Collaboration Highsnobiety x adidas - interview avec David Fischer

Dans notre toute dernière interview, nous nous sommes entretenus avec David Fischer, fondateur de Highsnobiety, au sujet de la collab Highsnobiety avec adidas. David, Congratulations on your second ever Sneaker Collabo. After Puma, now adidas. How did that happen? Technically its our third, we worked on a small collaborative project with Ronnie Fieg many years ago. At the times it was an asics GEL-Lyte 3. But on a bigger scale, it is our second and thanks for the kind words. We approached adidas some time ago to do something for our 10th anniversary and the adidas Consortium team was right away excited to work with us on the special occasion. Why did you choose the two models? At first I wanted to do the adidas UltraBoost and the adidas Stan Smith. But since the Stan Smith just had a couple of strong years, we opted for the Campus 80s. I love these vintage silhouettes by adidas, as they are among the most timeless sneakers. I really wanted the pack to speak for both our past and our future. I will be wearing these two for another decade for sure. The Ultraboost now is a hype model, especially, after Kanye wore it several times. When you started working on it, could you imagine, that it becomes such a hyped model? Not at all. I mean, I loved it from the day it came out. Not only because of the design, but also because of the comfort. Most people tend to forget that shoes have very long lead times, so we started working on this project over a year ago. At that time the Boost was already a much loved shoe but it was not hyped nearly as much as it is now. After Hikmet Sugoer threw out his Ultraboost in grey two weeks ago, the prices for the now ´sold out` grey general release went up on ebay as well. Why is that? Is grey the new „triple black“ ? Honeslty, I have no idea. I personally do not look at eBay pricing or resell prices at all.

Why the Campus? I am just in general a big fan of those adidas silhouettes. Personally I wear the Campus a lot, as well as the adidas Gazelle and the Stan Smith. The simple design and timeless nature of the style has always attracted me.

What was the inspiration for the shoes in general? My main concern was to keep them timeless. The details really make them special. The Campus comes in a light grey glove leather that has never been used before on the shoe. A nice contrasting tan leather lining and subtle branding. The Boost comes in a taupe wool knit, which is just gorgeous and we are the first to use a leather cage on the shoe. I wanted to use luxury materials on athletic shoes in timeless colors. That’s all, no more and no less story to it!

How important is a story for you to tell? I think it depends how strong the story is. If the story is great, then it of course makes the project so much stronger. But I dont think there needs to be a story every single time for every single shoe. How many samples did you need and how was it working on these two different models at the same time? We had two sample sets of the sneakers. adidas supported us a lot on the design process. They are used to work with people that are not shoe designers. The process was pretty straight forward and we really only had to fix a couple of small details after the first round. How was it to work with a big player like adidas? Honestly, it was really easy. Not complicated, we worked with a small group of people that supported us really well on the project. I was surprised of how easy it was. When it comes to Collabs these days, most of them sell, without having a specific story. What do you think about the current Sneaker Trends regarding Collabs? You know, not every sneaker needs a story. Why does also every sneaker have a name today? I remember the time when there was a sneaker and it had a colorway. If it was strong it sold. It is incredible to see the amount of collaborations these days and how much of them also sell through at retail. Especially having closely watched and written about this market for over 10 years now, it is of course great to see how far the market has come. It does seem like a little much these days and I of course wonder how much longer that can go on. Talking about Collabs. What adidas Collab was your personal Highlight so far, except your´s? In general? That is really hard, as there were quite a few. I almost see myself being more excited about the in-line releases at the moment. I still love the old BAPE collaborations to be honest. I really liked the recent Solebox projects, thought that was smart and well designed. Do you think, that these store x brand, magazine x brand collabs will ever end? I dont think they will end, but they will get less again. Any more plans to work on some outerwear and apparel? Yes! We have a couple more coming, all launching in the next few weeks. Another shoe project, an accessories project and also an eyewear project. Then things should calm down again a bit, but we really love getting together with brands, artists and just friends to work on these things. It brings our brand into the real world, which is really exciting. What else can we expect from Highsnobiety? Video is a big focus for us this year, so look out for a lot more coming in that field. We also just launched a Podcast, a Mixtape series with high profile DJs and Facebook Live sessions. We are trying to stay busy!

Thanks!

photos: Overkill