Adidas Originals x Avavav Rewrites Sportswear With Exaggeration

Adidas Originals and Avavav have continued their design experiment with a footwear lineup that pushes the boundary between performance and parody. The third collaboration, under creative director Beate Skonare Karlsson, expands on the duo’s sculptural language, turning classic adidas silhouettes into exaggerated forms.

At the center is the Modified Superstar, now built from a single piece of vacuum-molded leather that embosses the brand’s signature Three Stripes directly into its surface. The toe cap and sculpted sole remain, but the construction feels stripped of nostalgia — a reprint of Adidas heritage in relief. Two worn-in colorways emphasize material over branding, reinforcing Avavav’s penchant for distortion.

The Moonrubber Megaride grows even more outsized this season. Its bubbled outsole returns with reflective accents and reconfigured panels, mutating into a high boot that doubles as statement sculpture. A third silhouette, the Luge Heel, takes inspiration from Adidas’s aerodynamic luge footwear and pushes it into absurdity: a 22-centimeter spike that inverts performance logic, functioning as a surreal centerpiece rather than equipment.

The accompanying campaign by Hungarian photographer Szilveszter Mako mirrors that tension. Models are framed in painted backdrops and mirrored textures, posed in ways that replace movement with stillness. The imagery turns footwear into protagonist — less about sport, more about play — underscoring what Karlsson calls Adidas Originals “for everyone else” as opposed to the athleticism of the Adidas brand.

While shoes lead the collection, the apparel maintains the same sense of proportion and contradiction. Trompe-l’œil track tops mimic painted fabric, puffers balloon to cartoon scale, and accessories arrive as sculptural extensions of the shoes’ exaggerated geometry.

The partnership’s evolution has been steady since its 2024 debut in Milan, where Avavav revealed the tie-up through a deliberately “unimpressive” mock race. A darker follow-up during fall 2025 explored fragility through distressed hoodies and shredded Ts. This third chapter completes the trilogy, turning Adidas icons into conceptual forms and solidifying Avavav’s place among the brand’s most visually ambitious collaborators — alongside Wales Bonner and Pharrell Williams.