JOURNAL STANDARD Trades Its Signature Grey for Earth Strata Brown on the adidas Tobacco

Reservations open September 23 for JOURNAL STANDARD’s adidas Originals Tobacco, in deep brown suede with purple velvet stripes at ¥15,400, with delivery listed for early October.

The colorway name on the product page of JOURNAL STANDARD, the select shop run by Shibuya-based BAYCREW’S, is Brown B, and the maker’s own label for it is EARTH STRATAS/AURORA. Underneath is the adidas Originals Tobacco, the low, slim suede trainer from the 1970s, reworked for the shop’s fall and winter 2026 season. The copy glosses Earth Strata as geological strata and says the deep brown suede is there to set the mood of the season. The three stripes are velvet in deep purple, and the price is ¥15,400 with tax. The shop frames its adidas exclusives as a fixture of every season and the Tobacco as a reissue from adidas’ archive with a devoted following.

Signal. What happened: JOURNAL STANDARD opened a reservation page for its Fall/Winter 2026 adidas Originals Tobacco exclusive. Exact object: the Tobacco for JOURNAL STANDARD in Brown B (022), EARTH STRATAS/AURORA, with deep brown suede, deep purple velvet stripes, a rubber sole and men’s sizes 25.5 to 30 centimeters, priced at ¥15,400 with tax, and no adidas style code listed on the page. When and where: reservations begin at 10 a.m. Japan time on September 23 (9 p.m. Eastern on September 22) at BAYCREW’S STORE, with delivery listed for early October, a timing that can shift with factory production, and the sale closes once a limited quantity is reached. Source: JOURNAL STANDARD’s own product page on BAYCREW’S STORE. Why it matters: the shop’s adidas exclusives have leaned on one signature grey, and this one leaves it.

The Earth and Velvet: A Study in Archival Reinterpretation

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The Tobacco dates to 1972, according to KICKS LAB, the Harajuku retailer that released its own version in April. KICKS LAB describes it as a shoe that opened a leisure category when sports shoes dominated, built on a slim 1970s silhouette with simple three stripes and reinforced toe and heel. MR PORTER’s history of the City Series files it among the low, flat suede shoes of the early 1970s and says it was named for Tobacco Caye, a tiny island in Belize. The retailer FASCINATE offers a second theory, that the brown suede of early pairs resembled dried tobacco leaves. Its guide also notes that the classic pair keeps its three stripes and heel patch in the same tone as the upper, the habit the exclusives below tend to interrupt.

Both explanations end at the same plant, since Wikipedia notes the island is believed to be named for tobacco once cultivated there. JOURNAL STANDARD’s own press release from last October calls the model a 1970s classic still loved around the world half a century on. The year also ties the shoe to its label: BAYCREW’S STORE’s description of adidas Originals says the line launched in 2001 under the trefoil, which served as adidas’ company logo from 1972 to 1995.

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JOURNAL STANDARD has spent recent seasons building its adidas exclusives around one shade. A spring 2024 feature on its CAMPUS 80s described a one-tone grey pair, bluer than the year before. The fall 2025 Tobacco, style code HQ9177, used olive-tinged grey suede with navy velvet stripes and a recolored tongue and backstay, at ¥15,400 according to UOMO. This spring’s TOKYO arrived with burgundy stripes at ¥14,300 per UOMO, slated for every JOURNAL STANDARD store and its online store, and the shop’s own copy called that nuanced grey the signature of its exclusive models.

The base models come from a shared stretch of the adidas catalog. In JOURNAL STANDARD’s words, TOKYO recalls a slim, thin-soled 1970s running shoe, CAMPUS 80s faithfully reproduces the French-made shape of a 1983 basketball shoe, and the Tobacco is a 1970s design. The fall 2025 press release pitched the Tobacco as a shoe for casual daily wear and traditional outfits alike, with a look that deepens the more it is worn.

The fall 2026 Tobacco keeps the velvet stripe and drops the grey. Brown takes the upper, purple takes the stripes from navy, and the ¥15,400 price matches last fall’s.

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The velvet stripe is where Japan’s Tobacco exclusives tend to differ. atmos marked its 25th anniversary in February 2025 with brown waterproof leather and deep green velour stripes inspired by Yakushima cedar, plus a wooden tag charm, at ¥18,700. FREAK’S STORE, the Daytona International chain, changed the stripe material on a brown pair in September 2025 and packed brown and ivory flat cotton laces, at ¥15,400. Men’s Non-no styled that pair in October 2025 with adidas track pants, a shirt and a denim jacket. KICKS LAB followed on April 4, at its Harajuku store and other outlets, with blue punched suede and ice tangerine stripes.

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The listing gives men’s sizes from 25.5 to 30 centimeters. The upper is described as natural and synthetic leather over a rubber sole, and the country of production is Vietnam. JOURNAL STANDARD’s women’s line carries the same shoe under its own product number, 26093410001040. Shipping is free, the price earns 280 loyalty points and returns are accepted, though the page says reservation items cannot be paid for in the same checkout as other products and that deliveries to online customers can arrive later than in-store sales. Every men’s size was marked coming soon at the time of writing.

JOURNAL STANDARD opened in 1997 as a large men’s and women’s select shop, and the retail research firm Toshokencredits it with lifting BAYCREW’S, founded in 1977, to national recognition. The group now spans apparel, restaurants, furniture and fitness, ran 418 stores as of September 2024 and moved to a holding-company structure on September 1, 2025.