Messi's Demure adidas Handball Joins the Dark Side

Messi and football are all but synonymous at this point. Messi and handball? Less so. That's what makes the Messi Handball Spezial sneaker so special; it combines two separate sport sectors and molds them into one ridiculously dapper package.

adidas' Handball Spezial, as the name suggests, is a handball sneaker, a sport best described as the exact opposite of soccer.

One uses hands, the other uses feet, both demand excellent footwear.

As such, it's quite serendipitous to see adidas merge the two worlds and pay a bit of urbane homage to a soccer GOAT with an anti-soccer sneaker that's dressed like a moody vampire.

Supple black leather coats the upper alongside matching laces and a rubber outsole.

Metallic silver at the Three Stripes breaks up some of the sneaker's inky lore alongside thin red stitching throughout that adds a subtle fiery charm to the blacked-out sneaker. At a glance, this might look like your classic Handball Spezial, a sister of the Samba that's been having a moment of its own as of late.

But look a little closer at this flat-footed shoe and the details paint a Messi-minded picture. The midfielder's logo takes up the majority of the heel while "Messi" branding at the Three Stripes brings things even more into focus.

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