Taschen The adidas Archive. The Footwear Collection. 45th Ed. (45th Edition)

I’ve kept a rotating stack of sneaker references on my desk for years, and the adidas archive book has earned a permanent spot near the top. It’s compact enough to live within arm’s reach but substantial in content, a mix that makes it as useful for quick lookups as it is for an evening rabbit hole into adidas history.

What it is—and who it’s for

At its core, this is a 512-page hardcover survey of adidas footwear, presented in a multilingual format. Think of it as a visual catalog threaded with concise historical notes rather than a narrative history. If you collect, resell, design, style, or simply appreciate how one of the most influential sportswear brands iterated its shoes across decades, this book is built for you. It’s not a deep technical manual, and it’s not a memoir. It sits squarely in the reference-and-inspiration category.

The book’s strength is its breadth. Page after page pairs clean product photography with short captions that anchor each model in time and context. It’s the sort of reference that helps you answer “What year did this version appear?” or “How did the silhouette evolve between these two editions?”

Size, build, and usability

The footprint—roughly 6.1 by 8.5 inches—strikes a good balance between desk reference and coffee-table piece. At 2.51 pounds, it’s dense, but not unwieldy. I can hold it in one hand while scanning a bookshelf, but extended one-handed browsing isn’t exactly comfortable. On a table, it’s great.

The binding on my copy feels solid and the pages have a coated stock that helps the photography pop without glare-heavy gloss. It doesn’t fully lie flat, but it stays open well enough that I could transcribe model names or codes without fighting the spine. Expect Taschen-level production: clean printing, consistent color, and tight page trims.

Content and organization

The adidas archive book organizes footwear historically, with a clear sense of progression. I appreciated how quickly I could bounce from early performance icons to lifestyle staples and back again. The curation prioritizes signature lines, category-defining trainers, and crossovers that made their way into culture. Captions are short but purposeful—more like museum labels than essay paragraphs—and often include dates, model names, and design intent.

What makes it workable as a reference is its consistent layout. Photography is shot straight and high fidelity, typically on neutral backgrounds, making it easy to compare proportions and details across years. However, the compact format means some images are necessarily smaller than you might wish for intricate inspection (eyelets, outsole patterns, subtle stitching). For those moments, I found myself reaching for a magnifier or a digital image search to complement the print spread.

Being a multilingual edition, the book includes text in multiple languages. In practice, that means captions sit alongside repeated language blocks and introductory essays appear in more than one language. It’s broadly well executed, though you’ll occasionally run into sections where translation coverage feels uneven—some early pages appear more generous in one language than another. It’s a minor stutter, but if you’re looking for long-form commentary in your primary language, expect some variability.

Image quality and typography

The photography is the hero. Color fidelity is excellent; whites are neutral rather than blown out, and darker suedes retain texture. The shoes are presented respectfully, with a museum-like clarity that avoids stylistic gimmicks. Typography is clean and readable, with headings and captions easy to scan. There’s an economy to the design that suits the subject: let the shoes do the talking.

Where it shines

• Range and representation: The selection covers performance, terrace culture, collaborations, and lifestyle stalwarts without feeling lopsided. If you’re charting how a single silhouette splintered into variants—or how tech from one sport migrated into another—this is a helpful map.
• Quick recall: As a desk companion, it’s excellent. I’ve used it to verify release windows, cross-check similar colorways, and jog my memory on a model lineage before a buying decision.
• Inspiration value: Designers and creatives will find a steady stream of cues—panel breaks, material mixes, branding placements—that lend themselves to mood boards and concept work.
• Production quality: For a book with this much imagery, consistent printing matters. Here, it’s handled with care.

Where it falls short

• Recent-collab coverage: If you’re hoping for extensive treatment of the most headline-grabbing collaborations of the last decade, temper expectations. The focus leans archival and historically grounded. That’s a virtue for heritage seekers, but it means some major modern stories get less airtime than you might expect.
• Image scale: The compact size is great for portability but limits the real estate for detail-rich shoes. Close-up insets would have helped when materials or micro-logos carry significance.
• Indexing depth: The book would benefit from a more robust index that includes alternative model names, regional naming differences, and SKU references. It’s navigable, but power users may want layer-on tools (stickers, tabs, or a personal index) for faster recall.
• Translation consistency: The multilingual approach is welcome, but a handful of pages feel uneven between languages. It won’t impede most readers, yet it’s noticeable if you compare sections side by side.

Practical use in a workflow

• Collectors and resellers: I used the book to double-check a pair’s lineage before listing and to confirm whether a colorway aligned with a particular production era. It won’t replace serial-number databases or authenticity guides, but it’s a reliable companion.
• Designers and students: As a crash course in form evolution, it’s strong. Flip through early athletic models and you’ll see the design DNA that later gets abstracted into lifestyle offerings. It’s a useful primer to understand how constraints—materials, manufacturing, sport-specific needs—influenced outcomes.
• Stylists and content creators: For building lookbooks or editorial concepts, the visual clarity and chronological rhythm are helpful. It’s easy to mark pages and plan shoots or posts anchored to a specific period or design motif.
• Educators and librarians: As a shelf-stable reference that survives frequent use, it’s a good pick. The hardcover build has held up through weeks of daily handling without scuffs or loose signatures.

How it compares to digital resources

Online databases and community wikis will always beat a book on immediacy and comprehensiveness for obscure variants. What this book offers is cohesion. There’s continuity in seeing models laid out with a singular photographic and editorial standard. I found that the book’s curated selection reduces noise—useful when you’re trying to understand what actually mattered and why, rather than wading through mis-tagged images and rumor-driven timelines.

The sweet spot, for me, is using the book as a first pass to anchor a model in time and context, then stepping online for granular hunting (regional drops, unreleased samples, deep SKU data). Treat it as the foundation rather than the entire house.

Value and longevity

Given the production quality and the 512-page scope, the price-to-utility ratio feels fair. More importantly, it’s the kind of reference that doesn’t date quickly. Even if it glosses over the newest collaborations, the backbone of adidas design language is here, and that’s what keeps the book useful long-term. The hardcover format and thoughtful print work suggest it’ll survive years of use without falling apart.

The bottom line

I recommend the adidas archive book. It’s a dependable, well-made reference that prioritizes clarity and historical breadth, making it especially valuable for collectors, designers, and anyone who wants a grounded view of adidas footwear without the clutter that plagues many online sources. While it could go deeper on recent collaborations and benefit from richer indexing and more consistent multilingual coverage, those gaps don’t undermine its core strengths. If you’re building a working library around sneakers—one you’ll actually use rather than display—this belongs in it.