adidas Called, Creators Answered

This is precisely why adidas invited a host of ‘Creators’ from across the world to co-create and shape our brand narrative for this year’s tournament.

With ‘Creativity is the Answer’, we wanted to transcend a single sport because creativity goes beyond the pitch – it permeates every aspect of sport culture.

We invited athletes, musicians, artists and filmmakers from adidas’ key cities – London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai and New York as well as host city Moscow – to form our first-ever open-sourced campaign centered on the world’s biggest sporting event, the World Cup.

We asked Creators across the world: How does creativity inspire others? Take you from street to stardom? Bring people together? Change the world? How is your creativity shaping sport culture in your community?

I have been completely blown away by the overwhelming response we received. Here are just a few examples.

In Jardim Peri, Brazil, a collection of street artists teamed up to paint a mural of Gabriel Jesus rising up a layered wall of buildings – a mosaic symbolizing his rise from playing football in the streets of his hometown to stardom now representing his country on the sport’s biggest stage. Gabriel later told us he owes his creativity to his neighborhood, Jardim Peri.

In London, a digital community called This Fan Girl answered the call by showing how female footballers are using creativity to shape the game. The community is looking to change the way media portrays females in sport by documenting football events across the UK and drawing attention to the growing female attendance at professional matches.

In Los Angeles we have Giovanni Reyna – an up-and-coming footballer who is looking ahead to the future. He partnered with a team of L.A. Creators to produce a film showing how a new generation of football athletes are using creativity to shape the next U.S. World Cup team.