John Clark's Adidas Pub

Some of us sneaker lovers used their corona time really creatively! 

Like John Clark who has been a keen collector of Adidas trainers for 10 years. 

“I always liked Adidas trainers as a kid but could never really afford them. As 

a child growing up in the 1980s money was always tight”. 

Now he’s got around 150 pairs of vintage kicks from the ‘70s ‘80s and ‘90s 

and his giant shoebox bar is a shrine to the brand.  It took around two weeks 

to build and seven weeks to create the iconic look. 

“I cut out the logos and individually cut out all the stripes which took ages – a 

day per stripe!” says Clark. 

But the biggest challenge was tracking down the right paint. 

Big companies like Dulux and Johnsons wouldn’t mix the right colour for a life-

sized Adidas shoe box. It was a local company Paint Master in Hazel Grove that

made the project a breakthrough design. 

“By sheer fluke Hazel Grove happens to be the headquarters of Adidas UK. 

I emailed the paint company and one of their relatives happened to work at 

Adidas and they were able to get me the actual paint colour reference.”   

Inside the Adidas shoe box Clark has built a traditional pub complete with a 

gin shelf two beer pumps Sky Sports and vintage bar furniture. 

“You can’t shut the pub at 10pm if it’s in your back garden” jokes Clark on 

pandemic curfew regulations. In the future Clark plans to add hydraulics to the

design so the lid of the box lifts up.

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