adidas Futurehouse

A Sneaker Launch at the End of the World

In 2016, adidas Originals launched an entirely new trainer called the NMD. This actually happens less often than you might think.

It was a beautiful Frankenstein of a shoe. Part future, part archive, part sport, part streetwear.

The NMD was built for a generation that didn’t care much for doing things the expected way. So the campaign did away with the usual suspects. No big-name celebrities. No polished sports stars. Instead, it put the spotlight on a new breed of creative mould-breakers. Musicians who made films. Athletes who made art. Models who DJ’d. DJs who modelled. And other annoyingly successful multi-hyphenates.

Which meant that when it came to launching the NMD in London, a normal shoe event was clearly not going to cut it.

adidas Futurehouse was a six-day warehouse takeover in East London, designed to connect the NMD with the creative community that inspired it.

The interior was a dystopian fever dream. On purpose. It took the campaign’s central idea and made it physical. The future looked bleak, but this generation had no intention of sitting back and politely accepting the apocalypse that had been assigned to them.

Also, it looked cool.

Every inch of the environment was designed with Instagram in mind. A post-apocalyptic wasteland. An image-distorting kaleidoscope. Strange bars. Hidden rooms. Interactive product displays. But Futurehouse was not just a nice-looking space for people to point their phones at. It needed to behave like a proper cultural destination.

So, by day, we hosted a programme for London’s creative community, with workshops, panels, film screenings, InstaMeets and other things people might actually want to go to. Authenticity mattered, so we worked closely with local talent to shape the programme. UK rapper-turned-actor Kano wanted to host a BBQ. So naturally, we said yes.

By night, Futurehouse became a live music venue. Each evening was co-hosted with a different creative influencer, who helped us shape the line-up and bring together international names, emerging artists and a crowd that actually belonged there. We also worked with media partners including NME and Hypebeast to create exclusive content from the event.

For six days, adidas Futurehouse became one of London’s most talked-about destinations. The idea travelled too, with other markets creating their own Futurehouses around the world, from Dublin to Dubai.