American tennis player Stan Smith endorsed the Adidas tennis show from 1973, with his portrait featuring on the tongue of many of the shoes.
Adidas relaunched the Stan Smith shoe in 2014, and marketing was supported by a number of mosaic versions of his portrait. Several of these (fifteen of them, I believe) appeared on the walls of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, linked to a competition to win a pair of the trainers. The mosaics were the work of Mark Kennedy, an artist who has produced several other mosaic pieces that adorn Manchester.
The mosaics have slowly disappeared over the years, but these two were still there in late 2016. Amusing that they were accompanied by marketing for rather different footwear.
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Copyright Debbie Smyth, 27 November 2017
Posted as part of Monday Mural
It’s fun to find remnants of art projects. Makes one feel like an urban archaeologist. Thanks for contributing to this week’s Monday Mural.
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Those are not at all what I think of when you say Adidas!
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