adidas ZX 700 x Sneakersnstuff
- MODEL: ADIDAS ZX 700
- SERIES: ADIDAS CONSORTIUM
- PACK: ADIDAS CONSORTIUM FIRST WOMEN'S COLLECTION
- DESIGNED BY: Sneakersnstuff
- MADE IN: CHINA
- MADE ON: --/12
- ART.NO: G64374
With stores in both Stockholm and Malmö, founders Erik Fagerlind and Peter Jansson have pushed hard since ’99 to grow and maintain the Sneakersnstuff (SNS) name beyond just a regular retail boutique. And it’s no doubt they reached an admirable level of success, climbing high enough to be considered an opinion leader when it comes to style sensibilities and unique designs in the international sneaker scene.
Their most recent gift to the sneaker world is a well played runner, part of the adidas Consortium First Women’s Collection hitting stores this Winter (2012). Interested in the guys’ perspective on their gal’s silhouette, we hit ‘em up for a rap session to explore what put the snake skin on this pair of collaboration kicks.
Erik, Peter, thanks so much for joining us. Let’s jump right in: Why the ZX 700?
To be honest, this project was first supposed to be a tribute to the forty years of the trefoil, and there were supposed to be four partners, each choosing one iconic style from each decade. And as it was said to be a women’s project we felt that we needed to do a runner, and the ZX 700 has a very good shape.
We can certainly agree with that statement. So what was the main idea behind your design?
Our goal was to create a style that would perhaps appeal to a more mature woman than your average adidas girl. So our inspiration was taken from luxury hand bags.
Consortium is certainly a place to play with such notions of high level quality and elegant materials. Can you explain your choice of detailing, especially in the snakeskin texture and pleated side stripes?
The snake was a given, because it’s been used to make more luxurious feeling items for a long time. The challenge here was to find a quality of leather that would give a genuine feeling also. You can’t really provide a sense of luxury using cheap leather. The pleated stripes were incorporated to give the feeling of draped velvet suede. First of all we felt that the classic sharp-toothed (perforated) stripes that you see on most adidas would give this shoe a more sporty look than necessary. So we were excited to come up with the idea, and super happy with the way that adidas executed it.
It’s probably the most unique design feature of the shoe. Regarding adidas, what other shoes have you done with them, Consortium or otherwise?
Coincidentally, the very first adidas shoe we did was also a ZX 700. We did it for something called the Tempo Range back in 2005. We weren’t allowed to put our logo on them, but we made the design after our newly re-opened store in Malmö (brown and gold). Then we were part of the A to ZX project in 2007 and 2008 where we did a ZX 450. And in 2009 we made an adidas Samba for the 3WAY collab series, and co-did an adidas Superstar together with Patta, Alife, and LimitEDition for that same project. And finally, later on in 2009, we did a grey version of the adidas Stockholm.
Damn, you guys have been busy as ever over the last half decade! With all that experience under your belts, how would you describe the design process, especially considering in this case you’re two men designing a shoe geared towards women?
It’s a challenge, of course, to try to go outside of your own comfort zone. But in any project we put a lot of effort into research and try to come up with a conceptual idea first. We feel that just making a nice colorway doesn’t always cut it. I personally talked to my wife about it a lot, and then we sat down together at the SNS design office (Peter, Johan, and I) and just brainstormed ideas. Johan is the one who’s actually taking all these ideas and putting them on paper. Then we await the first sample round, and make changes until we’re happy with the design.
Sounds like an in-depth and exciting process. And the final result?
Well they’re going quick, but we might still have some pairs of the shoe left on our website if you move fast!
Again, guys, thank you so much for meeting up with us and allowing your brains to be picked, we thoroughly enjoyed the process.
No problem! And we would like to say thank you to the team over at adidas. Not only the Consortium team, but all the good people we have gotten to know well in Herzo and also at adidas Nordics. It’s amazing how a huge company like adidas can pay attention to what a relativly small company as Sneakersnstuff has to say.
written by Dylan Cromwell
photography by errol
