ADIDAS | made for berlin

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ADIDAS | zx9000 made for berlin
10th anniversary of originals in germany's capital

Release Date: September 10, 2011

General Info: At the end of 2011 adidas wanted to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the first Originals store in the world, located in Berlin's hip Mitte district.

Berlin is a city with a huge adoration of adidas, and has treated the brand so incredibly over the years, that we really wanted to do something that would celebrate the residents of this fine city and all their support.

The ZX 9000 is an iconic silhouette for adidas, and the ZX family has been the most celebrated series in Berlin over the past 20 years. It has found its place in all walks of life, from the stadiums and the streets. The ZX9000 launched in 1989, which is when the wall came down. This was THE aspirational shoe of that time in West Germany. You can imagine what they symbolized for the newly reunified East Germans. There is a mutual appreciation forged between the ZX series and Berliners that can never be destroyed, so choosing the 9000 was a natural decision.

For the execution of the colors and materials I decided to celebrate Berlin's overall greyness. From the weather to the architecture anybody who has lived or visited Berlin can tell you the monochromatic and neutral mood of the city. Looking to one of the most iconic buildings in Berlin, the Alexanderplatz TV tower provided wonderful inspiration as well. I really wanted to capture this retro-futuristic feeling that you sometimes find in the architecture. For the upper a mixture of premium nubuck, canvas, and reflective synthetic was utilized. The metallic lining was used to contrast the vintage treatments of the upper and state that this was in fact a minty new pair of trainers.

Berlin is also known for its gritty atmosphere and flea markets. They revere and celebrate the natural wear of products, and aren't afraid of the uniqueness of aged environments or clothing. I wanted to commemorate this mentality and all the Berliners over the years that I've seen wearing old adidas runners, or the many flohmarkt (flea markets) I've browsed with stands stacked with some incredible vintage three stripes. Most companies use vintage treatments on 70's products and on just the midsole/tooling. We thought we would flip that mentality a bit and do a 90's runner, and treat only the upper. These processes are a bit more complex to figure out. We did a lot of trials on different materials and developed bleaching, washing and buffing techniques to get the look to match the many vintage samples in the adidas archive. I also really like the idea that this is a collectable shoe that people can actually wear without having to worry about messing it up, cause we did it for you! You can only make it better.

In addition the Berlin zx9000 was produced at adidas' production facility in Scheinfeld, Germany.

With a limited run of 150 exclusive to O-stores each pair was individually laser etched under the window of the TPU heel counter as well on the specially created leather hangtag.

Accompanying the footwear, I designed custom packaging that consisted of a custom shoebox, tissue paper, shoebox carry bag, and garment bag. The launch also included an incredible jacket designed by adidas apparel designer, Nils Moersch.

On September 10th, 2011 the shoe went live in Berlin, and with a queue lined up for days, sold out immediatly. After which there was a flea market in the store back courtyard to continue the festivities. The success of the Berlin project was followed up two months later with the Made For Tokyo Superstar 80s.

"Earlier this year adidas honoured the city of Berlin with a super limited 'Made For' ZX9000. It was a thing of supersonic beauty, bearing gently distressed suede and carefully creased chrome leather lining for a jet-age retro feel. Limited to 150 pairs it ranks as one of the most collectible releases of the year and is destined to land on many end of year best-of lists." -Sneaker Freaker Magazine

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