Founded in Tokyo in 2006, White Mountaineering is the brand of Japanese designer Yosuke Aizawa. Taking the great outdoors as inspiration, Aizawa and his team use functional, high-performance textiles
Source: adidas Originals x White Mountaineering FW19 Collection
adidas has seen the empty space created by Outdoor companies and they have been building the Terrex line to fill the void. Between creating campaigns and dropping some well-designed kicks, they are also continuing long-standing collabs with brands like White Mountaineering.
The lineup this season moves from the more subdued hues of the last couple of years. WM’s drops of navy and blues were slept on in a number of markets and locally the stores that were able to get the shoes sat on them and discounted them heavily to sell them. It was frustrating to watch and interact with the adidas accounts in Memphis who had salespeople who didn’t have any idea of what the shoe was. In the words of Jerry Maguire, retail and brands have to work together to, “help me, help you.”
The first pair features a vibrant collage of oranges, greens and reds, while the second adopts a slightly more understated, forest-like palette of moss greens, grays and burgundy. Both pairs feature striking White Mountaineering branding: most provocatively on the tongue, which reads: One: design. Two: utility. Three: technology. The imagination to fuse these elements together. The attitude of not submitting to sales or market needs. Meanwhile a blown-out rendering of the White Mountaineering logo appears not only across the TPU heel counter but merged in beneath the iconic three stripes – a fitting blend for a shoe that could only have been conceived by these two brands together.
adidas’ description of the product explains the goal of the project, but unfortunately for me, I have to be honest and say I love the upper; I hate the midsole. I truly wish that adidas created a modified version of Lightstrike for this model and played around with the color of the midsole. These two pair are striking and the interaction between the suede overlays and WM branding beneath the layers is dope asf… but the shape is limited and to be honest the white BOOST midsole gives the shoe the same feel as an overdressed Iniki. Looking on from the top however is a revelation:
This shoe is ridiculous!!!!!!!! I know BOOST is comfortable, but I really do hate that the silhouette, although hiking inspired, feels familiar because of the outsole, but adidas has to take some chances with the texture of the midsole. They could have even done a suede overlay similar to the ZX runners and the Deerupt with the netting extended down to the outsole.
Urban Hiking should be considered a new segment and this White Mountaineering almost nails the transition, but falls a bit short. adidas did deal with the problems at retail by keeping this drop in-house. The shoe will only be available from the brand.
adidas Originals x White Mountaineering Nite Jogger will be exclusively available at adidas.com and adidas stores on 5th September.
Which would usually take me to another discussion, but now is not the time to talk about brands vs retailers.