Back in July, Adidas and AriZona Iced Tea held a pop-up shop in New York City for an extremely limited release of the Yung-1 and the Continental 80. Both pairs were covered in AriZona’s ginseng green tea print, as well as a pink, yellow, teal, black, and creme colorway, and were sold for only 99 cents a pair or given out with the purchase of an iced tea. Word of the event quickly spread and a huge crowd formed around the pop-up. Unfortunately, it had to be shut down by the NYPD due to public safety concerns. Leftover shoes from the release were distributed the following week through an online raffle on the collaborative website for Adidas and Arizona, but many who still wanted a pair were left empty-handed. Sneakerheads who bought the shoes for resell were stuck paying as much as $500 a pair.
For those who missed out on the original pop-up and online raffle, Adidas and AriZona just released Continental Vulc sneakers, in addition to Adilette slides, featuring three of AriZona’s iconic prints. The Continental Vulcs retailed at $65, while the Adilettes came with a price tag of $45. The footwear is available on multiple online shops, including Adidas, Footlocker, Zumiez, Tillys, Nordstrom, Hibbett Sports, and a few others. Despite the hype of the initial release, the slides and sneakers are surprisingly still available, but the sizes in stock are limited and vary for each website.
Sneaker brands no longer limit themselves to only working with athletes, and have moved on to collaborations with rappers, models, TV shows, and even beverage companies. Although it is simply advertising for both brands involved, collaborations attract the fans of one company to another and vice versa, working to expand the customer bases of each. Personally, I enjoy seeing brands working together to create products that their fans will love and would like to get my hands on a pair from the Adidas x AriZona Iced Tea collection in the near future.
