Denim Tears and adidas Originals have unveiled their first collaboration, featuring plaid versions of the Stan Smith and Superstar. The designs draw on the woven “Ghana Must Go,” or market, bag, a familiar sight on Canal Street in New York. No release date has been announced.
An early look shared with Hypebeast shows both shoes in black, blue, red and cream plaid. Cream accents appear on the soles and the Superstar’s shell toe, while a Sankofa symbol sits beneath co-branded details on each tongue.
Denim Tears founder Tremaine Emory said he wanted to bring the pattern into footwear for his first adidas Originals collaboration. He described it as a New York-inspired choice, pointing to the bags and other goods sold around Canal Street as part of the print’s local presence.
Emory also highlighted the pattern’s wider history. He said it originated in Africa, was later used for scaffolding in Hong Kong, and became associated with plastic carry bags after being popularized by a Chinese tailor. The name “Ghana Must Go” refers to the 1983 mass expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria, when many people used the bags to carry their belongings across borders.
The Sankofa symbol adds another cultural reference to the shoes. Emory explained that it represents the idea of returning to retrieve what has been forgotten, and said the symbol has appeared on gates made by Black metalsmiths who were freed slaves across the East Coast, the United States and the Caribbean.
The collaboration was introduced on Canal Street, with the shoes photographed near the subway station and a nearby building covered in the same plaid. The Stan Smith and Superstar are the first release in what Emory described as a “symbiotic” partnership between Denim Tears and adidas Originals. Further release details have yet to be shared.
Sources: Hypebeast.