Adidas Originals brought the Superstar back into the spotlight and the casting reads like someone carefully assembled a blend that shouldn't work on paper but tastes perfect in the cup.
Samuel L. Jackson returns as the campaign's narrator, wandering through "Hotel Superstar," a surreal space where time doesn't exist and cultural icons from different generations occupy the same hallway. He's searching for his Superstars. Not the shoe at first, but the people who wear them. Kendall Jenner, JENNIE, Lamine Yamal, Baby Keem, James Harden, Tyshawn Jones, Olivia Dean. Each one brings a completely different energy.
This is where the coffee house thinking lands. Each person in this campaign has a distinct flavour.
Jenner brings the high-fashion credibility that makes streetwear feel elevated. JENNIE carries K-pop's global reach and the kind of cultural cachet that translates across continents. Lamine Yamal represents football's next generation. Baby Keem brings sonic experimentation and the West Coast's current pulse. James Harden anchors it in basketball heritage, which is where the Superstar started. Tyshawn Jones holds down skateboarding's creative authenticity. Then there’s Olivia Dean, fresh off a Grammy win, adds the soulful, organic musicality that rounds the whole thing out. With a dash of Britishness for good measure.
Individually, they're all doing their own thing. Together, they create something you couldn't predict but immediately recognise as right. That's the blend working.
The concept itself plays with this idea. Hotel Superstar isn't a real place. It's a metaphor for the timeless influence of the shoe and the people who wear it. Jackson moves through endless corridors, encountering each person in moments that show what makes them a superstar in their own right. Each scene is its own note, but they're all part of the same composition.
Director Thibaut Grevet, who's worked with Hermès, Chanel, and Calvin Klein, frames it all cinematically. This doesn't feel like a standard campaign. It feels like a short film that happens to be about a sneaker. The surreal aesthetic, the way time collapses, the choice to let each person exist in their own visual language without forcing them into the same frame, it all works because the Superstar is the through-line, not the constraint.
Annie Barrett, VP of Marketing at Adidas Originals, called this "the next era of the Superstar through both timeless design and cultural relevance."
What makes this campaign land is the same thing that makes a good blend work. You don't choose people because they're all the same. You choose them because they each bring something distinct, and when combined, they elevate each other. Adidas cast a roster of people who move culture in different directions but share the same foundational respect for craft, presence, and authenticity.
The Superstar has been a cultural staple since it left the basketball court and entered streetwear decades ago. This campaign doesn't try to reinvent that legacy. It just reminds you why it still matters by showing you the people who carry it forward, each in their own way, all wearing the same shell-toed icon.
Different flavours. One cup. Perfect timing.
Shot of the good stuff.
Shot of the good stuff.
