Tag: Adidas Originals

adidas Originals launches Deerupt // A new perspective on grid design

adidas Originals have brought out a new lifestyle option – the Deerupt. This completely new silhouette takes archival referencing to a higher level, resulting in a fresh take on grid design.

The Deerupt holds the grid as a central design feature, initially brought to the public eye with 80s running styles such as the New Yorker runner and Marathon Training shoe. Taking inspiration from urban planning, architecture and natural phenomena, the Deerupt sees the grid design covering the entire shoe. The collapsible runner-inspired design features an ultra-lightweight construction with knit uppers covered in stretchable netting. It’s the perfect offering for adi fans seeking a look to the future and minimalist structure that is still undeniably adidas.

The Deerupt silhouette drops worldwide on 22 March 2018.

Deerupt – Disruptively Simple

15 March 2018
Prophere II, ‘OUR TURF’ lookbook

adidas Originals have released a brand-new silhouette for 2018, the second drop of Prophere. To support its launch adidas Originals commissioned art director, photographer and stylist, Gabrielle Kannemeyer to create a lookbook.

Gabrielle captured some of her friends and collaborators who are multidisciplinary practitioners. The lookbook features Da Da Shiva, Luh’ra, Siya Andi Biyela, Chester Martinez and Tatenda Wekwatenzi; individuals that resonate with the fierceness of the Prophere silhouette and message.

Gabrielle wanted to take photographs in a town where she grew up feeling quite isolated. Set in areas from Killarney Gardens to Somerset West, the aim for the shoot was the disruption of suburbia. Flames and colourful smoke took over as they navigated these spaces and made them, “our turf”.

“Our Turf is a mindset we take with us wherever we go – a space that enables us to be 100% unapologetic about being who we are. A new generation is at the helm of a march into the future, our turf is boundless and infinite – anything we imagine to be, is.”

Shoot Credits

Da Da Shiva
Siya Andi Biyela
Luh’ra
Tatenda Wekwatenza
Chester Matinez
Zakkiyya Abdurahman

Produced by Melite Vivier
Photography, casting and styling by Gabrielle Kannemeyer
Photographic and fashion assistant – Yonela Makoba
Make up by Neveen Scello

Special thank you to Eddie Shamba for security, Doug from Stunt SA and Kofi Lartey for fire breathing.

8 March 2018
adidas Originals x Pharrell Williams – the next phase of the Hu series

F/W 2017 sees the latest addition to the Hu series created in collaboration between Pharrell Williams and adidas Originals. Their Statement and Inline collections allow wearers to travel in space and time due to design inspiration being taken from the 80s and 90s, as well as the utilitarian influence from LA’s hiking culture.

A connection to previous designs in the Hu series provides a familiar thread that ensures the Pharrell Williams touch. The emphasis on retro outdoor aesthetics with playful accents, combined with weather-ready protection makes this collection one for the sportswear fanatics, sporty teens and future health goths looking to add some colour to their wardrobe.

This latest offering features head to toe items in yellows, greens, pinks and purples, giving wearers a portal to late 80s and early 90s energies. Subtle graphics and striking contrasts breathe life into the collection and provide a head turning, cohesive identity.

Simple cuts make the apparel crucial for the foundation of a streetwear look. Basics such as a t-shirt, hiking leggings and a tank top are complemented by outwear garments including a hooded sweat, gilet and 3L jacket.

The footwear may present a delightful experience of dejavu for Hu series fans. The adidas Originals and Pharell Williams popular Hu NMD silhouette returns, this time reincarnated as a hiker’s fantasy – the Hu NMD TR. The original Primeknit construction and came stabilizer make an appearance atop an NMD BOOST tooling for comfort and support. The original outside is replaced with a sawtooth tooling, providing extra grip.

Get the new Hu collection from 11 November.

7 November 2017
adidas Originals // continuing to push the envelope with the Adventure Pack

Bricks, concrete and fencing. The familiar terrain of the urban jungle. In between dilapidated buildings and speeding cars you will find the urban warrior on the hunt for his next digital visual prey. Stalking through his viewfinder, waiting for the right moment to press the button on his camera and let the shutter go in for the kill. Just another day in the metropolitan hunting ground.

Following the Atric launch, adidas Originals continues to push the envelope with the Adventure Pack. The vibrant, outdoor-inspired collection reimagines five of adidas Originals’ most iconic styles. Two new silhouettes make their way on to the scene, and they are designed to make the urban warrior’s hunt not bound to specific weather conditions. With the use of breakthrough technology, a cool visual aesthetic meets comfort and protection. This is functional streetwear at its best.

The Tubular Doom is the icon of the Tubular range and exemplifies progress. The aggressive aesthetic of the Tubular Doom sounds in a way unheard of. The NMD_XR1 in change has the most deconstructed look and modern angle from the NMD franchise. With a silhouette that has received increased collar height, this update transpired in the form of a mid sock. The next style that forms a part of the Adventure Pack is the EQT Support ADV. This second generation silhouette is a daring reinterpretation of Equipment and features a mid sock that addresses the weather resistant attitude of the pack in its entirety. The Seeulater boasts as the most fashionable and polarizing silhouette within the Adventure pack. The last style within the pack is the Forum Hi launching with a new, surprisingly high top look.

Model: Joseph Ntahilaja

Photography & Styling: Jamal Nxedlana

Hair & Makeup: Orli Meiri

Photography Assistant: Lex Trickett

Styling Assistant: Lebogang Ramfate

31 October 2017
The new adidas NMD: style meets technology

Futuristic and transformative. By combining the breakthrough technology of BOOST™ and Primeknit fabrications with the adidas signature style, these two words perfectly describe the adidas NMD. This season the NMD_CS2 PK takes center stage in its reference to the brand’s collective memory while innovatively elevating the familiar three stripe design. The sneakers are crafted with a Shadow Knit technique and features the Japanese Sashiko stitching method, a form of decorative reinforcement stitching. Tonal uppers with engineered patterns are finished off with embroidered tactile colour pops, and a signature NMD heel pull. This season also sees new versions of the NMD_R2 featuring patterned Primeknit uppers and striking graphics for men and women.

In conjunction with the launch of their new products, adidas presents AREA3 CPT ’17; a space for co-creation underpinned by design. This space was the backdrop for the NMD campaign shoot.

Taking the descriptive words for the NMD as a point of departure for the shoot, this was translated into how our human bodies have become futuristic and transformative. This includes how our physical bodies have been rendered into avatars as well as through genetic modification. These two themes were explored through a fashion story.

Playing on this, the use of a mirror articulates this exploration by creating two versions of the body; the body IRL and the body reflected in the mirror as the digital avatar. The mirrored image of the body wearing a VR headset highlights the futuristic and how technology has allowed for the coded versions of ourselves. This highlights the use of breakthrough technology to construct the NMD, which is still able to pay homage to the adidas Originals DNA.

Photography & Styling: Jamal Nxedlana

Post Production: Lex Trickett

Makeup: Isabella Raad

13 July 2017
adidas Originals EQT | Born in the 90s

Referencing the EQT from the 90s, adidas Originals brought back the design in January this year with innovative material and technology. As part of celebrating the re-birth of the EQT, an open invite went out to South Africans born in the ’90s to be photographed at different locations in Johannesburg.

The open casting started off at ShelfLife in Rosebank on Friday 24 March. With Sam Turpin taking charge of the decks, people came through in their adidas gear to check out the updated EQT and do their part to represent ’90s babies. With a truck converted into a mobile photography studio, young photographer and digital artist Aart Verrips took portraits of South Africans born in the ’90s. The mobile studio headed off to AREA3 in Braamfontein on the Saturday, and ended on Sunday at Thesis in Soweto.

The portraits will form part of a series of short films. More than that, they document a generation that lives by the words, “Everything that is essential. Nothing that is not”.

31 March 2017
Adidas releases a unique multi-media content collaboration featuring local style tribes and digital artists

The forward-tilting trio of sleek bands, arch and encompass the iconic sneaker. A subtle zig-zag of a perforated edge is punctuated by straight stitching. Its rounded tongue, branded with the trefoil logo, peers out from a series of crisscrossing laces. Parallel to the classic three stripes, an uppercase text articulates this particular form of the Adidas Originals – the Gazelle.

Born out the 1960’s, the Gazelle has been manifested in various forms. “Gazelle’s history is made from the fabric of re-appropriation; a legacy carried through style tribes from mod scenesters to the reggae crowd, from the brit-pop crew to the 90’s minimalists. At each space in time, it marked a change in creative ownership.” This season will experience a resurgence of the archival ’90s style.

I am because we are.

Remember the future.

A unique multi-media content collaboration featuring local style tribes and digital artists.

Local artists have been tasked to collectively create a visual remix. Lindiwe Ngubeni and Lulama Wolf alongside Dustin Van Wyk created a nostalgic pastel dream. A pink outline extends the curvature of Lindiwe and Lulama, perched across the page. Faded magazine cut-outs pay homage to the history of the sneaker.

FAKA – the performance pair were partnered with digital artist Aart Verrips. Visually enticing eclectic imagery emerged from these collaboration clusters. Shades of lavender to cobalt form a feint zebra hide, layered over a multiplicity of sneaker side views. Foregrounded by the art duo, FAKA. Donning dark Adidas-branded wear: bucket hats, exposed socks and the iconic Gazelles.

Lex Trickett collaborated with image maker Gabrielle Kannemeyer and Clint Sylvester. City-scape apartments pepper an ombré background. Silhouettes are deconstructed into fuchsian sneaker motifs – overlaid by chalky elevation plans. Each image is entirely different. However, cohesion does exist throughout.

The campaign embraces the humanist philosophy that originated in southern Africa: Ubuntu. Often articulated as the essence of humanity – drawing from a notion of connectedness and unity. Individuals operate out of a sense of collectivity rather than isolated individualism. This principle of collaboration is at the crux of the campaign.

4 October 2016