adidas Originals Five-Two 3 Artist City Series Pack

The artist pack is a collaboration consisting of the five most iconic originals’ footwear models with 5 artists out of 5 of the most influential cities around the globe. New York, London, Paris, Milan and Tokyo. With all artists being inspired by their respective cities, plus their unique and diverse approach of creating outstanding art, the pack perfectly represents today’s mindset of combining local and global thinking. The artists contributing to the pack are Pochoir, MADSAKI, Dalek, Fakso and KRSN.

Superstar x Pochoir
For London, graffiti-artist Pochoir, an exponent of Dadaist principles brings his London street sign satire to a Superstar upper. A reflective, stone coloured upper with a subtle printed depiction of the jagged 3-Stripes and Pochoir’s work immediately evokes a city setting. The blue “POCHOIR 2008- painted here” commemorative plaque-style heel print and metal lace jewel is totally unique, with this shoe finished with a slightly speckled heel Trefoil and stenciled artist logo sockliner.

Stan Smith x KRSN
Artist and illustrator Jan-KRSN-Garet plays with his chosen environment, taking inspiration from 70’s and 80’s illustration, approaching his subject armed with sensitivity, irony and a definitive point-of-view. The resulting fruits of his work with adidas is a take on the bestselling Stan Smith silhouette with a ‘gold leaf’ print depicting several Fleur-de-lis, distressed gold printing on the heeltabs and an oversized depiction of Stan on the tongue, white metal eyelets and an off-white forefoot stitch. ‘adidas x KRSN Stan Smith Paris 1972’ lettering completes his footwear revision.detailing makes for a unique makeup, finished with a purple and gold sockliner.

Samba x MADSAKI
MADSAKI holds it down for Tokyo with a shapeshifting multi-discipline approach to art that refuses to be tethered, and his take on the Samba takes the soccer training shoe into new territories without losing sight of the shoe’s original appeal. A patterned soft leather lace cover in white, grey and black with a gold logo harks back to groundbreaking adidas runners while making the slim design even more bike-friendly courtesy of this onetime cycle courier. A reptile-skin effect leather upper, white contrast stitching, scrawled lettering and white highlighted midsole detailing makes for a unique makeup, finished with a purple and gold sockliner.

Nizza x Fakso
An artist, photographer and key documenter of rolling steel, revealing graffiti at its most uncompromising. Milan’s Fakso sees metal as a canvas, celebrating the tactics, technique and determination of the scene’s key players. On the ankle-high Nizza silhouette, the leather upper becomes a canvas, covered by a large graffiti image. The printed tongue, beige 3-Stripes and yellow bottom eyelet, foxing and rubber toe bumper sit on a black midsole, giving the silhouette the dark air of Fakso’s prolific output.

Forum x Dalek
Representing New York in the Cities Pack, James Marshall (Dalek) developed his well-known “Space Monkey” characters while doing street art and graffiti when he graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. Working largely intuitively and organically, he allows each painting to become a new discovery, and the ongoing series of discoveries that helped to define his career have now led Dalek far beyond his beginnings when, right out of art school, he found a new way to merge street art, cartoons, Japanese pop, and the energy of the urban punk scene. His new work revels in a profusion and hyper-abundance of colour and planes of space; the familiar lines and iconic “Space Monkey” references that defined his earlier work are only a starting point for a new series of meditations on the push and pull of forces he sees in contemporary life.