The situation
No74 in Berlin and No42 in Paris were conceived as something adidas did not otherwise have: physical platforms capable of holding the brand's full range in one place, from high-performance product to high-end designer collaborations, inside environments shaped by the cities around them. Together with the Icon Store format that extended to London, they were intended as points of intersection — places where a global brand could meet the local communities and audiences that determine cultural credibility in each city.
The real problem
IThe risk was specific. A global brand opening a concept space in Berlin or Paris is, by default, read as brand theatre. For No74 and No42 to work, they had to become spaces worth being inside on the city's own terms.
The work
Led creative direction for the Concept and Icon Stores across content, programming, creator integration, and editorial development. The stores were built to operate as cultural addresses first and retail second — platforms where the full adidas spectrum could be shown in conversation with the people shaping culture in each city.
That meant programming with cultural players rather than around them: collaborations and activations with Terranova, Pin-Up, 032c, Dust Magazine, and Ignant; bi-annual magazine launches; work with record labels and design studios; and formats such as Velothon and adidas Fanatic that connected the stores to the city's own rhythms. Each activation was selected for what it meant locally, and for the relationships it built with the communities the stores existed to serve.
Editorially steered the stores' Instagram and social presence — platform-native, locally embedded storytelling that made the digital channels an extension of the physical programme rather than a marketing layer on top of it.
The outcome
Two stores that earned genuine standing inside their cities' creative communities — a retail format that proved a global brand can participate locally without borrowing its way in, sustaining cultural and commercial relevance for as long as the programming held.
