LEGO made its debut at the back to in-person footwear and streetwear show ComplexCon, Nov. 6-7, in Long Beach, CA, with a sneaker drop of its own kind. The brand’s collaboration with adidas came to life in the form of a pair of 13-foot-long adidas Original Superstar sneaker recreations comprised of 150,000 bricks in a playful booth designed to capture the attention of sneakerheads and their children.
“Our mission is to inspire the builders of tomorrow, and in working to achieve that, the LEGO brand really aims to champion play,” says Priscilla Sam, partner marketing, LEGO Americas Marketing at The LEGO Group. “We want to find ways to innovate on what that looks like. So with a partner that’s equally play-focused like adidas, we can create a collection that really pushes creativity forward.”
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The installations, customized on-site by two former “LEGO Masters” contestants, Syreeta Gates and Randall Wilson, with hip-hop-inspired designs, were part spectacle and part product showcase. LEGO sells an Original Superstar model kit that allows consumers to build and customize their own brick versions of the sneaker, and the adidas Superstar x LEGO shoe is a real sneaker with a built-in plate so consumers can literally wear their creations. The booth also featured a gallery of custom-built “brick kicks” from international creators.
“What you are seeing in the adidas Superstar shoe build, and even the wearable version of the adidas Superstar, where you can actually put LEGO bricks on the actual shoe, the goal is to show that creative expression lives well beyond LEGO play sets, and it can inspire and be incorporated into footwear and fashion,” Sam says.
Visitors to the experience had the opportunity to enter to win giveaways like the sneaker brick kit. According to The LEGO Group, nearly 90 percent of consumers indicated they had a favorable opinion of the LEGO brand after experiencing the activation. Agencies: Jack Morton, Boston; Golin, Chicago.