LEGO 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar designer: ‘It’s meant to fool the eye’

The designer behind the newly-announced LEGO 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar explains how the trainer’s organic shaping is intended to ‘fool the eye’.

Officially revealed today, the first brick-built result of the partnership between the LEGO Group and Adidas (following earlier clothing collaborations) takes the iconic Adidas Superstar and transforms it into a solid, plastic display piece. You can find out more about the 731-piece model by clicking here.

Late last month, Brick Fanatics had the opportunity to catch up with the 18+ set’s designer, Florian Müller, who spoke to us about experimenting with multiple different approaches to the shoe’s organic shape, recreating the well-loved Adidas Superstar design while retaining that crucial LEGO DNA. 

“Capturing something that is organic with rectangular bricks is somewhat limiting, so you always have to find compromises or tricks to fool the eye,” he explains. “We had a lot of iterations, over 10 different prototypes, where we really tried different ways of approaching it. One was totally clean, with no studs exposed in a classic, [fan build] expression, but then we also had one that was really brick-stacked, and very rasterised like we would see in LEGOLAND.

“We landed on something in between, and I think the core decision on that was that from afar it really fools the eye, so you say, ‘Okay, this is a sneaker.’ But when you go closer, you will see all these little studs exposed. There’s always a compromise in some of the shapes, so it’s not a one-to-one recreation; it’s the capturing of the icon in that sense.”

Achieving that shaping – and balancing the studded vs. studless aesthetic – wasn’t the only challenge in bringing 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar to life, however. While the shoe ostensibly appears to be a very dry, unmoving display piece, it actually bakes in functionality that replicates a real-life sneaker (up to being able to wear it, of course).

“The icing on the cake was making it functional,” Florian says. “The easy way would be just to side-mount the flaps on the left and right, but they should be working, and you should have a very clean interior – so when you build a sole, you should really see a flat sole with very few obstacles in the air. 

“Then when you put the flaps on, it should really work at least in a little bit of articulation, so that the tongue can easily go in and then you can close it again. We could also have gone for a totally static expression, but I think this makes it much more fun while you build it.”

For more on 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar, check out our detailed review, browse the full gallery of official images, and take a peek into its brilliantly-realised packaging.

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