by Matt Welty
A disruptive force ripped through New York City’s week-long fashion extravaganza. People huddled by the droves, bearing freezing temperatures as snowflakes fell, to see Kanye West and company tear down the stage and push their adidas-fueled manifesto.
Joined by Pusha T, Big Sean, and 2 Chainz — all artists who have put out an adidas collaboration in the past calendar year — Kanye and his crew of G.O.O.D. Music-affiliated friends were there to put on a show, but also to declare to the world that adidas had finally arrived. The wait, since Kanye announced over a year ago that he was leaving Nike, had ended.
“Get loud for adidas for supporting me,” Kanye instructed the crowd. “Letting me get my dreams out, letting me make shit for y’all. When everyone was suffocating me. We’re not even going to mention that other company no more, right? We ain’t wearing that other company no more, right?”
The crowd raged. At that exact moment, it felt like Kanye was leading an angry march of townspeople, pitchforks and torches in hand, to storm the house that Phil Knight built and light their Jordans on fire.
A guy in the crowd screamed, “Yeah, fuck Nike!”
Earlier that afternoon, Kanye gave the world its first official look at his much-anticipated collection with adidas Originals — the branch of the German athletic company known for revisiting its extensive archives and giving them an update for modern tastes. But instead of them getting Kanye’s orchestrated vision of a brand Adi Dassler started in 1924, there was a confusing assortment of sneakers, boots, oversized sweatshirts, MA-1 jackets, and long camouflage coats.
There were hardly any stripes in the house. There weren’t any nods to adidas’ history, like we’ve become accustomed to thanks to Originals lines from Pharrell, Nigo, and Jeremy Scott. There was a Kanye West collection of the military-inspired garments that were directly in the vein of everything that he’s been wearing lately.
For those hoping that Kanye was going to be the one who made adidas cool again, he did in a way. He also gave no one reason to like the adidas that exists outside of Kanye’s post-apocalyptic-designed world. There was Boost technology in the midsoles of the two sneakers that he debuted, but it’s only visible when looking at the bottom of the sneakers. And the clothing didn’t illustrate forward-thinking takes on the same gear that B-boys and soccer fanatics before him fetishized.
If Kanye was going to pull everyone’s wallets over to adidas, it was going to be done on the strength of his own creations, rather than building a renewed interest in the ZX 8000, any of the brand’s 40+ year-old tennis silhouettes, or the Beckenbauer pants. It was a clear separation from his previous work with Nike, which relied heavily on the Swoosh’s DNA. It also oozed the creative freedom that Kanye has been ranting about for months. It was a critical success. But it had nothing to do with adidas Originals, and further fractured the line from adidas’ quest to compete in the sportswear world with Nike.
Andy Shearer, the senior Design and innovation recruiter at adidas, spoke about what adidas looks for in new designers and upcoming interns for the Originals line. “I think understanding the heritage of adidas is only going to allow you to design better product,” he said. "We have internships in the summer with the adidas Originals theme, and with that theme it’s putting a modern twist on very nostalgic product."
His quote was very representative for how adidas Originals was perceived in the sneaker industry. It was a place where The Hundreds could get a collaboration, but only if they reworked the Stan Smith or one of the brand’s soccer jerseys.
It got me personally excited in other collabs with heritage brands like Barbour or the Spezial collection, which was a historic look at adidas models that hadn’t been seen in decades. At face value, I did like pieces of the Kanye’s first collection. The low-top runner is great, and I could definitely see myself in some of the sweatpant outfits. It just didn’t compel me to swear off Nike from now on, like Kanye is hoping to get his followers to do.
Co-founder of Berlin-based sneaker boutique Solebox and adidas enthusiast Hikmet Sugoer spoke on the verge of his store’s EQT collaboration with adidas Originals. The conversation mainly centered around his history with the brand, being that he lives in Germany, and the inspiration behind the sneaker.
But I asked him about his thoughts on Kanye, Pharrell, and Nigo’s work with adidas, and he foreshadowed the direction of Kanye collection we have now. “He can go safe, but he usually goes the difficult way,” Sugoer said. “I’m sure people will love or hate his work.”
It’s not totally out of the question that later iterations of Kanye for adidas Originals will actually give modified, high-end interpretations of the brand’s legacy and further rope in consumers to other available offerings. Or Kanye’s co-sign will be so impenetrable that his fans blindly purchase anything with with stripes on it. His monologues in front of tens of thousands could lead people to purchase Superstars or Stan Smiths. It’s just hard to see how this first runway show translates over to adidas Originals as a whole.
But revolution has to start somewhere, there needs to be a spark, and Kanye certainly has that capability. If the adidas movement is afoot, then it has its general. It’s just unclear which direction he’s headed.
Matt Welty is staff writer at Complex and you can follow him on Twitter here
