Between The Lines 026 : adidas Basketball
Forward Momentum with adidas basketball
adidas Basketball is having a moment, and it’s one rooted in reverence and reinvention. Since its 2023 relaunch, the line has tapped into a legacy of innovation and enduring design codes to carve out a new era in performance footwear. That vision is now on full display as the NBA playoffs get underway, with signature athletes Anthony Edwards, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Damian Lillard each making a postseason push in silhouettes crafted specifically for them. To understand what’s powering this shift, we sat down with the designers at the heart of it: Jalal Enayah (Harden 9 & Don 7), Patrick Zempolich (AE1), Drew Little (Dame 10), and Andrew Parks (Colour Direction)…
Fig.01 Harden Volume 9
Part of this evolution can be traced to a change in setting, with the adidas Basketball design team having moved from the company’s Portland headquarters to a new base in Los Angeles. “It symbolised a reset,” Zempolich explained. “We could put everything in the past and focus on a new day.” This physical and mental shift empowered the team to move with clarity and purpose. Operating like a startup within the larger brand permits the team to cultivate a culture that allows for faster decision-making, tighter creative feedback loops, and a more unified design vision. The cohesion is immediately evident from the outside looking in; with fewer voices in the room and more self-control over what ultimately gets released, the work coming out of LA marks the beginning of a new chapter for a category that has long been missing a modern perspective.
Fig.02 Harden 9 Sketches
“When we got to LA, the mentality was: how do we reset everything and remove a lot of the noise?”
The continuity fostered in the LA studio didn’t just reshape the team’s workflow; it influenced the shoes themselves, with the latest performance models transcending the court for lifestyle wear. But that crossover wasn’t engineered. Instead, “the beginning of the adidas Renaissance, whatever you want to call it, really started with paying attention to the voice of the athlete,” explained Enayah. That athlete-first mindset laid the groundwork for footwear that’s not only high-performing, but emotionally resonant. Instead of chasing versatility for versatility’s sake, the team leaned into conviction, creating bold, modern silhouettes with a clear point of view. “A lot of footwear felt like it was trying to do everything, and in doing that, became kind of un-opinionated,” Zempolich noted. “We just made confident, modern performance products, and that confidence made the shoes more digestible and more naturally wearable off-court.”
Fig.03 DAME 10
Fig.04 DAME 10 Sketches
A key element of adidas Basketball’s new trajectory was a design strategy that looked inward as much as it looked back. Rather than simply mining the archives, colour designer Andrew Parks led a deep dive into the visual language of the ‘70s through the early 2000s, mapping eras and identifying the consistent threads that defined adidas Basketball’s identity and decoding the basketball-specific energy they embodied. What emerged was a clarity of purpose: radical simplicity, unmistakable brand DNA, and a design language that could carry the past into the present. These insights became the foundation for a set of “design codes”—creative guardrails that ensured each new silhouette felt distinctly adidas while still pushing the conversation forward. As Zempolich put it, “Establishing those codes really helped. Everything had to go through that filter of adidas DNA. It made everything feel cohesive and part of the same universe.”
“There’s a simplicity, a reductive clarity, that’s always been part of Adidas. From a colour standpoint, we wanted to highlight specific things and let other elements fall into the background.”
Fig.05 AE1 Sketches
To test new prototypes, the designers would use a process dubbed “putting it on the table,” and it was exactly that: a literal table covered in references, old shoes, photos, and new samples. It was a ritual of brutal honesty, where new designs had to hold their own against icons like the T-Mac or Crazy 1—not just visually, but emotionally. Testing themselves against their own history, the question “does it fit on the table?” became a shorthand for whether something truly belonged in the adidas Basketball universe. Every detail, from shape to colour blocking, was scrutinised to ensure it reflected the brand’s legacy while delivering something modern and relevant. “We didn’t want to overdo anything,” Parks explained. “It was about distilling things down to two or three essential ideas—so we knew where not to overstep or under step. That’s what helped us stay on track.”
Fig.06 2004 T-MAC 4 Commercial
Fig.07 DON Issue 7
The process was never about imitation, it was about reverse-engineering a feeling. At the heart of it was continuity: creating a bridge between legacy and progression. But this bridge is not solely built on nostalgia, it’s grounded in adidas' athlete-first philosophy: designing with performance and the player experience at the centre. It begins with a deep understanding of how players move, what they need, and how they want to feel—on and off the court. Collaborations with James Harden, Damian Lillard, and Anthony Edwards bring that ethos to life. Harden’s shoes blend high-fashion aesthetics with performance features designed for sudden deceleration; Lillard’s reflect his leadership and legacy; Edwards’ bold, futuristic builds enhance lateral mobility and vertical lift. Enayah told Harden, “Your adidas pair should sit next to your Prada’s or Balenciaga’s and feel seamless. It shouldn’t feel like, oh, this is my on-court shoe and this is my off-court one.”
Fig.08 AE1 Wing Development
Fig.09 AE1 Proto
These designs are powered by a fleet of adidas’ proprietary technologies like Boost, JET BOOST, and adaptive traction systems, which are engineered using biometric data and direct athlete feedback.“We test everything under pressure in real-world conditions, not just in the lab,” Enayah said. Every element from grip to breathability is tuned for elite play, while also designed to connect emotionally and aesthetically beyond the court.
Together, the team’s core principles and deeply researched codes are shaping the new adidas Basketball era. This moment isn’t just about honouring the past or pushing the boundaries of innovation—it’s about doing both at once, with intention. Basketball shoes have captured that balance before, but it’s been a while since anything truly tapped into that same energy.