instantly reject the smooth leather minimalism of the OG. Texture is everywhere. Instead of looking clean and crisp, the shoes feel rough and loud — meant to be seen, touched, and questioned.

There are four colorways, and none of them play it safe:

• Black/Natural (JR7942): Deep black suede paired with bone-colored stripes and an off-white midsole. Understated — at least by Brain Dead’s standards.
• Cream White/Night Red (JR7943): A vintage-leaning cream base disrupted by clashing multi-color stripes. The visual equivalent of a scratched-up vinyl record.
• Violet Tone/Core Black (JR7971): A punch of green with burgundy and off-white accents. This one has the strongest visual throwback to 70s sportswear.
• Shadow Brown/Red (JR7940): Earth tones gone loud. Think brown suede, bold red stripes, and a cream sole that adds contrast without calming anything down.

What’s consistent across all four is the balance between disorientation and detail. These shoes look chaotic at first glance, but every element — from the hairy suede to the oversized branding — feels intentional. Co-branded hits appear on the tongue, heel, and insole. The adidas Three Stripes remain, but Brain Dead distorts them with unusual color choices and jagged energy.

This is design that pokes holes in the idea of sneaker “heritage.” It asks: why stick to the rules of a classic when you can rewrite them entirely?

Who This Drop Is For

This collab isn’t for purists. If you love the Forest Hills for its clean lines and archival appeal, you might hate what Brain Dead has done here. But if you’re into sneakers that make a statement — the kind of pairs that don’t just sit on a shelf but start conversations — this drop is squarely in your lane.

Brain Dead has always designed for outsiders. They don’t care about trends so much as moods, movements, and the messy blur between fashion, art, and culture. This Forest Hills drop feels like an extension of that ethos. It’s a shoe for people who love the idea of something old being made aggressively new. Not polished. Not perfect. But alive.

The Bigger Picture: Why This Collaboration Matters

The Forest Hills is a relatively low-profile model in adidas’s vault. It’s not the Superstar or the Samba. But that’s part of what makes this collab matter. Instead of chasing hype around the same recycled silhouettes, Brain Dead is pulling something out of the margins and giving it new relevance.

That’s important in a market oversaturated with predictable collaborations. At a time when everyone’s doing safe retro reissues or slapping logos on established hits, Brain Dead is going left. They’re reminding us that reinvention isn’t just about colorways — it’s about energy.

This isn’t just a sneaker drop. It’s a conversation piece. A wearable argument against sameness. A messy, unexpected celebration of design.

Release Details: What You Need to Know

• Release Date: April 25, 2025
• Price: $150 USD
• Retailers: Available at Brain Dead flagship locations, select adidas Consortium accounts, adidas.com, and the adidas CONFIRMED app.

The collection is expected to be limited, though not impossible to cop if you’re paying attention. Brain Dead drops tend to sell out fast, but they also attract a slightly different crowd than mainstream collabs — more zine readers than resellers.

Impression

The Brain Dead x adidas Forest Hills doesn’t pretend to be universally loved. It’s not a crowd-pleaser. But it’s not trying to be. What it is, is fearless. And in a landscape where everyone’s remixing the past with a careful, commercial hand, that kind of boldness feels refreshing.

If you want a Forest Hills that honors tradition, stick with the retros. But if you want one that challenges the whole idea of tradition — that pushes into the weird, the unexpected, and the unorthodox — this is the one to watch.

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