Adidas Samba dances into golf

• By Global Golf Post
• Feb 28, 2012 9:59 AM ET

There are not many athletic shoes with the history as well as the familiarity of the Adidas Samba. Introduced in 1950, the original Samba was designed to help soccer players train on hard, icy ground, largely thanks to the suction on the gum sole.

But it quickly evolved into a dominant indoor soccer shoe and eventually one of the most popular pieces of athletic footwear in all of sports, used for a wide range of disciplines and activities all over the world. It also made a big move into the popular culture, where it was worn mostly as a fashion sneaker. Over the years, Adidas has sold more than 35 million pairs of Sambas.

Now, Adidas has created for the first time a Samba for golfers. The offering maintains that shoe’s classic silhouette and the company’s famous Three-Stripes design and features a durable, suede toe guard and a tan gum sole equipped with six cleats and an array of nubs for optimal traction.

Adidas engineers also employed the company’s THINTECH low-profile technology, to get golfers’ feet closer to the ground for improved stability and support, no matter how fast or slow they are swinging. The textile, synthetic upper in the Samba Golf is water-resistant and designed to be as durable as it is lightweight.

“Samba has been widely loved around the world for decades,” says Bill Price, vice president of footwear at Adidas Golf. “And we thought it was time to bring it to the golf course.”

Available March 1, the Adidas Samba Golf comes in medium width and three color ways: Black/White/Gum, White/Black/Gum and Satellite/White/Gum. A fourth version, Red/White/Gum, will be released in early May.