As one of the largest athletic retailers and manufacturers on the planet, adidas is heavily imprinted in our cultural consciousness. The Originals Superstar gained a cult-like status when Run-DMC adopted the sneaker as their uniform in the 1980s, and were arguably the first hip-hop group to write an ode to sneaker-culture with their 1986 song “My adidas.”, infamously throwing out verses like; “Me and my adidas do the illest things/ We like to stomp out pimps with diamond rings/ We slay all suckers who perpetrate/ And lay down law from state to state.”

Although we will always pay Superstars their due respect, Jason’s personal archive offers a distilled peek into the technical and aesthetic capability of adidas.

adidas Artillery  - By Slick: This shoe is 11 years old, and I have had for all 11 years. I don’t really wear it, but the story is really great – it’s a collaboration with an artist called Slick from Hawaii, who is part of a collective called the “Bomb Squad”, and they are heavily influenced by Japanese culture and cartoon design and I love that about the shoe – it is completely rare. 

adidas Human Race NMD Pharrell Holi Festival (Samples): I really love the colours of this pair, and I especially love that it is a sample pair – so the sole is completely different to the release pair. I am definitely a hunter when it comes to weird and different shoes, and I have access through working at the brand which is incredible. 

adidas "City of Gold" – Sneaker Freaker collab: This was a collab with adidas South Africa, and if I remember correctly there were only 24 pairs given to select people – so this is hugely meaningful and treasured, and ironically I wasn’t on the first list to get it but I was blessed by one of our managers. It has never been worn and exists more like a symbolic object of my time at adidas South Africa. It lives in a box with its matching book. 

adidas Mutambo OG: This pair is for the legendary Congolese-American basketball player from the late 80s/90s – Dikembe Mutambo – and is hugely inspired by Africa, which you can see in the prints and the logo composition. This is definitely a pair that embodies the continent, which I love.