ADIDAS are set to release a brand new trainer, named in tribute to its designers' late father.

Darwen-born Gary Aspden, 51, of Darwen Design, has been designing shoes for Adidas since the 1990s and is chief designer of and responsible for curating the ever popular Spezial line in 2013.

Now, Aspden has a special Blackburn Spezial 'Ewood edition' shoe coming from 22 July which is named after the resting place of his father, Allan, who sadly passed away last summer.

In an Instagram post, he said: "At the time of getting clearance on the naming of the shoes last summer we sadly lost my father, Allan Aspden, who is laid to rest in Ewood - a place he had some of his happiest, and saddest times.

"I asked Adidas if it would be ok to subtly acknowledge him by including 'Ewood' as the name of the shoe, which they kindly and generously agreed to.

"My Dad was a hard worker, a good man and my biggest supporter - I sincerely hope the pleasure these shoes bring to people might in some way honour his memory."

Speaking of the design, Aspden added: "The original idea to revisit the Blackburn SPZL came from me posting a picture on Instagram of the first round sample from 2018/19. The green laces are in keeping with the original Blackburn colour story so are the lead lace that come on the shoe, but I personally love the navy option.

"The first round sample was produced before the correct materials arrived at the factory so had an all-red, rather than green, suede upper with a purple tongue. That sample was primarily about getting the specs of the upper right while the factory await the delivery of the correct materials in the correct colours.

"After showing the sample on Instagram, I was inundated with messages suggesting that we should consider releasing them. I knew that in order to do that we would need to revise the shoe and change the tongue colour.

"The colours needed to remain in keeping with the red/green of the Lancashire rose that inspired the original shoe and the red needed to be more vibrant than the sample."

A gold foil outline of the Lancashire rose adorns the heel of the 'Ewood edition' Spezial, which will be released as part of the 2021 Adidas Spezial SS21 range later this month.