Stormzy spotlights London's homegrown creative spirit with Adidas Originals
A medium for London's youth community, grime artist Stormzy, is collaborating with Adidas Originals to celebrate the big smoke's creative community.
To harness talent for an immersive live performance, the campaign presented four curated lectures in community centres, before youths were tasked with reinterpreting one of Stormzy's songs.
Renowned for his bars that capture the reality of growing up as a black Londoner in a council estate – although Stormzy has left his old life behind – he hasn't forgotten his roots.
The campaign was created by Adidas Original's long-standing agency, Superimpose Global, and it shines a spotlight on London's homegrown spirit and creative culture.
The creative campaign is part of a wider partnership with Adidas Originals, which kicked off earlier this month after the launch of Stormzy's range of apparel sportswear, Adidas Originals SPRT.
With community at the core, the campaign sees Stormzy spotlight real moments, from the people to the places that influenced and inspired him.
Ahead of a live performance showcase held last week, the grime artist curated four lectures to community colleges across London's four boroughs.
Each lecture focused on themes of community, education, integrity and independence. The comedy entertainer, Mo Gilligan, was in tow for the talks.
Each of the community youth groups is filled to the brim with creative talent, and Stormzy connected with the UK's only BAME orchestra, a youth choir, an amateur dramatics and a youth dance group.
Considering this abundance of creative talent, the campaign tasked the groups with reinterpreting Stormzy's songs into 10-minute performances, to be included in the immersive live show.
The setting for the show was a local leisure centre, which was transformed into a purpose-built immersive performance space. It welcomed 800 young people from the community, including schools, Grenfell support groups and local boxing charities.
Phillip Bircham, lead creative strategist at Superimpose Global said: “This project provided the opportunity to truly bring together and celebrate the talent, spirit and drive of London’s young community. Celebrating those who are often ignored or forgotten about.
"From the first day it was always about changing the perception of what a brand launch should be, it was for the many and not the few, and with a figure so involved with the community such as Stormzy we were able to push the boundaries. It was about creating an all day experience that those involved would never forget, something to kickstart inspirations and encourage the youth to create a legacy.”
