adidas — One brand, three labels

adidas Performance is built for sport. adidas Sportswear comes from sport and is made for style. adidas Originals takes its cues from sport and lives on the street. adidas Global Brand Design asked us to give Performance and Sportswear a typographic voice of their own. The two had to be distinct enough to tell apart at a glance, yet close enough that neither could be mistaken for anything but adidas.

Performance got the quiet treatment. We set the headline typeface adineue PRO, a direct descendant of the adidas wordmark, in lowercase only. In a category that sells itself in bold condensed capitals, Performance doesn’t raise its voice. It doesn’t need to.

Sportswear went the other way. It uses the same type family, now as a variable font, set in capitals throughout. Weights shift within a single line, type runs right up to the edge, and italics lean up to 30 degrees. The result is louder, cheekier and made for everyone. Adihaus DIN in tracked capitals ties both labels together as subhead and body copy.

The system debuted at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and then shaped adidas typography worldwide for a year, across campaigns, out-of-home, social and e-commerce.

Note: some of the images shown are test layouts we created during type development and are not part of the published campaign. Others are from adidas campaigns we did not design, but they show our typography in use.

Logo & Typography, Brand Design, Work