adidas has a successful year ahead and Kanye West has helped

adidas faces a big test in the next 12 months. But the current activity of the three stripes shows that they are very well prepared for this at the headquarters of the clothing giant in Herzogenaurach, Germany. This article will outline what shapes adidas’ current attitude towards the most popular segment of its broad product portfolio, how Kanye West has influenced it, and we’ll talk about specific sneaker models.

This text, like most of the content on this blog, is purely my personal opinion. However, I think the sneaker world more or less follows the global trend of the current emotional state of society. The last few years have been accompanied by uncertainty – what is happening, what will happen, how will it be done – we are experiencing a long period of time when we don’t know what can happen the next day. But I believe that right now this chaos, including the definition of one’s own identity, is coming to an end – and so are sneaker brands, including adidas.

The three stripes were certainly keeping pace for the last years. Their product offerings have been defined by innovation, a return to retro, or the refinement of their most successful sneakers (hello Kanye), with adidas sort of ripping itself off with new models. But one specific direction and goal was out of sight. Now don’t take my word for it, a variety is necessary to satisfy the entire market, but the different communication streams and their layers felt, at least from an insider’s perspective, like patchwork patches that were often stitched together pretty quickly. Thus, in a metaphor for his most famous painting, Paul Gauguin might have learned from adidas where we come from, but the questions of who we are and where we are going are far from being question marks. And it is the year 2023 that feels like at least a potential end is finally in sight.

“The different communication streams and their layers felt, at least from an insider’s perspective, like patchwork patches that were often stitched together pretty quickly.”

Fittingly for this situation, many sneakers are coming out at the start of this year that are raising interest in the three stripes for several reasons. The first, and easiest to grasp, is a return to what the German giant has long done best. Urban retro silhouettes that you can easily match with just about anything. Not any random models, but a selection of a few icons that are recognizable signs of not only the brand itself but entire subcultures. The Samba, Superstar, Forum, in short – sneakers with a significant aesthetic that the unaware ones would recognize even without the three stripes on the side. The second reason is the end of Kanye West as head of the product division that was behind the brand’s most significant success in the last decade, which went down in history as the adidas Yeezy.

The period of experimentation must therefore also take a quick turn towards results because relying on the world’s most influential person is no longer an option – and maybe this will help adidas find its “new” direction much faster, which we have already seen in the first months since the earthquake. And thirdly, it’s very subjective, but the somewhat lucky portrayal of the trend plays a role. A$AP Rocky and Rihanna wore the adidas Samba sneakers, and when we first saw them, their OG variant disappeared from the web within a day. And they’re not alone in this. Their aesthetic is having its best period after years of decline, and people have learned to wear it.

Now we’re finally getting a specific trio of Footshop releases that underline those thoughts. First up, I have the just-mentioned adidas Samba, which will be back in stock on January 28 after its recent disappearance. Trust me and mark it down in your diary. The second new release, which you can already find online, is the triumvirate of adidas x Bodega x BEAMS collaborations, with the three stripes teaming up with iconic retailers from Boston and Tokyo to collectively tailor a new coat for the Adimatic skate silhouette that reflects a well-honed approach to the current trending aesthetic of 2023. To top it all off, the new adidas Forum colourway – the flagship of the current adidas mindset – has seen many collaborations and multiples of general releases in a variety of colourways since its debut in early 2021. After all, we already have them online in over a hundred variations! And since it’s time to examine all of the above pretty closely, I’ll now finally let you go to take a close look at each piece: