When the spotlight hits the right brand including the people behind it, beautiful things can happen and so it has.
18 months in the making, sneakerheads in the region rejoiced at the latest ADIDAS SUPER STAR collaboration with Pakistani restaurant Ravis, which dropped on June 23rd.
Celebrating the unsung heroes within our community, Ravis is a homegrown brand which is on the top of every expats favourite dine out list. Renowened for its laid back, no frills approach, Ravis is a street style eatery on the pavements of our beloved Satwa. Satwa – a hub for creative community magic from material boutiques, sequin filled tailors and back street eateries baking up some of the best bread in the city, it makes the location of this collaboration just that little bit cooler.
Showcasing humble passion at its finest, Founder and owner of Ravi Chaudary Abdul Hameed has created one of the most authentic dining experiences for the last 44 years. Attracting not only thousands of expats and Emiratis, but Ravi’s has also even fed the mouth of international legend, Snoop Dog.
This collaboration and the launch of the SUPERSTAR RAVI trainers, is part of adidas’ collaborative project with eleven small and local restaurants in eleven different cities around the world, in recognition of the community spirit created in and around local restaurants.
In a twist on the Adidas Original Superstar, the special edition Superstar Ravi colorway references the Pakistani heritage of the owners and features a custom sock liner with a hand-drawn map design signifying the meaning of the name Ravi, which is a river in northeastern Pakistan.
The heel tab branding includes the year Ravi opened alongside the name in English and Arabic on either shoe. The restaurant’s owners hand-selected six dishes which have been added to the tongue of the sneakers with English on one side and Arabic on the other — the restaurant’s famous chicken biriyani and karak chai made the cut.
Launched at a price of 549AED, prices on the resale market have leapt to up to 44,000AED. Whilst we knew this brand collab would be cool, I don’t’ think anyone expected the response to be as wild as this.
More of these inter community brand collaborations please.
