Jesse / Laramie Barnes

Laramie Barnes

Dr. Daniel Cryer

Composition II

September 12th, 2018

Jesse x adidas

The sneaker community is a booming and vast one. We wear shoes every day and have many different options depending on the weather, the occasion or the mood we are in. There is a shoe for almost any activity or occasion you can think of. Every sport has its own shoe like cleats, running shoes, and skate shoes. Every dance style from tap to ballet has their own shoe style. We have work shoes, shoes for weddings and dances, shoes for hanging around the house or going to the beach or pool. They can be a glimpse into the type of personality one has, or, the lifestyle they lead whether they know it or not. It is commonly said that you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.

For Jesse, his brand of choice is adidas, a classic and popular brand. For almost 100 years adidas have been making their mark on the world, literally and figuratively. The company was founded in 1924 in Germany by Adolf “Adi” Dassler with the help of his brother Rudolf Dassler(who later separated to create rival company Puma.) It was originally called Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. They gained attention when American sprinter Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics wearing shoes with Adi’s homemade spikes. Several years later, after the separation with his brother in 1949, Adi officially changed the company name to adidas. It is commonly thought that adidas stands ‘All Day I Dream About Sports’ when it is actually a mashup of Adolf Dassler’s name and meant to be lowercase. Now-a-days adidas is still thriving with some of the world’s most famous celebrities and athletes promoting the brand.    

Jesse is inspired by adidas collector Teddy ‘The Boostgod’ Sarafian. The Boost God was given his nickname for the over eighty pairs of the Boost style adidas shoes he owns, on top of many others. He had even made a business selling ‘Boostgod’ merch to fellow adidas lovers. He is a tattoo artist by day and used his art skills to design shirts and other clothing. Teddy’s collection and closet is so on point that when asked to describe a dream shoe closet Jesse said he would just have Teddy’s. Though Teddy now refers to himself in his social media bio as “f.k.a(formerly known as) the boostgod” he still supports adidas. He just prefers the focus to be on his tattooing and art rather than him as a shoe collector.

Not only is Teddy an inspiration, but, celebrity collaborations are as well. One of Jesse’s dream pairs is a collaboration with artist Pharrell Williams. Williams has many different products he has worked on with adidas. If Jesse could pick any he would choose the ‘Human Race’ style which runs for over $1000. Collaborations are an important part of what keeps the sneaker community thriving. When popular artists and athletes team up to produce a shoe or collection it always generates a buzz in the community.  

When asked who he would collaborate with if he could pick any one he lit up and said “Definitely Yeezy!” Yeezy, better known as Kanye West, has been working his way up in the fashion industry for years. He has worked with adidas several times before as well. He also has some family promoting the adidas brand. The company currently has Kylie Jenner, the sister of Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, as the face of the reboot of an old style called Falcon Dorf from 1997. Her sister Kendall Jenner was the face of the adidas Arkyn earlier this year. Their mother(and Kim’s) Kris Jenner and their father Caitlyn Jenner, a gold medal winning Olympian have both been well known in America since before their children became some of the most famous people in the world. Some have even gone as far as describing the Kardashian family as American Royalty.

Collaborations and reboots of old shoes aren’t the only great way to keep the desire to build a collection up. Even finding and collecting old shoes is part of the fun. Jesse’s dream old school pair are the classic Iniki’s, released in the the 1970’s. Though for Jesse, just like Teddy, the adidas Ultra Boost was the first shoe that really caught his attention and stuck with him when he was 18 years old. He said, “They were just the most comfortable shoe I had ever put on.” Just two years later Jesse has 14 pairs of adidas shoes and hopes to have as many, if not more, than Teddy one day. He takes the time to keep current pairs looking fresh and smelling clean with Jason Markk premium shoe care products and keeps them stored on their own shoe rack.  

With big names representing adidas this may be a great opportunity for Jesse to get some solid modern additions to his collection. Adidas considers themselves a creator’s brand. They may have initially gained popularity through athletes, but, it seems that their collaborations and brand ambassadors are more artists and socialites rather than athletes to keep the balance alive. A quote from their hiring website states “In this competitive landscape, right at that border of sport and creativity where we set up camp, we are the creators in front of the white canvas creating the best for the athlete. We adapt to today’s world and landscape in the most collaborative, confident and creative way we can – just like our original creator Adi Dassler did.” Despite there not being a massive community for people particularly into adidas, that just leaves more room for Jesse to succeed in his goal for notoriety in his collection in the future.