The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Group 2 I-P

The 2nd wave of sneakers from the aZX Project will be coming out this September 20,2008. For this batch, we have letters I to P with the following stores representing each letter: Icon Stores, J-B, Kendo, LiveStock, Major DC, Neighborhood, Adidas Originals, Patta.

Without further ado, here are the pics and details for the 2nd batch:

ZX 700 FOR ADIDAS ICON STORES (LONDON & BERLIN)

Designed for Adidas Icon stores in London and Berlin or simply called No. 6(London) and No. 74(Berlin). These numbers are represented on the tongue of the shoe, which also means that this pair will exclusively be available ONLY in Icon stores.

ZX 500 BY J-B (PORTLAND, USA)

J-B stands for Just Be or JustBeComplex.com which is the website for Compound Gallery. Compound Gallery is located in Portland, Oregon which is the hometown of corporate rival, Nike. The store sells an eclectic mix of sneakers, clothing as well as toys and art. It actually seems that they are a store that sells more art and design stuff and this is clearly reflected on the intricate design found in the heel of the shoe.

AZX 800 BY KENDO (LOS ANGELES, USA)

Kendo is the 1st sneaker store that is dedicated to women. As such, the colorway they have chosen represents their background. From the suede heel area and a selection of different purple shades coupled with gray and just a hint of gold on the 3 stripes, this is a sneaker that both men and women could rock.

ZX 450 BY LIVESTOCK (VANCOUVER, CANADA)

Another one of the pioneer sneaker stores in Canada, Livestock started off with Vancouver and has since open 2 other stores, another one also in Vancouver and the other in Toronto. Taking similar color cues from fellow Canadian store Goodfoot, they also use a green and gray combo albeit with a darker and more militaristic look to it. If the similarities of the colorway was done on purpose, we are not sure as well. Maybe Canadians just love the color green.

ZX 600 BY MAJOR DC (WASHINGTON, USA)

In reworking this shoe, Major DC wanted to put an all-terrain feel to it and chose to use the olive and khaki with hints of orange to make it blend. The digi camo pattern on the heel is also a nice touch to it. It does seem that for military themes, sneaker companies love to put that tinge of orange similar to the Nike SB Dunk Hi for Brian Anderson that came out last year.

ZX 700 BOAT BY NEIGHBORHOOD / NBHD (TOKYO, JAPAN)

I’m actually most excited in writing about this shoe, mostly because it’s Neighborhood or more commonly known as NBHD. I am a big fan of the Japanese street wear industry and NBHD is one of the most respected brands out there. Headed by Shinsuke Takizawa, the brand is heavily influenced by the biker culture. In fact, according to some insider info, there was some difficulty for Adidas to make this collaboration happen due to the fact that NBHD doesn’t really do runner sneakers which is what the ZX models are, however they were able to compromise by offering the ZX 700 which is Adidas’ take on the boat shoe.

This probably will be the most hyped shoe for this batch, if not for the whole project. The tones selected by NBHD is black and white, which is the common color combinations which they use for most of the stuff in their line. It works effectively and gives that simple but striking look. Many people have said that there are similarities to Visvim FBT, I can say that maybe there is an influence to it as NBHD has collaborated with Visvim for quite a number of times now.

ZX 700 FOR ADIDAS ORIGINALS

The shoe that will only be available at Adidas Originals stores. This version has an interesting mix of materials used along with a velcro strap for the heel. Nice and simple, done with my favorite combo of chocolate and pink.

ZX 7000 BY PATTA (AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS)

Patta is Surinamese slang for shoes and is mostly famous due to one of it’s founders, Parra. Parra is an illustrator who have worked on various magazine, CD covers as well as concert posters. He has also done quite a number of collaborations with Nike. Parra and Patta have always worked with vibrant colors and for their sneaker, what they have done is no exception. A good combination of teal against purple, it’s almost pushing the limits for color harmony and yet it is something that you can see people wearing on their feet.

That’s it for the 2nd batch! Wait for the upcoming 3rd and final series of this project. It should be quite promising as we have big name brands such as Alife and Undefeated among the list of collaborators.

Thanks to the following for the pics: HighSnobiety, Hypebeast and Freshnessmag.

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Videos

For this project, Adidas flew in the representatives from 22 stores to hang out at the Adidas HQ in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Basically, in what looked like a big brainstorming session for the top players in street retail and design, Adidas put them in a room and worked with designers in developing their shoe. How cool is that?

This is the official description from the aZX channel:

Gathering 22 of the world’s key retailers, from streetwear stores to
high-end boutiques, all with their own individual vision when it comes
to design and style, the aZX project offered classic adidas ZX running
shoe designs alongside an open brief for their own limited edition
release. Covering a complete A to Z of the very best in retail, branding
and innovation it represents one of the largest scale, most intelligent
sneaker collaborations to date.

Using these timeless silhouettes that ranged from the simplicity of the
earlier low profile shapes to highly technical Torsion creations and
contemporary designs as a blank canvas, some kept it simple in line with
the individual shoe’s heritage, others took inspiration from outside the
blue box, but all partners projected a personal vision on their choice
of shoe perfectly.

Launched with a gathering of participating store and brand
representatives at adidas’ Herzo headquarters, over two days they
brainstormed, applied and tweaked their chosen makeups alongside the
design team, resulting in the first fruits of a collaborative collection
that offers something for traditionalists, collectors and fashionistas
alike.
With the cream of the industry working, eating and socializing
side-by-side, this was a unique event that yielded unique results.

Here are the videos from the Adidas aZX channel on Youtube. The 1st video is basically a general introduction to their gathering, while the next 2 videos takes a few of the people from each of the 1st 2 groups, A-H and I-P, to talk about their personal creations:

aZX Intro

Group A-H

Group I-P

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Group 1 A-H

The 1st 8 sneakers of the much awaited Consortium aZX Project by Adidas was released last August 08,2008. The Consortium line-up for the aZX Project, includes the following stores from A to Y:

ACU, Bodega, Colette, D-Mop, LimitEDitions, FootPatrol, GoodFoot, Huf, Icon Stores, J-B, Kendo, LiveStock, Major DC, Neighborhood, Adidas Originals, Patta, Daves Quality Meat, Alife Rivington Club, SNS, Crooked Tongues, Undefeated, VA, Wood Wood and You.

Here are the pictures for Group 1:

Here below detailed images of the first part of the project. More to come soon.

ZX 800 BY ACU (SHANGHAI, CHINA)

ACU’s take on the ZX800, clearly reflects the direction and background of ACU. Similar with their past collaboration with Nike and Clot, with designs heavily influenced by their Chinese heritage and surrounding, the Shanghai-based crew is all about combining traditional Chinese culture with modern street culture.

ZX 8000 BY BODEGA (BOSTON, USA)

Aptly named Bodega, the store represents your friendly neighborhood convenient store. The front area is really a convenient store, while the secret trapdoor reveals a backroom designed like a museum for sneakers and other street wear goodies. They also carry Japanese street wear labels such as Visvim and Head Porter Plus.

In my opinion, the design on the shoe reflects their connection to the classic era, with basic colors that is fitting for a shoe that was originally designed for sports.

ZX300 BY COLETTE (PARIS, FRANCE)

Everybody knows Colette as an eclectic store, selling everything from art books to sought-after sneakers and clothing. Another thing about Colette is their quirkiness in everything they do, which helps put them forward in everything the do. The shoe reflects that characteristic, the ZX300 is plastered with words which all start with the letter C. On a boring day, maybe you can count the number of words actually printed.

ZX 500 BY D-MOP (HONG KONG, CHINA)

As one of the premier retail oulets in fashion-hungry Hong Kong, D-Mop puts their twist on the shoe with a hint of the future. The bright future is the new black, as they use silver, scale-like material to bring the shine back into the shoe.

ZX 450 BY LIMITEDITIONS (BARCELONA, SPAIN)

One of Barcelona’s top sneaker and clothing stores, LimitedEditions uses a clean black background to make the colors pop-out, making it simple looking but very striking. A nice touch on the stitching of the LimitedEditions logo on the tongue as well.

ZX 800 BY FOOTPATROL (SOHO, LONDON)

FootPatrol has temporarily closed it’s physical store, but that hasn’t stopped them in collaborating with Adidas. Their take on the shoe is simply spells FootPatrol, which is known for their use of colors similar to their previous collaborations with Nike.  FootPatrol is also part of the Gimme5 crew, which is involved deeply in UK street wear culture, representing Stussy UK and responsible for bring A Bathing Ape or Bape, GoodEnough and other Japanese labels to the UK market.

ZX 8000 BY GOODFOOT (TORONTO, CANADA)

GoodFoot is responsible for bringing sneaker culture to Canada. What started out as a store, is now 5 store strong with branches in other parts of Canada as well as a sister store in Nomad. For their shoe, they stuck to being environmental friendly by using recycled materials. Another shoe which has a clean colorway that works well on the runner.

ZX 500 BY HUF (San Francisco, USA)

Huf is the store of Keith Hufnagel, professional skateboarder. As with his previous sneaker collaboration, his design is heavily influenced by San Francisco, particularly it’s rich history. And this time it’s the patterns on the San Francisco rail-worker’s uniform. It’s a nice touch with a good balance of blue and white, and as my favorite color, I can’t say no to blue!

Some info via NiceKicks, Pics from HighSnobiety