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October is breast cancer awareness month, and people all over the United States start sporting a little more pink in their wardrobes to raise awareness and funds to help support research and treatments. With November underway, it's important our support for the cause continues—one way to do so, is with the new Adidas Breast Cancer Awareness collection, created to honor women who have had and are currently battling breast cancer.
Unlike the many breast cancer awareness products released each season that simply feature re-release existing products in pink, Adidas and Five Ten took the processes a step further by talking to a variety of women with breast cancer to create a bold and playful graphic that has been printed on some of the brands' most popular shoes for hiking and running.
Luke Hontz, senior Adidas Five Ten product manager for bike, spearheaded the shoe design in honor of his mother, a breast cancer survivor. “I’m lucky to have turned my greatest passion, bike riding, into my job, and that I was able to use my job to honor my mother and other people impacted by breast cancer,” he said in a press release.
Vero Sandler, a pro mountain biker, also interviewed women suffering from breast cancer to understand what helped them maintain determination while fighting the disease. When interviewing women about their experiences Sandler discovered that there were some universal images that kept coming up in her conversations with breast cancer patients and survivors. A common thread was that people found solace and comfort in the outdoors. "Spending time in nature or thinking about nature helped them stay positive through difficult times,” Sandler said.
They created a video of all the women who inspired the collection and aim to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Breast Cancer Now, an organization operating out of the EU and the UK. For every shoe sold through November, $15 is donated to these organizations.
"Spending time in nature or thinking about nature helped them stay positive through difficult times." - Vero Sandler
Four models make up the Adidas BCA collection including the Five Ten Freerider Pro Canvas ($150) mountain bike shoe, the TERREX Freehiker II ($200) hiking boot, the Terrex Agravic Ultra ($160) trail running shoe, and the classic Adidas Ultraboost 22 ($190) running shoe. The pattern is playful and bold and is something that men and women can feel excited about wearing. (The shoes look pretty dang good all dressed up in pink.)
Oftentimes cause-based collections like this can feel forced, disingenuous, or don't include items that are solid enough to stand on their own, so it's nice to see one of the biggest brands in sport using its flagship models to help it step out of the box and focus on the real human impact this disease has on our society. If you're hitting the trails by bike or foot, wearing a pair of these ain't a bad way to do it, no matter what month it is.
Published 11-01-2022
