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Photo courtesy DJ Scammell

Fashion For Men: Stan Smith Tennis Shoes

By Douglas James Scammell

Published 12:49 PDT, Fri June 20, 2025

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A gentleman must have at least one pair of casual wear sneakers in their arsenal of shoes, to wear when you feel like dressing casually.

I can think of no better shoe that meets this category than the iconic Stan Smith tennis shoe made by Adidas.

They are great looking basic white shoes with green on the top of the heel and green on the tongue of the shoe with the portrait and name Stan Smith.

They look great with a casual pair of jeans, shorts, and sometimes for daytime wear and even a more dressier chino dress pant pending the type of casual relaxed environment you find yourself in.

History

First off if you are not familiar with the history of the game of Tennis you are probably wondering who is Stan Smith? And how did this iconic sneaker get to be called Stan Smith?

Stan Smith is a former American professional tennis player who turned pro in 1969 and when in his prime was ranked a number one tennis player in the world by March 2, 1981.

Smith won the 1971 men’s singles U.S. Open Championship and the 1972 men’s Wimbledon Final Championship. Smith retired from playing professionally in the game of tennis in 1985.

Despite having a fantastic tennis playing career, Smith to the general public is probably best known for this now iconic tennis shoe line with his full name on it by Adidas… although the shoe is not recommended for modern tennis playing.

The Adidas’ Stan Smith tennis shoe was first launched in 1965 by Horst Dassler.

Horst was the son of the founder of Adidas Adolf “Adi” Dassler and they worked together.

It was Horst who founded their tennis shoe line. The iconic Stan Smith tennis shoe, was officially born but the original name of this tennis shoe by Adidas was actually named the Robert Haillet after the brand was endorsed by great French tennis player Robert Haillet. But by the time Robert Haillet retired in the late 1960’s Horst Dassler and Adidas wanted to find another Tennis player who could endorse the shoe to help market the shoe into the future with the company and that was Stan Smith.

Adidas could not decide at first if the model should still have Haillet’s name on it or if it should be renamed entirely to Stan Smith. So for several years between 1973 and 1978 the shoe was produced with Stan Smith's portrait and with Haillet's last name written above it on the tongue of the shoe.

However, by 1978 the sneaker was completely renamed after Stan Smith.

In 1973 Stan Smith signed the contract with Adidas and according to Sneaker report this contract is ranked 13th place of the 50 most influential sneakers sponsorships in sports history.

LEGACY

By 1988, about 22 million pairs of Adidas Stan Smith shoes had been sold worldwide and that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. By 1994, the number of pairs sold reached 23.7 million.

Moving into the 21 Century the shoe had sold over 30 million pairs worldwide since 1971. Despite the shoes enormous success the shoe was taken out of production in 2011 but then was pushed back into production 2014 and remains in production in the present.

Neal Heard who is the author of Sneaker Cultural History Trainers ranked the Stan Smith Tennis Shoe sixth on his list of top 10 sneakers of all-time.

For some sneaker collectors the most sought after vintage Adidas Stan Smith versions are the early versions of the shoe made in France and are considered to be highly valuable.

However for someone like myself who just admires a new pair of Stan Smith’s the shoe remains basically unchanged for over 45 years. The shoe can be purchased today for below $200.00 which is pretty decent for such an iconic sneaker.