SANKUANZ and adidas Originals Unveil Full Basketball-Inspired Collaboration

Shangguan Zhe‘s rising Chinese label SANKUANZ teased a collaboration with adidas Originals in its Fall/Winter 2020 runway show, and now it has officially unveiled the full collection.

Cut, form and pop cultural iconography take center stage in the collaboration, tapping American basketball influences for inspiration. As a result, SANKUANZ comprises an offering of Crazy BYW and Rivalry Hi sneakers for its range of collaborative footwear, and pairs this with a full wardrobe of basketball-indebted garments.

While the footwear draws more directly from on-court basketball, the clothing collection looks to the West Coast and its streetball scene. Zhe drew influence from the 1990s specifically, developing a variety of garments such as hoodies, sweatshirts, chino pants, basketball jerseys with shorts and showtime hoodies that are all reversible, expanding the possibilities of different looks. A combination of hip-hop graffiti from the ’90s and SANKUANZ’s signature colors of acid green and indigo purple further nod to a relationship between adidas’ heritage and SANKUANZ’s contemporary approach.

An interesting component of the collection is its layered trousers, which introduces tailoring to track pants with a wide, basketball short-like fit. For the shoes, SANKUANZ adds a blue, gel-like patch to both pairs, further developing their retrofuturistic aesthetic.

Check out the SANKUANZ x adidas Originals collection in the lookbook above. Everything is set to release on adidas’ Asia-Pacific websites and at its APAC stores on May 23.

In other news, adidas has given the Stan Smith a slip-on makeover.