nd you couple that with an unbelievable amount of talent.After missing nickel cornerback Captain Munnerlyn against the Redskins b

At a childrens party this weekend, a 4-year-old walked in wearing blue-and-white Velcro shoes from an unexpected signature athlete.Michael Jordan? Nope. LeBron James? Definitely not. Stephen Curry? Not these.They were Stan Smiths.It has always been a great shoe, Smith told ESPN in an exclusive interview. So clean and simple.How did little Sammy come to be wearing the shoes of a 69-year-old tennis player who was last No. 1 in the world eight years before the childs parents were born? Its thanks to what might be the greatest sneaker revival of all time.Adidas, which has made the sneakers for more than 50 years, now sells Stan Smiths in black, in pink, in blue, in mens, in womens, in kids and infant sizes. There are knit Stans, suede Stans and Stans that are dipped in gold. And if you cant find a pair to your liking, you can go online and customize your own. Youll see them on feet from New York to Tokyo. In its 2014 annual report, Adidas revealed that the Stan Smiths were the companys best-selling shoes of all time, with more than 40 million pairs sold. Buoyed by the Stan Smiths, sales of Adidas Classics in the U.S. are up 60 percent for the first six months of 2016.But Stan Smith -- the tennis player, not the sneaker -- started out as one of those guys who was just at the right place at the right time.In 1965, Adidas made a plain white tennis shoe with green accents for one of the best tennis players in the world at the time, Frenchman Robert Haillet. Unlike other Adidas shoes, it had perforated holes in place of companys iconic three stripes, and it displayed Haillets signature on the side.The shoes were popular at the time, as the leather made it the best performance shoe available, but Adidas thought it had a problem in 1971 when Haillet retired. Horst Dassler, the son of Adidas founder Adi Dassler, reached out to Donald Dell, the former U.S. Davis Cup captain who started a sports agency the year before with two tennis clients: Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith.Dell suggested Smith as a fill-in for the line. Though the ATP and its official rankings system hadnt been created yet, Smith was considered the best player in the world. Horst Dassler took Dells advice and signed Smith to a small, five-year deal. Adidas, judging by the way its executives acted, didnt have much faith that Smith had staying power. Although Smith was the lead endorser, he was wearing a shoe that still had Haillets name on it.I became friends with [Haillet] because of the shoe, Smith said. His son called me when Robert died in 2011. That son had also been upset years earlier, when Adidas took his fathers name off the shoe.That change came in 1978. Adidas put Smiths signature on the tongue of the sneaker for the first time, along with an image of Smith -- that strangely featured him without a mustache.My whole adult life I had one, save for a year [when I was] 23 and 24, Smith said.The signature, which features an S shared by both Stan and Smith, was created with the help of Kathy Andrews, a Delta flight attendant whod met Smith at an autograph signing years before.She thought I had a boring signature, so I did it with one S, Smith said.On the shoe heel, Adidas added another green panel with Smiths full name and the Adidas trident.In the 1980s, as the Stan Smiths started to lose relevance as tennis performance shoes, they started to become popular as fashion shoe. At some point, Smith got used to it.I was at the US Open in the early 90s, he said, and some young man recognized me and told me, Your shoe is really big in the hood.In 2001, his then 14-year-old daughter, Austin, told him he was famous.She told me that Jaysee had put me in his song, said Smith, who rotates through 50 pairs in his own personal collection. I said, Who is Jaysee? She said, No, its Jay Z.She wasnt kidding. Lampin in the Hamptons, the weekends man/The Stan Smith Adidas and the Campus, Jay Z says in a song on his 2001 album The Blueprint. Smith has also been name-checked in songs by A$AP Rocky, Joe Budden, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, among others.As the shoe found a second life as an iconic element of fashion, Smith earned a flat fee each year until 2005, when Dell was able to convince Adidas officials that Smith deserved more -- a royalty structure paying him for each shoe sold. Neither Dell nor Smith would reveal how much Smith was earning from those sales, but it cant be too shabby given how hot the shoe now is.Im not making Michael Jordan money, Smith said, laughing, referencing the more than $100 million MJ is said to make each year in Nike royalties.In 2011, Adidas executives had a meeting with Smith and Dell. The executives told the pair that they felt the market was crowded and needed a little cleaning up. To that end, they were going to stop producing Stan Smiths for 2012 and 2013.I didnt like that idea, Smith said. But they knew exactly what they were doing.While the Stan Smiths were off the market, people didnt forget about them. In fact, the shoe still generated plenty of buzz, including in 2013, when Gisele Bundchen posed for the cover of Vogue Paris wearing only her Stan Smiths.On Jan. 14, 2014, a day Smith remembers well, the shoes returned to the market with much fanfare. Adidas sent shoes to influencers such as Pharrell Williams and Ellen DeGeneres, replacing Smiths face with the stars own.Absence had indeed made the heart grow fonder.Most strategic plans fail at execution, said Eric Liedtke, head of Adidas global brands. We got this one right.Like young kids who drink an Arnold Palmer today and wonder why a golfer is on the can, people arent buying the shoes because of Stan Smith. But he doesnt mind that Taylor Swift -- who was spotted wearing the shoes in Australia last month -- might not know who he is. Its enough that she was spotted wearing his shoes this summer.I tell my wife that 95 percent of people dont know that Im an actual person, said Smith, who runs an elite tennis program and a corporate hospitality company out of his home base in Hilton Head, S.C. Then she, of course, says the number is closer to 99 percent. Cheap Nike Air Vapormax . Denis Coderre, the former federal MP who was elected mayor on Nov. 3, has drawn the ire of some Montreal Canadiens. During last nights game he tweeted: "Hello? Can we get a one-way ticket to (minor-league) Hamilton for David Desharnais please. Vapormax Triple Black Mens . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. http://www.vapormaxshoesforsale.com/ .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. Nike Air Vapormax Sale . The Nashville Predators were glad their captain was still on their side. Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night. Vapormax Flyknit Triple Black . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The defense that was so dominant during Minnesotas 5-0 start has morphed into a rather ordinary unit.Opponents have since adjusted with quick passes and well-timed play calls to neutralize what has been a relentless rush, the turnovers havent come as often and the Vikings have been more susceptible to those confidence-sapping third-down conversions.Just as much of a factor in the recent rut, though, could be the seemingly illogical problem of players trying too hard to help stop the slide.When youre struggling and youve got a bunch of really good guys, guys that really care, guys tend to try to do a little too much, including myself, coach Mike Zimmer said.Instead of allowing guys to make plays, you try to make plays for them. We just need to settle down. We need to do what we do. Get back to being the Vikings defense again.Washingtons Kirk Cousins averaged around 2+ seconds to release the ball when he dropped back to pass last week, when the Vikings (5-4) lost their fourth straight game . Detroits Matthew Stafford and Chicagos Jay Cutler followed similar quick-throwing strategies in the games before that.Were going to have to adjust how we do some things with the pass rush, Zimmer said.The Vikings have only three sacks over the past four games. Not coincidentally, each of the past three opponents have converted exactly half of their third downs.If you look at the tape, theyre getting the ball out quick. Theyre running boots. Theyre running screens. Theyre doing all the things to slow us down in the rush, defensive end Everson Griffen saidd.ddddddddddddWe cant get frustrated. Weve just got to get out there and keep rushing. Sacks come in bunches. Do we want more sacks? Yeah, but Id rather have wins than sacks.Missed tackles have a problem, too, none more costly than in overtime against the Lions when cornerback Xavier Rhodes and safety Harrison Smith both whiffed during Golden Tates winning touchdown reception .The Arizona Cardinals (4-4-1) will bring plenty of challenges for the Vikings to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, with running back David Johnson chief among them.Still, its worth remembering that the Vikings defense, despite the lag of late, remains a daunting matchup for opponents, too. The Cardinals were raving this week about Zimmer and his scheme.Hes one of the best defensive play-callers in the game, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. Hes just got a wealth of knowledge. He does a great job of trying to break down opponents and trying to neutralize the things that they do well, and you couple that with an unbelievable amount of talent.After missing nickel cornerback Captain Munnerlyn against the Redskins because of an ankle injury, the Vikings should be back to full strength in the secondary.It definitely was a tough, tough situation for me to watch the game, Munnerlyn said. I kind of got mad here and there, probably kicked some boxes or something, punched a box here and there.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '