This Fall, adidas and Brain Dead are set to link up once again – this time presenting two collaborative takes on one of the Three Stripes’ most advanced tennis silhouettes: the Barricade 13. Building on a continued effort to reimagine classic tennis-inspired style, this collaboration blends heritage elements with disruptive design.
Bringing off-kilter lifestyle aesthetics to the court, the Brain Dead Barricade 13 sees the label reimagine the look and feel of performance tennis gear. Harnessing Brain Dead’s distinct aesthetic rebellion, the Barricade 13 is reinterpreted with two experimental executions that fuse the brand’s disruptive design language with adidas Barricade’s foundational features: a supportive torsion system, Adiwear outsole, and engineered fit. This collaboration overlays Brain Dead’s interpretation onto high-performance design.
Key details include a translucent outsole exposing speckled underlays, metallic silver three stripes, co-branded sockliners, and custom tongue branding. Each pair takes on a distinct personality: one built in purple hairy suede, the other in reflective silver mesh.
Together, the two silhouettes pay tribute to the Barricade’s legacy while pushing it into new territory with bridging performance and lifestyle, sport and subculture.
Arriving in limited quantities on October 9th, both pairs of the adidas Barricade 13 Brain Dead are available via CONFIRMED, select adidas stores, select retailers, and on wearebraindead.com.
About Brain Dead:
Brain Dead is a creative studio with deep ties to the fringe.It is a global collective of artists, designers, musicians, filmmakers, and general creatives. Brain Dead is not one person, nor is it one idea. It sits in the space between people, culture, entertainment and product.
The initial ideas for Brain Dead were conceived in 2015 where CEO and Creative Director, Kyle Ng, quickly recognized a hole in the contemporary apparel market for presenting the culture he cared for in a purposeful way. The “culture” of streetwear of the day had become too masculine, contemporary luxury mens and womenswear too plagiaristic; while the leading successful brands in the marketplace had turned to pumping out mundane fast fashion that lacked any meaningful purpose. To create an impactful brand that truly represented Kyle’s interests meant creating apparel that was secondary to the culture that informed it.
In most instances that meant building the surrounding culture first; from the campaigns surrounding the product, events coordinated for launches, and graphical references chosen, everything needed to speak to the intersection of a hodgepodge of sub-culture in art, music, literature, sport, and cinema that became foundationally “Brain Dead”.
Brain Dead is at its best an occupation of a space one step inside the fringe of subculture; a willingness to share the outsiders influence with a broader audience and stand proudly for it.
About adidas Originals:
Inspired by the rich sporting heritage of adidas - one of the world’s leading sports brands and a global designer and developer of athletic footwear and apparel - adidas Originals is a lifestyle brand founded in 2001. With the adidas archive at its foundation, adidas Originals continues to evolve the brand’s legacy through its commitment to product innovation and its ability to filter the creativity and courage found on the courts and sporting arenas through the lens of contemporary youth culture. Marked by the iconic Trefoil logo that was first used in 1972 and championed by those that continue to shape and define creative culture, adidas Originals continues to lead the way as the pioneering sportswear brand for the street.