Adidas and The LEGO Group embark on a multi-year partnership

That’s certainly one way to bring back Sports! Usually I would complain about the brand tie in, but here I’m... actually not too bothered. If I recall correctly, Adidas has been referenced in LEGO before, and they do seem to make legitimately good sports goods. Plus hey, if it gives the athletic kids something to enjoy, how could it hurt?

So the shoe was unexpected and totally impractical, but still a good bit of marketing in that nobody would have been expecting that. What are they now going to do though?

Bricks with stripes on and more clothes with studs on are interesting, but it's not going to sell you many more bricks or clothes?
I'd expect a bunch of Adidas sponsored footballer minifigs? Not sure what else they could have though to cross over.

No. Just no.

Sports sets, sure. I never got the big soccer field as a kid--our local stores never carried it. Add-ons to the Mindstorms (like we used to have with RCX years ago) set, sure. More ugly clothing and shoes--please, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE NO!

". . . it’s time for two of the world’s most creative and loved brands to play on the same team!"

That line just made me laugh. I don't associate Adidas with creativity and I don't particularly see any reason why anyone would.

On another note, that makes me think of how crazy it is that they haven't entered a big partnership like this with Nintendo yet. I'd you want to talk about beloved brands and creativity they're right up there next to Lego. They've got enough IPs that Lego could just rotate through them with different waves. Hopefully the recent Mario stuff leads to a deeper relationship.

With their lengthy record of controversies I wouldn't have thought Lego would touch them with a barge pole, but I forget that all sins are forgiven where money is concerned.

Not sure I get the point....

Why did they do this?

Please, someone stop this. now.

Adidas was involved in the LEGO football theme back in 2000, with Zidane having an Adidas shirt + legs.

I had set 3401 with the Zidane figure.

And 3409 came with an Adidas Ball.

The main downside of those Football sets, is that minifig legs lost clutch power after being on those stands for a long time (I had the set stored built for a long time).

Would be nice to see more sports sets.

@GrizBe said:
"When the grandkids took one look at the trainers and straight up said 'eww no.' got to question why they're doing this partnership?

While as suggested bringing back the sports lego theme could be worthwhile, I really think they need to hire better designers for any more clothing collabs. "

Given that the shoes sold out within seconds of the drop, I really don't think you have to rack your brain *that* hard to find a reason for this partnership.

Consider: people other than you have opinions. There's been a whole lot of whinging in these comment sections about the Levi and Adidas (and Ikea) collabs but they're still massively successful so obviously something is going right.

Other than that, I'd also love a return of the Sports theme (affordable GBC balls!), but they've stated that it's just for apparel at the moment. Hopefully if this line is as successful as the other recent collabs they'll consider a return, maybe without the really weird-faced minifigs

Yawn. Another tie-in where you are paying for the licence rather than the plastic bricks that stick together. I'd be interested in the stats for sales of Licenced products vs sales of Lego-original products. My guess is that Licenced products have been increasing in sales proportion over the years.

Will we get to a position where Lego only sells 3rd party licenced stuff???

I'm with Winston Churchill on this.
No sports please.

Oh that's fantastic. Hopefully they make a shoe that doesn't look as UGLY as the last one everyone was dupped into buying.

@fakespacesquid said:
" @chris38911 said:
"Yawn. Another tie-in where you are paying for the licence rather than the plastic bricks that stick together. I'd be interested in the stats for sales of Licenced products vs sales of Lego-original products. My guess is that Licenced products have been increasing in sales proportion over the years.

Will we get to a position where Lego only sells 3rd party licenced stuff???
"

Right?? Where did the good old non-licensed themes go, like Dots and Monkie Kid and City and Creator and Friends and Hidden Side and Ninjago and Technic?

Darn shame. Oh wait. "

You gotta admit tho, there were a lot more non licensed themes 10 years ago. And Creator, City and Technic had waaaaay better sets back then.

@PjtorXmos said:
" @fakespacesquid said:
" @chris38911 said:
"Yawn. Another tie-in where you are paying for the licence rather than the plastic bricks that stick together. I'd be interested in the stats for sales of Licenced products vs sales of Lego-original products. My guess is that Licenced products have been increasing in sales proportion over the years.

Will we get to a position where Lego only sells 3rd party licenced stuff???
"

Right?? Where did the good old non-licensed themes go, like Dots and Monkie Kid and City and Creator and Friends and Hidden Side and Ninjago and Technic?

Darn shame. Oh wait. "

You gotta admit tho, there were a lot more non licensed themes 10 years ago. And Creator, City and Technic had waaaaay better sets back then."

I count 8 this year and 11 in 2010 so it's not like they're caving in. That was also the last year of Bionicle and the first year of Hero Factory, both of which are widely regarded as not spectacular.

Gotta disagree on Technic. Not sure what you're basing that off of but some of the best Technic we've ever gotten has been in the last few years. Likewise, the Creator of that year was nothing special. But it was an outlier in that it was a very good year for City so I'll give you that one.

I used to have a minifigure sized adidas soccer ball from one of the soccer sets, but alas over time I somehow lost half the field... and the ball.

I agree with others that bringing back a sports theme could be cool. I am NOT a sports person at all, but I can see value to adding basketball hoops, soccer nets, etc to my LEGO city. The release mentions crossing into different LEGO themes, which is interesting because now I’m imagining how wild an adidas Ninjago crossover would be.

Not a fan of the recent clothing partnerships though. Hopefully the clothes will look better than the shoes but I won’t get my hopes up. Probably will be super expensive anyway to be both adidas and LEGO branded.

Ladies and gentlemen, you do realize Adidas and LEGO have worked together before, right? That there's going to be more than those shoes, right? Sheesh, you haven't seen anything else from this new version of their partnership besides those shoes and a very rare LEGO set of those shoes. Let's see what they got coming.

@CCC:
I totally would have worn them. Not as everyday shoes, of course, but for LUG events they would have been perfect. But I have more pressing holes in my collection. If they come out with something that you don't have to fight over to get, I may still consider it.

@fakespacesquid:
They're still producing soccer balls for other themes. Most recently, 2018 saw both white and orange unprinted soccer balls in the Friends theme, and the orange ones also showed up in the Unikitty theme. You just have to be prepared to stock up when they're available, either through LUGBulk or by ordering them in bulk from Bits & Pieces or online PAB.

It's weird how GBC has flipped the tables on the humble soccer ball. Back when they got started, there were tons of people who had large PAB cups full on nothing but soccer balls, just because they thought it was an amusing idea when the things showed up at PAB. A few years later, and it's a pretty safe bet that not one of those cups has been left untouched. Either they got used, or they got sold when GBC fanatics wiped out the available stock on Bricklink and caused the price to spike. If the mold didn't see periodic reuse, the prices for soccer balls would be so insane that people who start swiping them from GBC displays.

@PurpleDave Printed and unprinted makes a big difference, the printed ones illustrate the motion much better and the printed supply is very finite

@fakespacesquid:
Huh? You can barely tell what’s printed on the printed ones. The standard trick in every GBC display I’ve seen is to use a ton of soccer balls and seed a smaller number of basketballs in for contrast. I don’t know the exact ratio, but something like 5-10% basketballs gives your eye something to follow. Precisely what colors you use aren’t really important, so long as they’re obviously different. And if you run them long enough, the print is going to get worn off anyways, so it’s better for any color difference to be in the base colors.

@PurpleDave said:
" @fakespacesquid:
Huh? You can barely tell what’s printed on the printed ones. The standard trick in every GBC display I’ve seen is to use a ton of soccer balls and seed a smaller number of basketballs in for contrast. I don’t know the exact ratio, but something like 5-10% basketballs gives your eye something to follow. Precisely what colors you use aren’t really important, so long as they’re obviously different. And if you run them long enough, the print is going to get worn off anyways, so it’s better for any color difference to be in the base colors."

How many modules have you made or layouts you’ve participated in?

@fakespacesquid:
_I_ haven't done any. But I've seen lots of them over the last decade at Brickworld Chicago, Brickworld Fort Wayne, Brickworld Indy, and Brickworld Michigan. You may notice a theme there, and obviously these GBC displays tend to be run the same way because they're usually run by the same people every year. And one thing I've noticed is that, regardless of print, white soccer balls all read as white once they start moving fast enough, or they pick up enough spin. Another thing I've noticed is that they take a lot of abuse at shows like these, and the paint bears the brunt of it. But adding a few orange ones to the mix lets you track the overall flow between modules.

In a soccer game, the print gives the players valuable information. They can calculate the axis and rate of spin, and experience will tell them how the ball will respond when it hits the ground, or gets kicked by a player. But these spin too fast for your eye to process, or they spin erratically and whatever information you can glean is meaningless. Drop them in a chute, and the only place they can end up is at the bottom...unless they bounce out and land on the floor.

Sport is coming back, isn’t it?

Hardware?

LEGO Football and Basketball comeback? The old parts aren't particulary expensive. I think I had a Zidane in my hands lately for like EUR 5 or something. I'm not very keen on sports anyway.

If we see football, soccer, and basketball themed sets along with properly colored molds and prints, then I'll be okay with this. If it's just more clothing, then I'd be a little concerned on LEGO's part. I'm all for a revival of a Sports line.