Mismatch is all about the clashing of different graphics to create a cohesive look. We looked at our archive of graphics and breathed new life into them. To complement the upper, we used gradient fades of neons.

Pack of cleats including adizero 12.0, Freak 23, adizero 40.

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Comms: Drew Gilges, Nathan Hawthorne
Footwear Design: Aric Armon, Thomas Hartings
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Photos: adidas Football, Oscar Castillo
Product Development: Eric Chapman, Michael Carriero
Product Management: Chris Williams, Tyler Don Murphy

At the All-American Bowl for one game only, the best high school football athletes came together to put their skills on display. This concept was a celebration of that moment and a testament that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice.

Reflective materials and finishes were used to tell the story of lightning strikes. Mint was used to accent the grey bases, which matched the uniform color direction.

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Comms: Drew Gilges, Nathan Hawthorne
Concept/Apparel: Jaison Williams, Christian Montgomery, Josh Van Winkle, Kendra Hurst - Heard, Tinaka Chaney
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Glove Design: Mitch Bernarding
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Photos: adidas US Football, Oscar Castillo
Product Development: Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero, Bobby Ho
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams

In collaboration with Marvel Studios, this pack of cleats celebrated the film release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The concept for these cleats, alongside a range of adidas performance products, asked the question “what if Wakanda had a national team?” This pack featured a bespoke Wakandan flag meshed with a cohesive graphic and color toolkit across over a dozen SKUs. Design elements included playing with matte and shine interplay as well as reflective and color shifting elements.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Nick Staub

Product Management: Chris Williams

Product Development: Bobby Ho

Comms: Drew Gilges, Ashley Frey, Nathan Hawthorne

Photos: adidas, Marvel, Oscar Castillo

In collaboration with Marvel Studios, this pack of cleats celebrated the film release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The concept for these cleats, alongside a range of adidas performance products, asked the question “what if Wakanda had a national team?” This pack featured a bespoke Wakandan flag meshed with a cohesive graphic and color toolkit across over a dozen SKUs.

Design elements included playing with matte and shine interplay as well as reflective and color shifting elements. The adizero PK and Freak Ultra also featured New Silhouette constructions, focusing on innovative and different approaches to the models compared to the inline builds.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon

Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams

Product Development: Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero

Comms: Drew Gilges, Ashley Frey, Nathan Hawthorne

Photos: adidas, Marvel, Oscar Castillo

“Big Mood” stood as the flagship concept for adidas Football in SS22. Inspired by emoji usage and the range of emotions experienced in sport, Big Mood was loud in color, materials, and graphics.

The “Big Mood SMU” portion of the concept presented a team-color interpretation for commercial appeal. The brief was to focus on telling the story in a wearable and team appropriate color palette. Across multiple models, Big Mood was interpreted as a single color screen print on the uppers with accompanying velcro patches of a mashed up emoji and an adidas logo.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams
Product Development: Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero
Comms: Drew Gilges, Ashley Frey, Nathan Hawthorne
Photos: adidas

“Big Mood” stood as the flagship concept for adidas Football in SS22. Inspired by emoji usage and the range of emotions experienced in sport, Big Mood was loud in color, materials, and graphics.

The “Big Mood Emotions” portion of the concept was an extension focusing on all-over color editions of different moods with accompanying graphics dependent on each mood. Each individual cleat featured a gel tongue logo execution as well as a repeated wordmark across the upper and hologram stripes.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams
Product Development: Eric Chapman
Comms: Drew Gilges, Ashley Frey, Nathan Hawthorne
Photos: adidas, NFL

“Big Mood” stood as the flagship concept for adidas Football in SS22. Inspired by emoji usage and the range of emotions experienced in sport, Big Mood was loud in color, materials, and graphics.

The “Big Mood Lead” colorways launched the concept and utilized executions from the following “Big Lead Emotions” and “Big Mood SMU” packs including multiple velcro patches. The Lead colorway featured a multicolor sprayed plate and lenticular stripes. representing a spectrum of emotions

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon

Graphic Design: Brett Superstar

Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams

Product Development: Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero

Comms: Drew Gilges, Ashley Frey, Nathan Hawthorne

Photos: adidas

“Game Time” served as the second colorway for the Mahomes 1 Impact FLX. Inspired by Patrick’s passion for video games, “Game Time” sports a cargo-inspired neutral color palette with a pop of bright orange.

The upper sports a flexible and comfortable semi-transparent ripstop with hotmelt mudguard layers. Outlined stripes and a lace cord are embroidered onto the upper for a lightweight construction. This colorway was inspired by the green light on a stoplight and meant to show off the blocking of the new silhouette.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Chris Williams, Todd Rolak
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Nick Staub
Product Management: Chris Williams
Product Development: Bobby Ho
Photos: adidas

Freak Ultra 22 is the 2022 iteration of the pinnacle model in the Freak franchise. Sold at $180, Freak Ultra 22 is aimed at elite professional, collegiate and varsity high school athletes. Freak Ultra 22 was the first truly laceless football cleat with an innovative lockdown system within a primeknit upper and hotmelt vamp. Inspired by comic books, the upper design features a graphical “pow” and halftones.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Aric Armon

Graphic Design: Brett Superstar

Product Management: Chris Williams, Christian Laursen

Product Development: Mike Carriero

Photos: adidas

Freak 22 is the 2022 iteration of the Freak franchise, which is tailored for the playing styles of running backs, linebackers and quarterbacks. The focus for the Freak 22 was to provide a lightweight cleat with added support and a 5/8th height collar. Inspired by comic books, the upper design features a graphical “pow” and halftones. These cleats also featured a focus on sustainability utilizing recycled materials. Retail price is $110.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Aric Armon

Graphic Design: Brett Superstar

Product Management: Chris Williams, Christian Laursen

Product Development: Mike Carriero

Photos: adidas

Freak Spark 22 is the 2022 iteration of the takedown Freak franchise. Sold at $75, Freak Spark 22 is tailored to youth and early high school athletes. The focus for the Freak Spark 22 was to provide a lightweight cleat with a laceless and innovative strap execution. Inspired by comic books, the upper design features a graphical “pow” and halftones.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara

Footwear Design: Aric Armon

Graphic Design: Brett Superstar

Product Management: Chris Williams, Christian Laursen

Product Development: Mike Carriero

Photos: adidas

adizero 12.0 is the 2022 iteration of the flagship model for adidas Football. The 12.0 champions lightweight speed with a mono mesh upper featuring a raised print inspired by manga speed lines. Reflective elements on the seam tapes and webbings bring an element of flair to the design.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy
Product Development: Eric Chapman
Photos: adidas, Chiefs

Product collection inspired by superhero identities with dialed-up finishes and a solar color palette. Cleats were created to coordinate with uniform design direction.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon, Kodi Whitfield
Product Management: Chris Williams, Tyler Murphy, Quinn Smith
Product Development: Bobby Ho, Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero
Comms: Drew Gilges, Nathan Hawthorne
Photos: adidas

To ring in the new year of 2022, adidas Football created a special edition of the Freak Ultra 22, which was encrusted in Swarovski crystals.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Aric Armon
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams, Christian Laursen
Product Development: Mike Carriero
Comms: Drew Gilges, Nathan Hawthorne
Photos: adidas

Inspired by the graphics and visuals of warping and traveling through time, this design features a wavy liquid line graphic and multicolor lenticular TPU. The goal for this design was to create something that was visually striking and compelling, while executing in a commercial colorway.

Production Time: 12 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Product Management: Makenna Carroll
Product Development: Stacy Scott
Comms: Drew Gilges
Photos: adidas

Collaboration with Disney/Pixar to highlight National Bullying Awareness Month. Asymmetrical designed cleats with one cleat representing Mike and the other representing Sulley.

Mike’s cleat features a sparkle upper and splattered outsole to represent his skin texture. Mike’s single eye is on top of the tongue top with an accompanying Little Mikey doll on the reverse side of the tongue.

Sulley’s cleat features a synthetic fur tongue and heel pull and purple spots across the upper. Additionally, Sulley’s name written by Boo is featured on the reverse side of the tongue.

Production Time: 12 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Tommy Lubinski, Tyler Murphy
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphic Placement/Treatment: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Aric Armon, Tom Hartings
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams
Product Development: Eric Chapman, Bobby Ho, Mike Carriero
Comms: Drew Gilges, Nathan Hawthorne
Photos: adidas, Oscar Castillo, Steelers, Bears

“Go Time” served as the launch colorway for the totally new Mahomes 1 Impact FLX. An ode to turf trainers of the 90s, the Mahomes 1 brought DNA from the adidas Feet You Wear campaign to the modern era.

The upper sports a flexible and comfortable semi-transparent ripstop with hotmelt mudguard layers. Outlined stripes and a lace cord are embroidered onto the upper for a lightweight construction. This colorway was inspired by the green light on a stoplight and meant to show off the blocking of the new silhouette.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Chris Williams, Todd Rolak
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Nick Staub
Product Management: Chris Williams, Josh VanWinkle
Product Development: Bobby Ho
Photos: adidas

Commercial Black/White foundation colorway for the new training silhouette.

This colorway served as 1 of 2 launch colorways for the Impact FLX: a totally new training shoe project. FTWR White engineered mesh base meets a Solar Red synthetic suede mudguard with Solar Blue and Solar Yellow accents. The storytelling was meant to evoke the hard work mentality of grueling gym sessions.

This colorway is all about the essentials and the dedication to mastering them. A modern spin was taken on the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue by electrifying them for visual interest.

Production Time: 12 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Chris Williams
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Mitch Bernarding
Product Management: Chris Williams
Product Development: Bobby Ho
Photos: adidas

This colorway served as 1 of 2 launch colorways for the Impact FLX: a totally new training shoe project. Core Black engineered mesh base meets a Team Solar Orange synthetic suede mudguard with Team Semi Solar Green accents. The storytelling was meant to evoke the hard work mentality of grueling gym sessions.

Dedicated to the “first person in, last person out,” this design pays homage to the early bird who gets the worm 🐛 The monarch caterpillar served as the main source of inspiration.

Production Time: 12 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Chris Williams
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Mitch Bernarding
Product Management: Chris Williams
Product Development: Bobby Ho
Photos: adidas

Inspired by exotic luxury cars, the goal of this project was to create the loudest possible cleats for NFL Training Camp. Solar Yellow is contrasted with Core Black branding and Gold Met and Silver Met badges, along with a pop of Screaming Pink.

Production Time: 12 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Graphics: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams, Christian Laursen
Product Development: Bobby Ho, Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero
Comms: Lydia Knoll
Photos: adidas

Comic books and pop art served as the main inspiration for the key commercial pack in SS21. The lead colorway kicked off the pack with a vibrant multicolor approach on a white base with lenticular stripes. This colorway was followed up with a team color SMU pack for Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept: Aric Armon, Charlie Kirihara
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Product Management: Tyler Murphy
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Development: Eric Chapman
Photos: adidas, Heather Smith

Lead colorway for the SS21 Freak franchise. The goal was to have a wearable and commercial colorway with some added flavor for interest and storytelling. Inspiration came from TV static and testing screens.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept: Aric Armon, Charlie Kirihara
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar
Footwear Design: Aric Armon
Product Management: Christian Laursen, Chris Williams
Photos: adidas

Colorway inspired by Patrick’s nickname “Showtime Mahomes.” The goal for this project was to create a commercial colorway that could shine bright on the shelf. The halftone graphic is meant to evoke the marquee lights at historic movie theatres.

Concept: Charlie Kirihara
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Halftone Graphic: Brett Superstar
Comms: Drew Gilges
Photos: adidas

Just in time for the holiday season, this multi athlete pack was a nod to going home for the holidays. Ultraboost DNAs and Ultraboost Mids were used as the silhouette with additional promo cleats created for each player. The colorways were based on the uniforms and school colors that each athlete wore in high school.

Production Time: 12 months

Concept: Charlie Kirihara, Matt Van Wyen, Tyler Murphy
Color/Materials: Charlie Kirihara, Pete Bergeron
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Matt Van Wyen, Tyler Murphy
Footwear Development: Bobby Ho
Photos: adidas, Foot Locker

Press:
House of Heat
Sports Illustrated
Sneaker News
Sneaker News: Mahomes
Sneaker Files
Sneaker Freaker
Sneaker Bar Detroit
Kicks on Fire

Celebrating the athletes of today and putting them on a pedestal as the New Reign of football. This pack was a multifaceted approach to address the need for a hype pack that would trickle down to the commercially viable DSG SMU collection. Each cleat in the hype pack told a different royalty story through color, materials, and graphics.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Brett Superstar, Mike Humphrey
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams, Tyler Murphy, Jeff Morris, Christian Laursen
Footwear Development: Eric Chapman
Comms: Drew Gilges, Ngozi Monu
Photos: adidas

adizero SK Parley for Super Bowl LIV. Made from recycled ocean plastic featuring a Nutrition Facts inspired label on the back with emojis.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphic Design: Brett Superstar, Mike Humphrey, Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Tyler Murphy, Chris Williams, Christian Laursen
Product Development: Eric Chapman
Photos: adidas

Designed in collaboration with Star Wars and built using adidas’s AM4 SpeedFactory production platform. Utilized SpeedFactory toolbox of color and materials in an accelerated production timeline.

Production Time: 2 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Product Management: Christian Emsen
Photos: adidas

Designed in collaboration with Marvel and Joe Quesada and built with the adidas AM4 SpeedFactory production platform. These designs were created within the SpeedFactory toolbox and on an accelerated timeline. Accompanying cleats were also created for JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Production Time: 2 months

Concept/Art Direction: Joe Quesada
Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Cleated Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Christian Emsen
Photos: adidas, Marvel

Designed to commemorate Patrick Mahomes’s 2018 NFL MVP award, this project was designed on adidas’s AM4 SpeedFactory production platform. Utilizing a defined toolbox, these were created on an accelerated creation timeline and assembled in the USA.

The goal of this design was to present a wearable product within the existing color and material toolbox for the SpeedFactory production process. “MVP” is emblazoned across the midfoot of the design. Accompanying cleats were also created for a giveaway.

Production Time: 2 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Product Management: Chris Williams, Jeff Morris
Photos: adidas

Retail pack inspired by childhood memories and the vivid colors that make up the vast variety of flavors from snow cone stands and trucks across the nation. Centered around a central flavor profile, each cleat blends the pantone color chart to create a unique look for each of the special edition cleats in the pack. The five flavors in the “Snow Cone” pack include Grape Twist (purple/orange), Blue Raspberry (red/white/blue), Pink Lemonade (pink/yellow), Watermelon Mango (green/pink) and Mystery flavor (rainbow).

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Brett Superstar
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams
Footwear Development: Eric Chapman

Press:
Uniswag
KicksOnFire

Photos via @adidasfballus

Known as the 2018 adizero 5-Star adiMoji Pack, adidas Football’s latest drop delivers several new iterations of the adiMoji cleat silhouette. Specifically, Fire, Ice, Oil, Money, 100, GOAT and Snoop’s Money Bag iterations have been introduced. While the Oil version is inspired by Texas culture, the Snoop’s Money Bag version was motivated by Snoop’s love of the luxury lifestyle and the GOAT is made for those exceptionally-talented athletes who truly believe they are the absolute best.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Brett Superstar
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams
Footwear Development: John Hoeck

Press:
KicksOnFire
Uniswag
Hypebeast
SoleCollector

Photos via @adidasfballus

Retail cleat pack inspired by luxurious materials and dress shoes. Material mixes to offer different fit and design appearances.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials/Spike Placement: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Product Management: Chris Williams, Chris Brewer
Footwear Development: John Hoeck, Frances Huang, Haibo Yao

Press:
Uniswag

Photos via @adidasfballus

Inline colorway of Freak Ultra featuring a gold glitter upper with metallic gold accents.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials/Upper Graphics: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Aric Armon
Product Management: Christian Laursen
Footwear Development: Mike Carriero

Photos via @adidasfballus

adizero SK representing what Three Stripe Life means. Used for product seeding to announce new signings to the adidas football roster. Spikes were injected with rainbow-flaked glitter and electroplated to reflect light. Gold details were used to pop off the design.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials/Spike Design: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams
Footwear Development: Haibo Yao, Eric Chapman

Photos via @adidasfballus

Inline and promo cleats designed for retail and the University of Miami Hurricanes. Created with Parley Ocean Plastic upper materials and embroidery.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Brett Superstar
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams
Footwear Development: Eric Chapman, Mike Carriero

Photos via @adidasfballus

Retail cleats for Von Miller signature colorway. Inspired by Von Miller’s first year of youth football. Von’s mom didn’t want him to play football so his dad hid his equipment in the trunk of his truck. “Just let me play,” Von pleaded with his mom, “I’m ready.” At the time, Von didn’t wear contacts so he had to wear sports goggles that transitioned from clear to purple in the sunlight. Von’s team went on to go undefeated that season and brought home the championship trophy.

These cleats feature a silver glitter upper as a nod to the championship trophy Von and his teammates hoisted. Along the vamp TPU there is an ultraviolet light sensitive TPU that changes from white to purple when exposed to sunlight. Along the heels of the cleats are webbings that read “I’M READY,” and “JUST LET ME PLAY.” To finish off the cleats, the sockliners feature a goggle graphic and Von’s signature.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials/Graphics: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Aric Armon
Product Management: Christian Laursen
Footwear Development: Frances Huang, Haibo Yao

Press:
Uniswag
Hardwood and Hollywood

Inline and promo cleats designed for retail and the University of Miami Hurricanes. Created with Parley Ocean Plastic upper materials and embroidery.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings, Aric Armon
Product Management: Chris Williams, Chris Brewer
Footwear Development: John Hoeck, Frances Huang, Haibo Yao

Photos via @adidasfballus

Retail pack inspired by speed faster than light, this pack features metallic base colors including gold, silver, rose gold, and titanium.

Production Time: 18 months

Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Graphics: Brett Superstar
Footwear Design: Tom Hartings
Product Management: Chris Williams
Footwear Development: John Hoeck

Press:
Baller Status
Modern Notoriety

Photos via @adidasfballus

Retail collection of cleats for adidas Lacrosse. Dipped-in-color treatment using pastel colors and layering different shades with minimally-accented branding.

Production Time: 18 months

Concept/Color + Materials: Charlie Kirihara
Footwear Design: Nick Staub
Product Management: Nick DeNeffe
Footwear Development: Frances Huang

Photos via @adidaslacrosse