Adidas brings Das Day to Chinese skateboarders

Adidas brought its outreach activity, Das Days, to the skateboarding community in Shanghai over the weekend, the event's first appearance in the region after a debut run this year in Los Angeles, New York, Sao Paolo and Paris.

Working with brand-experience agency Jack Morton, the German sports brand set up a community centre and pop-up store at 322 Anfu Lu, the trendy district located in the former French concession. Running through 20 October, the outreach activity is timed with the global launch of a new product collaboration with skateboard brand Alltimers later this week.

The activity heavily draws on the street-art origins of the skateboarding sport, with a slew of street art exhibitions and live music performances lined up for the nine-day event. A group of skateboarders participated in a day-long skateboarding exursion around the city last Saturday and were treated to a house party held later that night at Yuyintang. 

Besides, the skateboarding line of Adidas has its own global creators series Showcase X, which offers a creative platform for artists from the community. Among the Chinese street artists featured in the exhibitions held during the Shanghai edition of Das Day include established ones such as Fancask and emerging players like Sheep Chen, Hurricane, Soils, Rainbo and Sars. The exhibition also spotlights the photos taken by renowned skate photographer Zander Taketomo during his recent trip to Shanghai. The city currently has three skateboard parks, including the SMP Skatepark, which is known to be the third largest in the world.

"China has a really interesting scene, slightly underground, but emerging here and there in pockets across the country," said Glenn Walker, director of action sports, APAC, Adidas skateboarding. "But Das Day is not about making a huge noise. it's about getting to the core of what skateboarding is about and giving the community a voice. It's street-level and it's downtown, slap-bang in the middle of the city," he added.