adidas announces its latest collaboration with South African, queer designer Rich Mnisi with a unique collection and campaign for Pride 2023; Let Love Be Your Legacy. With a shared ambition to encourage allyship and freedom of expression without bias, in all spaces of sport and culture, the adidas x RICH MNISI range of apparel and footwear spans both lifestyle and performance featuring signature silhouettes across adidas Originals, football, cycling, Sportswear and swim.
The range is inspired by a love letter Mnisi wrote to his younger self, in which he declares Let Love Be Your Legacy – serving as his mission statement, but also a rallying cry for active allyship to empower and champion the LGBTQIA+ community. adidas partners Tom Daley, Jari Jones and Athlete Ally, have written ‘Love Letters’ to the world for the campaign calling for radical self-acceptance and support from the wider communities in culture and sport and appear alongside South African rugby player Lusanda Dumke in the collection.
Channelling the spirit of allyship, the collection’s vibrant colour palette is paired with the slogans ‘Love Unites’ and ‘Let Love Be Your Legacy’ printed onto the fabric, emboldening its wearer to lead with love and uphold inclusive values. The apparel and footwear features Mnisi’s retro graphic print, a monochrome circular check design layered with hand drawn flowers, and abstract shapes in bright and punchy colours with the adidas three-stripe boldly accented in pink and red. The adidas x RICH MNISI collection includes garments made in part with recycled materials and in collaboration with Better Cotton.
Speaking on the collaboration and collection, Rich Mnisi said “In creating this collection, I had a strong impulse to speak to my inner-child and express to the world how LGBTQIA+ allyship can create a legacy of love. Unifying these themes together through my own visual language and adidas’ iconic performance and lifestyle pieces is a powerful combination – making the collection a symbol for self-acceptance and LGBTQIA+ advocacy. My hope is this range inspires LGBTQIA+ allies to speak up more for the queer people they love and not let them fight for acceptance alone”.
