Inside the ‘New Wave in the Sneaker Industry’ at Adidas
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
It’s been just over a year since Clot founder and creative director Edison Chen and Adidas Originals announced their ongoing partnership at Shanghai Fashion Week. Since that initial blowout, we’ve seen multiple iterations of the ideas that Chen first laid out. There have been surprising riffs on the Gazelle and Superstar and tweaked iterations of iconic Adidas apparel—all of it filtered through Chen’s singular perspective.
Crucially, what we’re talking about here isn’t a reworked colorway or two. Instead, these are entirely reformulated approaches to long-standing designs that required reworking everything from how they were conceptualized to how they were built. The idea is to create something new—and maybe a little challenging—for fans of Adidas and Clot alike.
“I not only want to inspire myself but to inspire the people that have been following our brand for so many years,” Chen says. The “Clot November Collection by Edison Chen,” as it’s officially dubbed, debuts today and represents the latest step in that process. So to mark the occasion, we jumped on a video call with the guy behind the designs to chat about how it’s been going—and what comes next. Read on for a few highlights from our conversation.
On creating his own niche
“We set out a few goals, and I think we’ve reached them. They’re not necessarily monetary goals; it’s just creating noise, being a little different, and trying to find our own niche in such a crowded market. We’ve been successful in believing in the original direction and inspiration. And right now is an interesting time, especially in the sneaker world. Is it overheating? There’s a lot of discussion about what’s happening, but I feel very comfortable with the niche that we’ve carved. So we’re not in any type of panic mode and we’re just creating freely.”
On the collaboration’s evolution
“We look and plan way ahead, and we try to forecast not just what the market is wanting but what we want to do. Then we compartmentalize into what we call chapters. When we came to Adidas, we agreed that we would be writing a new book, and the first three chapters, I thought, should be written this way. And although nothing ever goes as planned, we’re 90 percent sticking to the script. And things are evolving. When we first started working together, we wanted to ditch the old, meaning some of the familiar prints that we worked and we used with other collaborators. And we wanted to really try to invest and introduce a new vibe, a new aesthetic. But as we turn the corner on almost the year point, we’re going to be incorporating some of the classics back into our creations. So it’s not stagnant; it feels evolving and it’s something that we purposely did. And it’s fun.”
On expanding his own approach
“Working with Adidas has been really refreshing because it forced me to really challenge myself and take on new things and not be afraid of things that I would usually say no to. So we’re working with some tennis demographics. We’re working with what we call football or soccer, depending on who you’re talking to. And it’s interesting because always working on something new is good for the psyche and good for the soul.”
On pushing the shoe designs
“It’s a fun play to not just [create a new] colorway [for] a shoe but to really change the shape and form and functionality—not only in aesthetic but also in the creation process. Because my design team at Adidas is fully energized with the briefs and the outlines that we give them. It’s fun to keep everyone on our toes to create new things.
“When I came into Adidas, I had a few rules that I wanted to implement in our collaboration. One was that we can’t just do colorways and we can’t discount the consumer nowadays who is super savvy, maybe savvier than me. When I first started becoming a sneaker-head, I would look across a busy street, cars passing, and I could see a pair of shoes that I was like, ‘What is that?’ And I feel like in the past five or ten years, that has disappeared. Everyone knows this, everyone knows that. But with the information highway, how still can you have someone notice what you’re wearing or stand out from the crowd a little bit? And that’s definitely not a colorway. And it is also not just mashing up a shoe. I feel like mashing up a shoe is so computer work. So we’re trying to figure out how aesthetically to make something that could be the start of a new wave in the sneaker industry, hopefully.”
On working with Adidas
“I don’t work off PDFs, and I don’t work off a huge [amount of] reference material. We have conversations, we have talks—we talk about emotions, we talk about how you’re supposed to feel in the product—and I don’t give them a defined color palette or anything. It’s really a collaborative effort. It really is. I mean, people are like, ‘Hey, you designed these shoes.’ I didn’t design them. I creative-directed them, and the Adidas team designed them for me and really fulfilled my dream.”
On keeping things fresh
“I see a lot of very successful people losing their way because they stick to a formula. I didn’t want to be one of those dudes. One of the reasons for moving to Adidas is to really cement and prove to myself if there is a legacy behind what we’re doing. And being able to have a playground or an outlet for someone to allow me to use their facilities and their production to realize that dream has been... I can’t even put it in words how grateful I am.”
You Might Also Like
