Thirty years ago, American hip hop group Beastie Boys gave the world its second album “Paul’s Boutique,” featuring now-iconic tunes such as “Egg Man” and “Hey Ladies.” To celebrate the anniversary, the band teamed up with Adidas to launch commemorative vegan skateboarding sneakers.
“Paul’s Boutique” was initially a slow-burner; it struggled to live up to the sales of the band’s first album “Licensed to Ill,” which was released in 1986. But the album has now earned a place in hip hop history, credited with bringing sampling into the mainstream.
To celebrate its success, two members of Beastie Boys — Mike Diamond and Adam Horowitz — teamed up with Adidas to create a new vegan shoe. The third member of the group Adam Yauch passed away from cancer back in 2012.
“Few artists showcase the confluence of so many different elements of ’80s and ’90s subculture better than Beastie Boys,” Cullen Poythress of Adidas Skateboarding told Fast Company.
He continued, “They represent skateboarding. They represent graffiti. They represent hardcore punk. They represent hip-hop. And they represent street fashion and style.”
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The Beastie Boys Love Adidas
Adidas Skateboarding unveiled the new collaboration at the art show launch for Beyond The Streets, a New York premier exhibition of graffiti and street art. The new shoe features gum soles and an off-white vegan canvas upper, with “Beastie Boys” written across the tongue, and grey cotton jersey stripes on the sides.
A portion of the proceeds made from the sneaker — available from North American skateboarding retailers and Beyond The Streets — will be donated to nonprofits Peace Sisters and Little Kids Rock.
The Beastie Boys aren’t known for partnering with brands. But according to Horowitz, himself and Diamond were open to the Adidas collaboration simply because they love the company.
“Like, I love Coca-Cola, because it’s delicious,” he said. “And if it was just about McDonald’s fries, I’d be on board, because I use those products. Same with Adidas. I’ve used their Campus and shell toes, and Stan Smiths, and Rod Lavers … a lot of their products!”
As well as the Beastie Boys’ sneakers, Adidas offers a range of vegan designs; sustainable, vegan designer Stella McCartney works with the brand frequently. Earlier this year, they teamed up to launch the AlphaEdge 4D limited, a 3D-printed black vegan sneaker based on a sock design.
