adidas on Friday "kicked off a year-long global campaign" for its Originals line with "a star-studded spot that challenges what it means to be superstar," according to Ashley Rodriguez of AD AGE. The push "celebrates the 45th anniversary of the Superstar, the Originals' most iconic and one of its best-selling shoes." The three-striped shoe, which started off as a basketball sneaker in '69, "was made famous by Run-D.M.C." in the '80s, when it "became synonymous with hip-hop culture." The brand push "comes as the Originals line begins to drive retail sales on the style-driven side of the business." adidas Originals Senior Dir of Global Brand Communications Alexander Matt said that the Originals line "experienced a 'double-digit sales increase'" over the last year "while overall sales on the retail side were up 11%." The 90-second black-and-white launch spot, directed by Karim Huu Do of Caviar, stars musicians Pharrell Williams and Rita Ora, David Beckham and Trail Blazers G Damian Lillard, "who each challenge the conventional definition of superstardom." adidas last year tapped creative agency Johannes Leonardo, N.Y., "for the push" (
ADAGE.com, 1/9). In Portland, Allan Brettman noted the choice of Lillard as the rep from the ranks of adidas basketball stars for Friday's unveiling of the Originals Superstar shoe "was an interesting choice, to say the least." Brettman wrote, "Not Derrick Rose. ... Not Dwight Howard. ... Not John Wall." Lillard said, "It's the year of the superstar for Adidas so they wanted to use people in different lanes to kind of push that and they chose me for basketball. I was happy to be a part of it. It's global, it's a global commercial, a global thing, so that was big" (
Portland OREGONIAN, 1/10).
WINNING THE RACE: ESPN.com's Christopher Chavez cited a source as saying that the new '15 Boston Marathon jacket colors "are called 'Night Flash', a combination of purple, grey and orange." The color pattern "may also be featured on elite athletes’ uniforms" in '15. The jacket "will hit the retail market for $110 and will be found all throughout the streets of Boston come marathon weekend" (ESPN.com, 1/9).
