Donald Glover and Adidas launch shoe collaboration with irreverent mini-episodes
Coming off the heels of a creative partnership with Beyoncé, Adidas is now launching a footwear collection with actor and musician Donald Glover.
Donald Glover launches Adidas shoe brand with series of offbeat mini-originals
The two have teamed up to release the 'Donald Glover Presents' footwear line, which imbues three classic sneaker styles – the Nizza, Continental 80 and Lacombe – with Glover's "personal narrative".
"Rich is a concept,” said Glover. “With this project, I wanted to encourage people to think about how their stories can be told on their feet. Value isn’t quantified by what you wear, rather the experiences from them.
"And you make the decision on what works for you, you live through your own lens. The partnership for me is about being able to exemplify what doing your own thing truly looks and feels like."
To push the launch, Glover (aka Childish Gambino) starred alongside actress Mo’Nique in a series of offbeat, self-deprecating promotional videos released online to "equalize creative access" for the young people who inspire the brand.
“Our partnerships are built on a foundation of creating moments of inspiration that we could not achieve alone,” said Chris Law, senior design director of Adidas Originals. “As a visionary, we admire Glover’s capability to surpass ‘genres’ and uniquely tell a story.
"From a design perspective, we drove the aesthetic of this collection based on Adidas’ rich history in classic sneakers and Glover’s philosophy of understated points of interest and appreciation for how shoes evolve with wear, expressing more personality over time."
The creative is a series of five mini-episodes surrounding Glover's relationship with Mo’Nique. Highlighting the sneakers is almost an afterthought to Mo’Nique's lovingly pointed jabs at Glover throughout the five-minute ad.
If marketers are to learn one thing from the spot, it's not to compliment the "viscosity" of Mo’Nique's cooking.
See the full film by clicking the Creative Works box below.
