Adidas: From Turf to Runway

Written by Olivia Flanz

Photographed by Ema Sabau

Adidas is everywhere. Take a step outside and you are bound to find someone wearing a pair of Sambas or sweatpants with the classic three stripes running down the side. While the brand has always been in the limelight, it’s much different than it was 10 years ago.

I was first introduced to Adidas when I was playing soccer in elementary school. The Adidas shorts that we were all wearing this summer were saved only for game days, and the Samba that we all know and love today served solely for winter indoor practices so our cleats didn’t damage the turf.

But today, Adidas isn’t exclusively a soccer brand; it’s not even exclusive to those into sports or goes to the gym. Now, adidas has been embedded into casual wear. The three stripes are no longer paired with other athletic items, but with sweaters, blouses, button-downs, and even dresses.

It’s become a staple in the “blokette” aesthetic: the trend of combining “traditionally masculine” presenting clothing like jerseys, sneakers, rugby polos, and trainer jackets, with hyperfeminine pieces like bows, mini skirts, and kitten heels. The trend started in 2023 and was the breakaway from the coquette, the romanticized hyperfeminization aesthetic that trended years prior. In 2023, as the Women’s FIFA World Cup unrolled in Australia and New Zealand, soccer jerseys and Sambas skyrocketed into popularity; and their functional fashion created the perfect formula for the blokette style to emerge. Built around multi-use pieces, anyone with basic workout clothes and office pieces could participate. It’s no surprise that if you look up inspiration for blokette outfits on Pinterest, almost half of them have some Adidas branded piece.

Celebrities who function as major style references, model Bella Hadid among them, pushed this type of style to the forefront. There’s a photo of her in Paris waving to the paparazzi as she walks out of Le Royal Monceau hotel, wearing a grey plaid skirt, a royal blue rugby quarter zip, golden hoops and rings, and of course, black Adidas Sambas with white socks. And Hadid wasn’t the only one: In 2024, Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae began her Think Later Tour during which she partnered with Adidas. Every show she would sport a tailored Adidas bra top and mini shorts which became the signature look throughout her tour.

In early 2025, McRae and Adidas dropped the Lightblaze shoe: a lightweight running sneaker designed with mixed overlays of suede, leather, and mesh. The company claimed the sneakers “redefined the boundaries between athletic performance and fashion-forward style,” making a public acknowledgement of the brand’s evolution from a purely athletic brand to a staple in everyday wardrobes.

Not long after the Think Later Tour, McRae dropped, So Close to What, which eventually kicked off her March 2025 tour Miss Possessive Tour. While this tour’s outfits are styled much differently than Think Later swapping the Adidas sets for animal prints and body suits, many of the outfits referenced her music videos and song lyrics. During “Purple lace bra,” McRae–shockingly–wears a purple lace bra, but paired with Adidas track pants to showcase her continuing partnership with the brand. How this outfit is styled on stage nevertheless shows that blokette aesthetic two years later, with the hyperfeminine components like the purple lace bra and heels juxtaposing the looser silhouette of the Adidas track pants.

More recently this October, Adidas had a strong presence at Shanghai Fashion Week. The “POWER OF THREE” collection, a collaboration between Adidas’s local team at Shanghai’s Creative Center and fashion designer Edison Chen, featured bolder tailoring and textured material that strayed from athletic spandex which pushed the brand past its original label as a sports company. The pieces highlighted just how dynamic Adidas can be, and how individualized its styling has become in its own branding. The brand’s presence in Shanghai additionally underscored its vision for a more global direction—one that continues to prioritize collaboration with creatives around the world.

The Adidas soccer shorts handed down from my sister's high school soccer uniform I now pair with a light blue blouse and hoops to go to class, but I’ve also paired them with a random t-shirt to go to the gym. Adidas is still a go-to for athletic wear, but today it’s also a go-to for grabbing lunch with friends and going to work or class. Despite its comfortability and unmistakable logo, its pieces still pair easily with more feminine or experimental statement pieces. The brand has sealed itself as a must-have, blurring the lines between sportswear and everyday fashion.