Adidas – adicolor back to the future

“For those colours which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.” Leonardo da Vinci

In 1983, the first adicolor series was launched in a time when all kids loved to paint their shoes and created their own customized styles. The
motifs comprised tags, flowers, names, stripes and numerous other little things which they regarded as cool. This was only possible because the shoes were delivered with six weatherproof, quickly drying pens in different colours, among them red, blue, yellow, green, pink and black. Recently adidas has re-animated this tradition and collaborated with some of the world’s best known creatives to produce some fresh, unique pieces based on the same old concept. The current reinterpretation of the original products shows six styles for each colour. In the following, we have selected one style out of each colour series.

Red series – Surface to Air
Surface to Air was founded in 1996 in New York and Paris as an art collective to create new paradigms in art, fashion and design. Currently the members work and live in New York City, Tokyo, Stockholm and Paris. This mix of nationalities explains the energy and diversity of their talents and interests. They’re involved in art publishing, music video production, clothing, accessory, furniture and interior design and many other creative projects. | www.surface2air.com

Blue series – Toy2R
The Hong Kong based Toy2R is a well known art toy manufacturer formed by Raymond Choy in 1995. From their point of view, the art toy movement combines the universal attraction of toys with the aesthetics of cutting-edge fine art. Starting from this approach, they produce some of the most popular and collectable toys in the world. Their so far most famous series is the Qee line of 2.5 inch key-chain figures, providing a smooth, white 3-dimensional canvas for artists to explore. These miniature figures have become must-haves for the serious collector. | www.toy2r.com

Yellow series – Bill McMullen for Foot Locker
Bill McMullen is a graphic artist who grew up in sunny San Diego, California, and later moved to New York. Bill started his career as the art director at “The Drawing Board”, where he was responsible for the Def Jam cover artworks of the biggest names in rap music. After Bill had left the firm he founded the NYC clothing label Swish with his business partner Anthony Chan. From then on he produced his own, unique graphic-art pieces such as the Superstar/Star Wars inspired AD-AT, and his more recent ‘One Million’ project. Bill has collaborated with adidas to create an exclusive palette for Foot Locker which represents one of the greatest cities on earth: New York. The panoramic piece includes each of the five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. | www.billmcmullen.com

Green series – Jim Lambie for The Hideout
The Glasgow artist Jim Lambie has been involved in modern art since the mid ‘90s, after he graduated from the Glasgow School of Arts. All his works have a close connection to punk, glam rock, and psychedelic music. Lambie’s sculptures and installations often redefine everyday objects like record decks, chairs and adhesive tape. The Hideout store is a Gimme 5 project, the goal of which is to introduce selected streetwear brands from the US and Japan to London’s customers. | www.hideoutstore.com

Pink series – Wood Wood
The Copenhagen based creative visionaries Wood Wood have spread their Danish roots throughout the world with a sophisticated brand approach which includes retail stores, apparel lines and numerous other street related projects. Over the last few years, Wood Wood’s design trio has operated in the space between underground and high-end fashion and has thus established themselves as a major force in the European street couture scene. For adicolor they now come up with colours, details and graphics reflecting Wood Wood’s siginificant aesthetics. The roman numbers IV and VII on the shoe’s tongue, for example, are taken from the two Copenhagen stores’ street numbers. Knock on wood… | www.woodwood.dk

Black series – Crooked Tongues
The Crooked Tongues webpage was launched in 2000 in a time when there were hardly any comprehensive resources about sneakers and related topics. In the past six years Crooked Tongues have established themselves as a shoe paradise with a wide range of regularly updated editorial contents, features on specific footwear models, news of latest releases and one of the best vintage stores ever. The artwork of the page was conceived by the trainer enthusiasts from Unorthodox Styles, who are also responsible for these black adi kicks. | www.crookedtongues.com | www.u-dox.com