The fate of a few hundred eager ComplexCon attendees hung in the balance on Sunday afternoon at adidas’ sizable booth. The crowd looked up in anticipation, frequent adidas collaborator Pharrell Williams hovering quietly above while a host called out winning raffle ticket numbers. The spoils: five pairs of N.E.R.D. x adidas NMDs, a super-limited (and equally coveted) collaboration from the polymath producer’s on-again off-again band that came back together at the festival in Long Beach to premiere their new album. One by one, numbers announced on the speakers above were met by joyous outbreak from the winners below.
adidas’ presence at the cultural festival, which spanned Nov. 4 and 5 and drew thousands, extended well beyond Williams and well beyond its main booth. Pusha T, protege of Williams and president of GOOD Music, arrived to cheers. His own shoe was present, along with other drops like one with Have a Good Time, an exclusive ComplexCon EQT style, and more. The lines constantly snaking in and around adidas’ booth were mirrored throughout the space, too. The brand worked with Foot Locker for an additional booth, which further served the thousands hunting for Three Stripes product. It also planted 10 gumball machines around the floor that produced long queues. These lineups rewarded waiting attendees with branded goodies and a chance to win never-released sample sneakers from adidas’ archive.
The archival items were pulled from adidas’ internal catalogs and the personal collections of some of its most respected employees. One was Nic Galway, VP of design at adidas Originals, whose contributions spanned his career with the brand. Those shoes, among them early versions of Williams’ Hu NMD sneaker and outtakes from the longstanding Y-3 collaboration, tell the story of its progression over decades. While these kinds of brand artifacts are usually kept behind closed doors, Galway saw the ComplexCon experience as an opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue with adidas fans, in part by sharing his design background.
"I'm always more interested in seeing how people wear the product. The interesting thing for me is to see how culture takes and uses our product," Galway said. "We want to break away from being a big corporation and give an experience. Here, we're seeing what excites people and what interests them and that's why I personally wanted to come out here and participate."
The excitement peaked around releases like the aforementioned NMD and an extremely limited raffle of pairs of Kanye West’s forthcoming adidas Yeezy 700 Boost, a shoe that was pre-launched in August but isn’t really out in the wild just yet. Fittingly, their launch at ComplexCon was accompanied by none other than Jon Wexler, the adidas exec who helped bring West to the brand. Wexler, now something of a celebrity in his own right in the sneakerhead world, strolled the floor in his own pair, stopping for the occasional photo opp and also stopping by Sole Collector’s Full Size Run.
Between the product and the people, adidas’ presence at ComplexCon reverberated beyond its own booth. Of the attendees seeking out its wares during the weekend, some left with shoes, others left with apparel, but all left with a palpable sense of the brand’s current momentum and energy.
