If you were thinking about buying a fresh pair of Adidas Sambas, hustle up. News recently broke that tariffs, those AP-history callbacks come to haunt us all, will almost certainly lead to a higher price on the footwear staple that you, me, half the tweens in my Brooklyn neighborhood, Benson Boone, politicians, and Paul Mescal wear almost daily.
Last week, Adidas chief executive Bjørn Gulden warned the world that price hikes across the brand’s line-up were almost inevitable. “Since we currently cannot produce almost any of our products in the U.S., these higher tariffs will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the U.S. market,” he explained on an earnings call, per the New York Times. Then he said what everyone was thinking: “Cost increases due to higher tariffs will eventually cause price increases.”
How soon those price increases could arrive across the Adidas lineup are anyone’s guess; the German company says it stockpiled clothing and footwear in the States before the tariffs went into effect, and did not respond to a request for comment from GQ on the timing or scale of any potential price increases.
To be clear, Adidas would likely institute price hikes across almost its entire product line in the States, not only Sambas. But if you’ve laced up a pair of Adidas Sambas, you know all the reasons why they’re beloved—and why a price hike would be a buzzkill.
The 78-year-old design has held the “sneaker of the summer” title for almost half a decade, achieving default-shoe status for millions of people worldwide. For good reason: the Samba is lightweight, comfortable as hell, and visually clean, earning it an A+ for “plays well with fits of all types.” I’ve had a pair of Sambas for 18 months, and can personally attest to their range. They let me put 12,000 steps on the board while walking around Old San Juan last month and let me rip through a kettlebell workout with ease just this morning. Get you a sneaker who can, etc.
Critical to the Adidas Sambas’ siren call is their price. At $100 retail for the men’s Samba OG, keeping a pair in the rotation is an easy choice. Maybe a $10 price hike doesn’t radically change the math on that decision. But $20? $25? More? Do we get the next batch of cool-as-hell Grace Wales Bonner variations, which often cost upwards of $200 pre-tariffs, if that price goes skyward? It’s possible that the easy choice becomes a lot more difficult. Like, say, AP-History-test difficult.
So while Adidas hasn’t explicitly said that price hikes are imminently coming for the reigning everyperson sneaker, or anything else wearing three stripes, the writing seems to be on the wall. Or, better yet, the writing seems to be on the price tag.