When designer Darryl Brown started to see the launch of his latest sneakers with Adidas go awry, he had to take control of the narrative, regardless of the potential for fallout.
“People be scared that if they say something, they’re going to get blackballed or they’re going to get canceled,” says Brown.
The shoe, a version of the Adidas Campus 80s dressed in jade panels and made in collaboration with Brown’s namesake label, had been perennially delayed. It was meant to launch in February, then July, then the fall. Then, it popped up at retail last month without any warning. Brown had to learn from people tagging him on social media that, unbeknownst to him, his shoe had dropped.
He decided to comment on the fiasco directly, using an Instagram post to try to explain the situation. The designer chose his words carefully, addressing his brand partner in a way that he felt could detail his frustration without being an outright attack.
“I want Adidas to feel bad, not mad,” says Brown, who worked as a stylist for Kanye West in the 2010s.
The Darryl Brown x Adidas Campus 80s was a victim of the long delays and supply chain setbacks that have plagued footwear brands for the past two years. It has become increasingly common for sneakers to arrive at stores removed from their planned release date and detached from the storytelling the product was designed around.
Brown runs two labels—his namesake brand and Midwest Kids—so he understands shifts like these can be unavoidable. And he feels like Adidas has done right by the partnership in the wake of him publicly listing his woes. But he feels like his message was important to send a wakeup call for brands and designers to hold each other accountable.
“We’re on the same team together,” Brown says. “It’s like we on the basketball team together. Sometimes, you cuss your teammate out because you want the best of them.”
Here, the designer recalls the already long journey of the Darryl Brown x Adidas Campus 80s, describes his back-and-forth with Adidas, and breaks down the real meaning behind the shoe. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
When did you start working with Adidas?
I started working with Adidas, I believe it was—they reached out to me about the collaboration, it was early 2020. That was right before—maybe January. I remember it was a couple weeks before All-Star Weekend Chicago and right before COVID came through and shook everything up. So, yep. It was around that time.
What was the initial project? Were you already talking about footwear at that point?
Oh, no. That was just it. Just from my background with my previous employer, I kind of already was in the ethos of Adidas, I guess you would say in the Adidas family, and venturing around and things like that. I kind of already developed a natural relationship.
From working with Ye?
Yeah. Then they reached out to me because I was in love with the Forum. I had relationships with different people that work at Adidas and they knew that I was a fan of the Forum and was super geeked for them to bring it back, re-release it, launch the program. So, when they actually got around to doing it, that was when they reached out to me and was like, “Hey, we’re going to bring it back,” and, “What do you think about doing your own Forum? We want to do a collaboration with you.” And things started going well so it just turned into two shoes. Like, OK, we’re going to do a two-shoe deal, pretty much.
I already released one shoe last year. I released my Forum and it did really, really well. It was a full campaign behind it. It was amazing. So, now we’re on shoe number two and it’s a Campus.
When was that one originally supposed to release?
It was originally supposed to release February of this year. You know, I’m from the Midwest and All-Star Weekend this year was just in Cleveland. So, I thought that was a prime time. It hasn’t been in Cleveland in like 20 years. So, I was trying to do a huge pop-up and release my shoe during that. But due to COVID and just all types of shipping delays worldwide, the domino effect, the shoe wasn’t ready and wasn’t going to be ready in time. So, I was like, OK. But we still moved forward with at least launching the campaign.
So, we kicked off the campaign for All-Star and instead of pulling up in Cleveland for All-Star and doing an event and with all the rappers and athletes like most brands do, I was like, “I want to show love to the blue-collar workers, the whole workforce.” The Midwest is so rich in the workforce. I want to shine light to that. So, we basically shined light and did a whole story and featured the workers of the stadium. It’s like 3-400 workers for the actual stadium that show up every time. We kicked off the campaign like that. It was originally supposed to be released in February and then it got pushed.
All those lookbook images have the shoes in them, if I remember correctly.
Yeah. So, they were wearing the shoe because I have samples. We have samples, but we didn’t have enough on deck to go full-fledged launch. But enough to be able to show people the shoe and kick off the campaign. Because my main thing was telling the marketing story behind the shoe. So, kicked off the campaign. It went amazing. People loved it. My release date was pushed back until July. It was like, OK, cool, July.
Were you bugging out about the release date pushing back?
No, because I understood, I have two brands on my own, so I understand pushbacks and things like that. I was like, “OK, cool.” So, I’m like, “That’s no problem. People are going to love it. It’s going to release.” July 4th is my birthday, so it’s supposed to release mid-July. So, July is the number seven month. So, it’s like a spiritual aspect too.
So, I’m like, “OK, fire. July in the middle of the summer, let’s go.” You know what I mean? No worries or whatever. So, we’re again, like June. We’re about June. Then they tell me July is not going to go. July is not going to be a go and it’s because we’re still dealing with all of the delays and shipping and etc. I get it because again, I’m running two brands of my own and I am at the same time dealing with my own delays and pushbacks. So, I’m like, “OK, cool. July isn’t a go,” and then it got pushed back to September. So, I’m like, “September, this is more of my vibe.” Fall vibes, September, back to school vibes, fashion, the whole layer season.
So, September was supposed to be the big release date. September comes. No. Can’t do it in September. I had Adidas—they came to my city, to Toledo, Ohio, for five days [in August] with an 11-person crew.
They’re already invested in this thing.
Yeah. We’re already locked in. We shot an amazing campaign that’s going to be beautiful. When everything does come out, I feel like people are going to see why I was speaking up about it. I’ve been fly, I’ve been had some money, been had a little cool factor. But it’s the product. I’m not a Bad Bunny, I’m not a Beyoncé. I’m not a Pharrell. I’m not a celebrity. So, the product matters to me. Not saying it doesn’t matter to them, but it matters wholeheartedly to me.
You can’t win just off your name.
Yeah. I can’t just pull up and be like, “Hey, there’s me with some pics,” and everybody’s going to go rush out the door. I’m not ASAP Rocky. You get what I mean? It’s like, no, people want to see the vision, the creativeness. If you are who we think you are and who we have been supporting on other projects, you got to come with it on a level like this. That’s why I didn’t care with the shoe being shown. It’s 2022. I don’t care. Anybody could see the picture. Anybody could see the shoe all day on a million pictures.
So, September comes, blow through that release date, but then they’re like, “Hey, Oct. 7 is the day. We’re locked in. All systems go, Oct. 7.” I’m like, “Perfect.” Boom. We’re excited, we’re happy. Then towards the end of September, they reached out to me and they’re like, “Hey, so sorry, Oct. 7 isn’t going to be the go. We’re actually looking at Oct. 27 now. That’s the day, 1,000 percent. All systems go.”
Everybody’s excited. Yay, whoo. All bells and whistles. So, Oct. 7 comes, I wake up Oct. 7, and my phone is blowing up, tags on social media. So, I’m like, what the fuck is going on? So, I jump on social media and my shoe has dropped in retailers all across the globe: Australia, all over Europe, all over the United States. Different stores like the Saks, the Kiths, the Stashed, the Concepts.
There’s no warning to you.
No warning to me. Everything drops. Boom. So, I’m freaking. I have brands that I’m doing other partnerships with. They were sending me screenshots like, “Yo, the shoe came out today. Congratulations. Why you didn’t say anything?” Everybody’s kind of like, “What is going on?” Different people are tagging me in the shoe, showing me email blasts. I’m even seeing the email blasts: On sale, boom, boom, boom.
So, I’m like, “Oh, my God.” I’m freaking out. But I get it. Sometimes, little small releases happen. I’m pissed. I’m super pissed. But I’m like, “It’s all good because in two weeks, I’m rolling.” You get what I’m saying? I’m like, “OK, I can deal with that,” Oct. 7 vs. I’m coming in Oct. 27, but then I’m going to do a whole release for my city five days prior. So, Oct. 22, I was going to do a popup in Toledo, Ohio.
So, it’s like, you know what? 27th, all systems go. We’re going to blow. But I’m irritated a little bit because I’m like, “Man, I know people are buying the shoe early.” But it’s also frustrating because I know in some stores, whether it be their dotcom or even shelf life, some stores, it’s probably just sitting, not performing well, not doing anything because it just kind of dropped out of the sky. But I’m just like, “You know what? Fuck it. I’m going to make this a win.”
I’m used to having the underdog story. I’m from the Midwest. They don’t call us the flyover states for nothing. People just fly over us, like shit like this happens or whatever. You know what I mean? So, I’m like, “I’m going to just go even harder, OK, I’m going to go harder and make sure that my release is right.” Adidas, they started to apologize like, “Oh, shit. We’re sorry. What happened was Oct. 7 was the release date,” but clearly they didn’t communicate with all the retailers.
Everybody already had the stock, but they didn’t give them the update that the release date was shifting?
Exactly. They didn’t tell them. They clearly forgot to tell them. So, they go all systems go or whatever, because I even have friends at some of those retailers that are store managers and this, that, and the third. They hit me on the side like, “Yo, bro. So sorry. We didn’t even know. We’re about to pull them off. We didn’t know. We was wondering why you didn’t promote or say anything.”
So, we go through that whole process and then the 17th, they hit me. This is, to me, when it was just like, “You know what? Fuck this. The nice guy stuff is over.” I was totally in line with them and everything and then the 17th, they reached out to me five days before my pop-up and was like, “Hey. So, we’re going to have to unfortunately push it back again to November. We haven’t got our shipment in. I know you’re probably wondering how did retail get their pairs in and we don’t have ours.”
Then they explained to me how distro comes from two different places, like Adidas inline and the Confirmed app and all that. That comes from a different distro than Kith’s distro would come from or a retailer’s distro would. So, the retailers got all their stuff on time and main Adidas, they didn’t get their pairs yet.
So, they was like, “Yo, we got to push this back, etc., etc. We’re so sorry.” For me, that’s when I just got pissed. I am not on any type of way like, let me attack Adidas, or it’s war on Adidas because again, I understand how things go. But also, when shit just happens, you got to fix it and make it right.
I felt like that was so ruined and my release was starting to get botched because I’m like, “Okay. By the time I put my shoe out now in mid-November, it’s going to pretty much already have been on the market for two months.” So, I was like, “For the sake of my own brand and my own career, I’m going to do a little post.” You get what I’m saying? I’m not trying to attack Adidas.
Which is interesting because most people would be inclined to have those conversations in private because they know how much is at risk. What made you decide to make it public like that?
My thing is I wanted to do a post. I knew I wasn’t coming from a place of malice. I have a good name in this industry. I have good stock, I have good relationships, I do good business with people. I’ve never fucked nobody over. I’ve always just been in my own world doing my thing. Even with my partnerships, I’ve always had good relationships with them. I still have a great relationship with Adidas. It was just more so I needed to get that understanding because like I said, one, I was feeling heartbroken and I was just feeling embarrassed in front of everybody.
Every day, somebody’s tagging me with my shoes and it’s a bittersweet moment. So, I wanted Adidas to read my post and to feel bad, not be mad. Because I know how that goes. I didn’t want them to read the post and be like, “This motherfucker.” Because at the end of the day, I’m a realist. We are both so invested in this. It’s not like somebody at Adidas is sitting in the dark like, “Yeah. We’re going to screw him. Yeah. Let’s fuck him over. Woohoo.”
It’s not an intentional thing where they want to kill your project.
Yeah. Exactly. It’s not an intentional thing like, “Yeah. Let’s throw Darryl under the rug.” It’s just shit happens. But shit happens is not it. It don’t stop right there. Things have to be addressed and moved accordingly. Since that post, I’ve talked to numerous people from Adidas. They have been very apologetic, very understanding. I will say that.
I was prepared for some type of backlash, even though I went all extra white gloves and I tried to keep it as cordial and cool as possible. I really looked at my words before I pressed send for the post. I was like, OK, I don’t want to come across like I’m just on a tirade where people manipulate the situation and then they started making it about more so what I said than more so about what the fuck is going on.
There’s a lot in the balance with this message you’re trying to put out there.
Exactly. I’m trying to get a balance and I know, and I’m not only speaking up for myself, I’m speaking up for all creators. Not just the ones with Adidas, the ones at other companies, too. It sounds cliche to say. But it’s so real. It’s been like hundreds of people that have hit me, called me, text me, DMed me since that post and was like, “Bro, thank you so much, bro, because I’m going through such and such over here.” Because that’s really what it is. I love Adidas. I love our relationship. They gave me my first shoe. Most athletes don’t even get a fucking shoe.
So, do you feel like the post did what you needed it to do?
1,000 percent. I feel like it got people’s attention. Think about it. It got hundreds of other people’s attention in Adidas that know me that didn’t even know that that was going on, because it’s not like Adidas is just a small high school where everybody knows everything and about everything that’s going on with your project. So, it gave awareness. You get what I’m saying? Because so many people seen that post and it just needed to be said.
I just wanted to kind of smack Adidas across the back of the head real quick just like, “Hey, you forgot about me over here.” I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now. I get it. But don’t fuck this up for me. This is both of our IP together. Why don’t y’all set me up and put me in the best position possible to win? That’s more so what it was. I was feeling like, yo, this is about to be dragged out. No. We need a dedicated moment to this. You know what I mean? I need everybody to refocus.
When you realized that some of that stuff was happening, were you calling any stores or accounts to try and stop it?
No. No. I ain’t coming down off the mountain like that. Mm-mm. I’m just going to tell Adidas, to me, that’s not respecting the hierarchy systems. I ain’t got to do that. That’s disrespecting our partnership. You know what I mean? I’m not going to embarrass myself like that and be hitting Kith, “Yo, take my shoe down, bro. This Darryl Brown. Take my shoe down. Adidas messed up.” No that’s messy. No. I understand we running a business. No, you reach back out to them and you tell them, “Hey, you guys fucked up over here. Let’s fix it.” They would’ve been pissed if I’d have been doing that. Like, “Yo, what are you doing?”
Then it looks like a real battle.
Yeah. It just looks crazy. It’s like they could do that, and they have done that in certain stores, because I was just in New York for four days and I was on a tear, boy. I was going around to all the stores looking for my shit, like, “If I see my shoe in any of these motherfucking stores, I’m about to throw a fit.” I did see them in Concepts though, but them the homies. So, it was just like at this point, it was like whatever because everybody all seen the post.
I wasn’t scared to say nothing because I knew I did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong to Adidas, and I knew it was all about not what I say, but how I say it. You get what I’m saying? You could tell the person to their face “Fuck you” in the nicest way possible, deadass, literally, where they still walk away and they’re like, “Oh, wow. He told me fuck me, basically. But okay. Hey. Yeah.” You know what I mean? So, it’s like you can totally get your point across. You can totally express anger without being violent or belittling somebody or just being messy. Just call it out, bro. I don’t got to be mean and messy.
For the people who have seen your sneakers for sale, but don’t understand what went into them, what do you want them to know? What is the story behind the sneaker that you feel like needs to be communicated that’s been missing so far?
The whole thing is inspired about the workforce and it’s shining light on my city. It has my name on the shoe. It has the name of my city on the shoe. It says Toledo, Ohio on the shoe. The colors of the actual shoe are inspired by my dad’s work uniform, his welding coat, his jade welding jacket that he used to wear when he worked for Chrysler for like 33 years and retired from. My mother’s a part of this campaign. My father’s a part of this campaign. Different people from all over my city, different entrepreneurs, and just every day nine-to-fivers.
It sounds cliche because people just throw words around. But I’m real for the people, I represent the people. I come from that, like how I used to work for the railroad and all these other different things. I used to work for General Motors and the iron mill, all different type of factory jobs, temp agency jobs. So, it’s like, I come from this. My mother right now, she’s been working at Toledo Hospital for 29 years, but not as a nurse. She’s been doing housekeeping. So, a lot of this is, I really want people to understand that this shoe is for the people and shining light on the people. It’s less about me. It’s not all about me.
It’s about the people. They can feel the story. They can feel like the tone I’m trying to set. They can feel the language in my posts. They can feel it. They can feel why I wear certain things or why I look a certain way. They know when they see me, it ain’t because, oh, I’m just trying to be stylish and be trendy. They know that my whole ethos and my makeup is real live legit. It’s authentic from where I come from and what I do.
