In his heyday Stan Smith was known for being cool, calm and collected as he put his opponents away on the tennis court. A former number-one player and two-time major singles champion whose career accomplishments include a combined 1,209 singles and doubles matches, the Pasadena, Calif., native helped the U.S. win seven Davis Cup championships starting in 1968.
For those who never got the chance to watch Smith dominate on the court, his name is still well known, thanks to his signature shoe from Adidas that debuted in 1973. The white leather shoe with the green Trefoil has been embraced by everyone from Jay-Z to Melania Trump and is as popular today as it’s ever been. A version of the shoe is also part of Adidas’ golf range and is one of the models offered in the company’s relaunched Originals Golf collection.
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Here, Smith talks about the history of his signature shoe and his sporadic golf game.
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WWD: Of course you’re famous for your tennis career, but do you also golf?
Stan Smith: I live on Hilton Head Island, and I started playing about 40 years ago. There are some great courses here. The tournament before The Masters is on Hilton Head: the RBC Heritage Classic.
WWD: You got a signature shoe before that was a “thing.” What year was it?
S.S.: It was in ‘72 when we made the agreement. The shoe came out in ’73. Robert Haillet was the best French player in the country then so together with Horst Dassler, [Adidas founder] Adi Dassler’s son, they designed the first leather tennis shoe. In 1972, they were looking to get a stronger presence in the United States. I was the number-one player in the world at the time, and American. They were looking for a good face to put on the tongue, and they couldn’t find one, so they asked me if I’d do it anyway. For about four or five years, until 1978, there’s both my likeness and then his name in different ways on the shoe. Then in ‘78 they took his name off.
WWD: It’s become commonplace for athletes today to have their own shoes, but back then, it was highly unusual.
S.S.: They actually wanted to put my name on a hang tag of the shoe, on the box. But we felt it would be better to have the actual signature. It was one of the first. There was the Chuck Taylor shoe for basketball that was actually way before that, and there’s a Jack Purcell shoe that was used for tennis. So there were a few out there, but not anything quite like this.
WWD: Looking back, are you surprised that it has had the longevity that it has and is so popular with young people today?
S.S.: Yes, it is surprising. I think it was a five-year agreement to start with, and then we did a 10-year one, and a six-year one — we kept extending it and it kept doing well. It was a high-tech performance shoe because it was leather. Before that, we wore canvas, so to have a leather shoe that was good-looking on the court, it lasted for a long time. After 15 or 20 years, it became a little more of a lifestyle shoe.
WWD: It’s probably more popular today than when it was released.
S.S.: It’s been fun to see both men and women wearing the shoe, and different groups and organizations. I’ve seen all sorts of stories from people and groups that have gravitated toward the shoe: preppies in the Northeast, the hip-hop [community] in the cities. And it’s really evolved in the music world, particularly with the most current musicians.
WWD: How did it transition into golf then?
S.S.: I don’t know when was the first golf shoe made, but it was maybe 15 or 20 years ago. The original golf shoes were heavy, leather, and when they got wet they were not very comfortable and people were getting blisters. So people were wearing the tennis shoe, which was much more comfortable and pretty supportive, so [they made a golf shoe that] was just the tennis shoe with nubs in the bottom. They’ve made a few little changes here and there, but it still has the same sort of profile. I have a friend that told me last week he’s been playing better golf wearing my shoe. He says it doesn’t slip at all. It’s always nice to hear Nick Faldo said that about his shoe that he was working with, saying it can add eight or 10 yards to your drive. I don’t know if we can claim that, but it’s a comfortable shoe.
WWD: How how often do you golf these days?
S.S.: I’m sporadic — I might play twice a week then I won’t play for a month or so. I have had the opportunity to play some of the great courses around the world, in Australia and England and the U.S. That little course in Georgia is special [Augusta National] and I’ve gotten to play it a few times. We have a lot of good courses here on Hilton Head, and off of Hilton Head like Pine Valley [in New Jersey] and Seminole down in Florida.
WWD: Do you still play tennis?
S.S.: I play a little bit. I have an academy here. We have about 40 or 50 kids, and the other day I was hitting with some of them for a little bit. But I’m not competing in any kind of events.