Brief history of Adidas Rom – one of Adidas’ oldest designs, ROM was originally launched in 1959 to help celebrate the 1960 Rome Olympics, Rom is the German word for the city of Rome. The Rom was a popular shoe for Adidas in the 60’s but it’s popularity waned in the 70’s before coming back into vogue in the 80’s as Adidas relaunched ROM in a variety of colour combos. The original ‘German’ ridged sole was also joined by a French made flat sole in the 80’s (for the French market of course) but it never caught on in popularity.
The main difference between classic ROMs and modern versions is the sole – the classic ROMs have a full gum coloured ridge sole, whereas the modern version has a coloured wedge shaped insert in the sole unit subtle but it makes all the difference, with the classic rom looking far better in the style stakes than the running shoe look of the modern ROM. Rom is still available today but I’m not going to list all the colour combos as they don’t enjoy the same popularity with today’s casuals as the likes of Hamburg, Spezial, Gazelle and Trimm Stars etc.
