The History and Legacy of the Run-DMC adidas Partnership

For those who may not know, 2023 marks the official 50th anniversary of hip hop being established. That means throughout the year we’ll be taking a look at many of hip hop’s historical figures and legends. With today being the late great Jam Master Jay’s birthday, we’re kicking off the celebration with a group that very well has a case for being the most influential hip hop/rap group of all time—Run-DMC. They also boast one of the earliest instances of the now cemented relationship between sneaker culture and hip hop with their Run-DMC adidas partnership which can be traced back for decades.

Established in 1983, Joseph “Run” Simmons, Daryl “D.M.C” McDaniels, and Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell combined to make one of the most powerful music groups in history where they achieved numerous feats such as being the first hip hop group to ever obtain a gold record, the first hip hop group to have their videos played on MTV, the first hip hop group to appear on American Bandstand and grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and the first hip hop group to perform at Live Aid and be nominated for a Grammy Award.

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While this might be a bold statement to make, that wouldn’t be possible without Run-DMC having paved the way and broken down those barriers first. Today, we’ll be taking a deeper look into the legendary group’s partnership with adidas.

So as you can see, “My Adidas” wasn’t just a song bragging about how good you looked in your sneakers. You have to remember, this was still the very early days of hip hop, and as a result, there was a lot of discrimination taking place in the Black and Brown communities because men and women wearing streetwear clothes was an automatic association of being “up to no good” by some.

As the story goes, Run-DMC’s co-manager Lyor Cohen invited adidas executive Angelo Anastasio to their 1986 concert at Madison Square Garden. Knowing that Anastasio was going to be present, the group instructed everybody in the audience to hold up their adidas apparel, and apparently there was a lot of adidas in that building. The concert was followed by Run-DMC making a video addressing the brand while also telling them to “give us a million dollars.”

Guess you can say it worked. Run-DMC partnered with adidas, making them the first music group to ever partner with a major athletic brand, and they are now rightfully credited with being the ones to influence future deals between musicians and brands.

For vintage sneakerheads, you can actually find some of the original 1980s models released on websites such as eBay. You can also find some of the iterations from the 2000’s as well. It’s quite cool to see the differences between the older and newer models, and as is the case with every vintage sneaker, it feels like you are holding a piece of history. Those, however, can understandably be a bit pricey, but no worries because there is a newer version of the adidas x Run-DMC that came out recently. Below is some more info.

If you plan on rocking adidas apparel and listening to Run-DMC today, then we consider our mission to be accomplished. Be sure to keep up with us for more style and entertainment content and updates.