The Wales Bonner Phenomenon - How the Designer Breathed New Life into adidas

One of the hottest names in the industry for a minute now, Grace Wales Bonner is reigniting a flame in the UK fashion scene and reaffirming the nation as a serious tastemaker when it comes to innovative and progressive fashion. Since 2014, Bonner has blessed us with a beautiful and diverse take on menswear, not just providing incredible craftsmanship but narrative-driven collections that speak volume. But, aside from her own range that continues to be pronounced and celebrated, it’s what the 31-year-old female designer has done with adidas that truly is a moment of magic.

Onboarded in 2020, Bonner has since demonstrated her illustrious reputation as a forward thinker and truly galvanised adidas amongst the high-end market but more notably the everyday youth. Through her considered storytelling and nuanced cultural insertion, she has come as a breath of fresh air into the German sneaker giant's portfolio and rallied a new era of consumers for adidas. And, she has done this with unwavering passion and dedication to her heritage and culture. 

Having launched her own eponymous brand just 9 years ago, Bonner has risen to the occasion of creating a sportswear brand with the added luxury and suave reminiscent of a time past with modern techniques and vision. Digging deeply into her roots for inspiration, having spent much of her time in Jamaica with her father, her brand now acts as a sincere love letter to her heritage and it's compelling to watch her creative vision unfold. 

This dialect is not just limited to her own brand. The Jamaican-British designer allows her culture to also blossom through her designs with adidas, whether that's the Bob Marley-inspired capsule released in 2020 or the crocheted stripes and oversized tongue on the infamous Samba that are an ode to the organic fibers and fabrics of the Caribbean. This indulgence of culture is what gives this collaborative project its foundation, but it’s also Bonner’s versatility in design that has won her the award of the people's champion. 

Bonner beautifully finds the luxury in the every day; the luxury in the everywhere. It’s not about the garments or the shoes, it's about the message behind it and the person wearing it. By utilising classic and laid-back looks such as the tracksuit, or the bonafide colour schemes of all silver, or bringing back iconic adidas silhouettes and giving them new life, she culminates a look for everyone. Bonner not only understood adidas’ DNA, but the DNA of her consumers and through this effortlessly set a new benchmark for similar collaborations. 

Similar waves were created with the likes of Teddy Santis at New Balance, and we can’t help but draw comparisons to the impact made by the two individuals for their respective footwear giants. With Teddy perfectly curating a style that balanced the fashion-forward consumer tastes and the robust and ‘dad’ like silhouettes that New Balance consumers craved, he created a stylish approach to a somewhat conventional brand image that New Balance had at the time. Bonner has shown similar revolutions with adidas, harnessing what makes them ‘them’, but repackaging it as something new, exciting, and progressive. 

We feel that Bonner could step even further into the same path as Santis. With her proven prowess, the designer could eventually take on the role of creative director at adidas Originals and we would be completely here for it. Despite adidas forever being an absolute staple in sneaker culture, we feel the footwear industry as a whole could use individuals such as Bonner to reignite the flames of sneakerheads. With certain models selling out within an instant and now fetching a small fortune on platforms such as StockX, it’s certainly looking like she is sending the German sneaker giants in the right direction.

There are few people we can list that have created a similar impact in recent years in the industry as Bonner at her time at adidas, and we greatly hope that other brands take wind of the moves and follow suit. Whether this was a strategic ploy that greatly paid off or a stroke right-time-right-place, or perhaps a fusion of the two, this partnership will echo for years to come. 

Text by Joe Goodwin