Monday, February 8, 2021

The Collection at the Adidas Originals Store Berlin Pt I

In the past 3 month I exhibited 9 pairs of Adidas shoes from my archive, that represent 
certain scenes or specific aspects of sneaker culture in Berlin before the year 2000. 
Since I was asked for my personal selection, I decided to allow myself a subjective view 
and chose the sneakers I grew up around. 
Whether they were worn by my gym teacher in grade school, or on the court at the Yaam 
in the summer.

These models might not be the most famous (although there are of course some classic 
burners in the mix) or flamboyant models, but they do deserve a certain shine, as they 
have been part of every person that grew up in Berlin at some point or another.
I'd even go as far as to state; Every Berliner (and I men that in a sense of: every person 
born and/or raised in Berlin) owned at least one of these pairs or had a pair in the family 
shoe closed at some point.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, all of the shoes I selected where reinterpreted in 
ceramic by Sebastian Haslauer and are exhibited in the store window.
I decided to give you a little insight into my working process, how this selection came
about.
I will upload these in 3 parts, to keep the posts shorter, as there is so much to tell 
about this project.

When I made my selection, I wanted to cover as many scenes and facets of Berlin as
possible. For my presentation I jotted down subcultures and personal experiences I 
thought were relevant. Adidas liked my remarks, so they asked me to add these infos
to the display. They produced some cards to go with the shoes and we placed them next 
to the archive boxes.