During Milan Fashion Week in September, Swedish designer Beate Karlsson unveiled the Avavav x Adidas Superfinger Superstar. Revealed as part of a much wider collab with Adidas, the Florentine label marched models down a track-inspired runway donned in all kinds of madness. We’re talking massive puffers, tiny trench coats, and track jackets that were literally painted on. And yes, we’re also talking sneakers that were fitted with four-fingered gloves across the front. And while some of that might sound a little bit too freaky for IRL consumption, it’s all perfectly in line with Avavav’s overall ethos.
Founded in 2017, Avavav has always been a brand that’s steeped in absurdity. For its spring-summer 2023 presentation, Karlsson had the models dramatically collapse mid-runway. During the fall-winter 2023 show, clothes exploded off their bodies as they hit the catwalk. And for fall-winter 2024, attendees were given buckets filled with crushed paper cups and cans and discarded fruit peels that they were encouraged to throw onto the catwalk. Even if you’ve never heard of Avavav before, chances are you’ve seen them on socia media. In the age of TikTok, this tongue-in-cheek imprint was engineered to go mega viral. Even the #Avavav hashtag is skyrocketing every single day.
So when you ask a label like this to take on one of your most iconic silhouettes, the Avavav x Adidas Superfinger Superstar is exactly what you should expect. “I’m honored and beyond happy to have the opportunity to play around with their incredibly strong DNA—it’s so much fun,” said Karlsson in a press release. “From the beginning of our partnership, I was encouraged to ‘make fun’ of Adidas. There’s so much irony in how seriously we take both sports and fashion and exploring that while maintaining a serious attitude has been incredibly fun.”
