adidas Skateboarding Is Still One of the Coolest Things the Brand Has Ever Done
For a brand as legacy-loaded as adidas, skateboarding might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But take a second look. Scratch beneath the surface of Three Stripes nostalgia and Samba overstimulation, and you’ll find that adidas Skateboarding has been one of the label’s most consistent, stylish, and quietly influential sub-labels for over two decades. And right now it's entering a new golden era.
Launched in 1998, adidas Skateboarding didn’t come to the table trying to imitate the gritty skate brands that dominated the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Instead, it leaned on what adidas already did well: Timeless silhouettes, sport-informed performance, and an eye for cultural crossover.
The Campus, the Superstar, and most famously, the Busenitz, designed with German pro Dennis Busenitz, became instant classics. They weren’t just good skate shoes; they were good shoes, period.
Today, the adidas skate team reads like a who's who of modern skateboarding. You’ve got style, god Tyshawn Jones, who went from Supreme kid to Thrasher Skater of the Year, now with his signature shoe line.
Then there’s Heitor da Silva, Brazilian-born, Paris-drenched, and probably one of the most stylish people alive on or off a board. And you can’t ignore Miles Silvas, who skates like he’s filming in slow motion and dresses like a low-key fashion editor.
adidas is also putting serious energy behind its women’s skate roster. Skaters like Maité Steenhoudt, Nora Vasconcellos, and Breana Geering are not only pushing style and skill forward, but they’re making skateboarding look fun again.
Maité, in particular, skates like she’s playing jazz, chaotic, fluid, joyful, and she’s helping redefine what feminine energy looks like in skateboarding. adidas hasn’t just added women to tick boxes; they’ve put them front and center, giving them signature capsules, full film parts, and legit platforming.
And while shoes often steal the spotlight, the apparel side of adidas Skateboarding deserves its flowers, too.
The collections lean heavily on functional cuts and technical details, but with a real design perspective. Boxy fits, subtle branding, pieces that look equally at home on the street as they do mid-kickflip. It’s skatewear without the forced edge—comfortable, utilitarian, but still intentional. Recent collabs with brands like Pop Trading Co. and Fucking Awesome only underline how well adidas understands the nuances of modern skate style.
What makes adidas Skateboarding work, honestly, is that it doesn’t try too hard. It’s confident enough to let the skating speak for itself. And in a world where everything feels overdesigned, overbranded, and algorithm-optimized, that kind of grounded cool is rare.
