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| Sports Car Styling The making of The KOBE |
Clean, simple and functional. Words you might not use to describe todayıs technically advanced automobiles and footwear. However, a recent collaboration between adidas and Audi reveals that not only is less more, but that shoe design can be a very personal experience. The result is The KOBE. It is a match that started with a player searching for a product unique and specific to his persona. Kobe Bryant, NBA All-Star and member of the Lakers championship team, family man and Los Angeles resident was working with adidas to develop an image different than the one typical of many of todayıs NBA stars. His laid-back, confident style reflects a refreshing sophistication and an intelligent persona attractive to many of todayıs athletes. Audi was approached by adidas in the spring of 1999 to collaborate on a project. Progressive and sophisticated is how they view their customers and as a result, their cars reflect individuals with unique, elegant taste. The two companies share some similarities: their product design emphasis is focused on engineering and performance and they're both German.
When looking for inspiration for Kobe's new shoe, adidas did not have to look any farther than Kobeıs back yard, Southern California. adidas asked the question, what embodies Southern California? Answer, THE car culture. This time adidas did something different. Instead of designing a shoe based on a marketing concept, they asked Audi to design a shoe using the same philosophy used to design cars. Referred to as the Audi Design Language, it is based on German simplicity with no frivolous styling. The attention is focused on form and essential components ı such as materials, details and technologies. And when it came to applying this process to designing shoes, it took some getting used to. Derek Jenkins, assistant chief of the Audi Design Studio in California, says it was different for Audi too because the art was simplified. ıI donıt think people realize how complex the logistics are in designing a car. There are so many parameters to follow: whether itıs crash safety or manufacturing techniques, cost or aerodynamics, they stay true to your companyıs identity and history. But with the shoe, at the end of the day itıs really about a style. Style first, then function is as important but not as difficult to achieve.ı
The similarities of Audi Design Language and The KOBE are easily identifiable. At a glance, the Audi TT has three main features: a continuous line, a clean surface body side, and a bullet-nosed front. These elements also reflected The KOBE. adidası long-standing grooved shell-toe, from the Superstar, Originals line, looks strikingly similar to an Audi front end grill. The main shoulder line continues around the arches and through the bottom of the shoe as the Audi TTıs continuous loop runs from the side of the vehicle around the wheel arches and under the car. Once Kobe approved the design, adidas footwear designer Eirik Lund Nielsen was responsible for applying adidas footwear technologies to the shoe and making it an adidas product. In November 1999, Kobe guided the design teamıs color choices and tried on his first pair of The KOBE. By April, final logo decisions had been made and he had his own ıpersonalı shoes designed and made by adidas and Audi. Kobe is excited about his new adidas, ıThe sneaker is absolutely on fire ... itıs hot! Itıs real light and provides support for me. Itıs smooth, itıs slick and itıs different and I love it. Iım crazy for it.ı The whole concept behind The KOBE was unique. ıWhat I think has made this work is Kobeıs desire, willingness and insistence on having something unique to basketball and specific to him, Moore said. What was different about the Audi approach to this project is why they succeeded. They did not try to design basketball shoes. They never concerned themselves with normal, traditional footwear concerns.ı The KOBE is available in November. |
And one of the hottest cars on the market, the Audi TT, was designed in part and influenced by Southern California. Not only do several leading car companies have a styling studio in Southern California, but also the area is a melting pot of lifestyles and cultures, anything goes. Fashions from beach-hip to high-society are found in this fast-paced, constantly changing environment. This trendy lifestyle lends itself to designs that streamline interests and tastes. Everything from architecture to automobiles and dress is influenced by what is ıhipı in Southern California ı it also reflects Kobe. The success of the TT in that region proved their customers could handle something new with refined style. Peter Moore, adidası Kobe project creative director, says that ıas these things (architecture, automobiles) have an influence on the other fashions within Los Angeles, those things will also begin to have more and more influence on his (Kobe's) fashion.ı
Using the Audi Design influence and the proven technologies behind adidas footwear, the companies went to work identifying what common ground their products share. ıThe shoe, as a car, is a directional object,ı Jenkins said. ıThere are only a few things in the world that are like that. It is meant to go basically in one direction. So you use the same dynamic principles and proportion that you would use with a car (that) you would use with a shoe.ı Jenkins notes that where the lines go from thin to thick to thin to make a car look dynamic when itıs moving, those same concepts were applied to the lines of The KOBE. Then using a nontraditional form of shoe design, clay models, The KOBE began to take shape.