If you’ve been waiting for a collaboration between Dragon Ball Z and a mainstream brand, wait no longer. Adidas, arguably one of the most mainstream shoe brands you’ll ever find has finally unveiled their collaboration with Akira Toriyama with their new Adidas X DragonBall Z sneaker collection.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen well known sneaker/street wear brand pair up with anime as last year saw New Balance team up with the makers of Evangelion and Supreme teaming up with Katsuhiro Otomo.
Rumours of the collaboration have been around since last year and a leak of three of the sneakers was released around last week. Now, however, we finally get to see all seven of the upcoming sneakers in their full glory thanks to more leaks.
The sneakers in question will take seven characters from the Dragon Ball Z manga/anime and pair them with existing Adidas sneaker models. Why seven? That’s because if you’re an anime fan, you’ll know there are seven Dragon Balls in the anime and the seven sneakers are to represent each one of them.
The sneaker models that’ll be used include the Adidas ZX 500 RM, the Adidas Yung 1, the Adidas Deerupt, the Adidas Prophere, the Adidas Oregon Ultra Tech, the Adidas Kamanda and the Adidas EQT ADV Mid. They’ll be paired together with the Dragon Ball Z characters Goku, Frieza, Gohan, Cell, Vegeta, Majiin Buu and Shenlong respectively.
Aside from the speakers and their respective character colourways, it seems that the sneakers will also come paired with limited edition figurines that their designs are based on.
Here’s a closer look at each of the sneaker models:
Adidas ZX 500 RM x Son Goku (August 2018)
The ZX 500 x Son Goku is wrapped in an orange and blue silhouette that perfectly matches Goku’s signature dougi (martial arts uniform if you don’t know what that means) that he has worn throughout (almost) the entire manga/anime.
Adidas Yung 1 x Frieza (August 2018)
The Yung-1 is the perfect Adidas sneaker to encapsulate the classic Dragon Ball Z villain Frieza. With the sneakers makeover, encased in the villain’s trademark purple, white (and a bit of pink) colours, the Yung-1 looks like the perfect sneaker a Dragon Ball Z villain would wear. Now we wonder if Adidas will also release an alternate colourway incorporating Frieza’s Golden form.
Adidas Deerupt x Son Gohan (September 2018)
While Son Gohan has been known to wear a variety of costumes (from the orange blue dougi his father wears to the ridiculous Saiyan Man outfit), his signature looks has got to be the purple dougi he has worn since he was a kid and carried on wearing occasionally as an adult as well. With this in mind, Adidas has decided to coat the entire Deerupt in purple and with the webbed design on the sneaker, we can say, it looks really good.
Adidas Prophere x Cell (September 2018)
The Prophere’s design is a perfect match for the villain Cell and with it’s organic dark upper green design, we can really feel the menace that comes out from this sneaker.
Adidas Oregon Utlra Tech x Vegeta (November 2018)
The Oregon Ultra Tech is a pretty aggressive looking sneaker and it’s perfect for Dragon Ball Z‘s resident egoistical tsundere Vegeta. With an overall blue upper with yellow design, this sneaker is the perfect fit for anyone that’s always trying to be one up on their rivals.
Adidas Kamanda x Majiin Buu (November 2018)
Pink, especially fleshy pink is a colour that’s pretty hard to pull off on a sneaker but the Kamanda x Majiin Buu does it really well. We doubt any of the other sneaker models would have been a fit with the one time villain turned good guy.
Adidas EQT ADV Mid x Shenron (December 2018)
If there’s any sneaker that’s going look perfect for the Lunar New Year it’s got to be the EQT ADV Mid x Shenron. While it doesn’t come totally encased in red, the combination of light green, gold and red design does give it that Lunar New Year feel. And come on, dragons are supposed to be lucky during that period. Don’t fancy the colourway? There’s also an alternative design that’s all black and gold and supposedly to represent Super Shenron.
So there you have it, the Adidas x Dragon Ball Z Sneaker collection. They’re expected to drop throughout the months of August, September, November and December and in pairs. For more details, just wait till Adidas officially announces them and we’ll update you with actual release dates and prices once they’re out.
Images from Yeezy Mafia and Seraphy
