A 43-year-old man wearing a pair of the iconic Adidas Sambas to work is about as unremarkable as it gets. Unless that man is Rishi Sunak.
In which case – hold the front page.
Sambagate might have been a touch over-the-top, but there’s no denying that nothing kills off cool like someone trying too hard.
Susannah Morgan, deputy MD of Energy PR, reflects on the reaction to Rishi Sunak’s wearing of the sartorial superstar Sambas, and how brands should deal with the fall-out when faced with similar PR disasters.
The Adidas press office have my sympathy for the furore that must have engulfed them when Rishi Sunak was seen to be wearing the coveted Samba trainers on a video posted to Instagram.
“Rishi has ruined Sambas for everyone” screamed the headlines. Social media kicked off big time.
Marketing circles are avidly discussing ‘binfluencers’ – an excellent term, not to be confused with the people who put their bins out first in their street. Perhaps ‘sinfluencers’ is an alternative? Sambas all over the country were quietly put back into boxes. But for how long?
Adidas: bad things happen in threes
Adidas is the latest brand victim of a politician reaching for a style hit to look relevant – and trainers are a common choice. Converse and Veja have also been there. And it usually bombs, especially when the trainers are box fresh and at odds with the person, outfit and occasion, as they were in the case of the Sunak Sambas.
Meeting an influencer? Wear influencer trainers to look the part! No. It looks contrived and smacks of desperation.
But the challenge for the Adidas team didn’t stop at Rishi. Nigel Farage got in on the act with a pair of Gazelles, and a week later Sir Kier Starmer donned a pair. They say bad things happen in threes. But these three things aren’t equal.
No (sensible) brand wants to be associated with Nigel Farage, but it was so obviously a political move that I don’t believe it will have any lasting impact on the brand or popularity of the shoe. I don’t think anyone is going to take notice of what Nigel Farage has on his feet.
Sir Kier Starmer isn’t going to be a trend death knell either, but for different reasons. Firstly he was wearing trainers that clearly have a purposeful place in his wardrobe – they looked worn. He was wearing them to the England football team training ground where he was going to kick a ball around. And he plays football in his spare time.
This was not as contrived. Nor does he have the same form for sartorial cock-ups as Sunak. £500 Prada loafers being worn to a Teesside building estate is just one other example of when Sunak has failed to dress like a ‘man of the people’.
‘Don’t let the clothes speak louder than you do’ is the more sensible approach taken by Starmer.
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Style over substance
The difference in the shoes is important too. Gazelles have had enduring appeal for decades, and come in such countless iterations that you can still feel individual wearing them, even if everyone has a pair, or someone you don’t relate to wears them in a different colourway.
Such is the product’s standing, that it would take more than a couple of politicians to dent their appeal.
Sambas, on the other hand, have enjoyed three years at the top after a rise that took even Adidas by surprise. Arguably they were already wavering in this position. There was concern they had been ruined by their own popularity and wearers simply look like every other influencer. Oversaturation wasn’t far away.
Coloured trainers are overtaking white trainers, so perhaps Sunak was the final straw for a trend already in decline? Searches for the Campus outstrip Sambas, and the Adidas Spezial is on the rise. But, as with Gazelles, Sambas have a heritage that spans decades, they are the hottest shoe in years and the enduring appeal of their shape and design may see the style temporarily down but not out.
Arguably Sunak can’t wear anything right, given the weight of public opinion against the current government.
When Barak Obama wore Stan Smiths he received a very different reaction, they “proved he is a style icon”. Elsewhere, Matt ‘I wear trainers to look like my constituents’ Hancock was slated for wearing Veja trainers on a red carpet.
Context is everything.
Brands fighting back
Association with the wrong people can be a real problem for brands, with the hit sharply felt in dropping sales. Cultural history is littered with examples of where clothing brands have been appropriated by undesirables and the brand has had to fight back. Burberry and football hooligans is just one well-discussed example. The Yeezy Adidas range is another.
So what can brands do about it? In Burberry’s case, they made enormous effort to change the product offering to appeal to the audience it wanted, and make it less accessible to those it didn’t. The baseball cap was discontinued, for example.
Moving away from the negative association takes time and effort, therefore makes more sense if there is a fundamental cultural appropriation issue, or an extreme risk of reputational damage. Not the case for Adidas with Sunak and the Sambas. The Kanye West Yeezy issue was bigger, and they were slow to respond, but the brand remains undamaged.
Another option – which would work in the Sunak Samba case – is to embrace the universal appeal of the product and use humour. New Balance trod this line successfully when trying to navigate its reality of being beloved by dads as well as supermodels.
And then of course brands can choose to do nothing. Let the strength of the brand carry it through.
Adidas has chosen a mix of the last two. Chief executive Bjorn Gulden reportedly said that “anybody in the world can wear our products” and that the prime minister would have “no impact at all” on the success of the Samba, negative or positive.
So, the answer to my question is no, politicians aren’t killing our kicks.
For Adidas, the long-term risk is nonexistent. The brand is just too strong to be permanently dented by a couple of unpopular politicians. It has the top three most searched for lifestyle shoes, and it’s not going anywhere.
