Vodka, caviar and Communism – it is incredible to realize that sometimes, it only takes three words to characterize an entire country. However, I really wouldn’t recommend doing that because you will be risking being labeled as a person who believes in clichés. And trust me, pigeonholing has never been a good way to leave a good impression. Of course, Russia is more than just Putin, beautiful women in skimpy dresses and track suits. Nevertheless, no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop picturing the typical Russian guy smoking and squatting in front of the camera and dressed in a cheap-looking track suit made by the most successful German sports brand: Adidas. Add in a threatening, gloomy facial expression and a short, military-like hairstyle and the picture of the typical Russian stereotype seems perfect. At this point, I have to stress the term “stereotype” because in reality, wearing a track suit by Adidas isn’t enough to make you Russian. My ex was Russian and he loved wearing shirts and elegant, casual shorts with smart embroidered applications.
Nonetheless, amidst his elegant and mundane shirts and dandy-like loafers, I discovered what after all reminded me of his Russian roots which often didn’t shine through his cosmopolitan attitude: An old copy of Karl Marx’ “Capital” and a tracking suit by Adidas. It seems that Russian culture is through and through coined by Adidas. But why is that? What’s the reason for the Russian obsession with Adidas?
The Adidas cult emerged with the Olympic Games in 1980 that took place in Moscow. Although Adidas held the status of a capitalist label, the government let the Olympic team wear clothes manufactured by the German sportswear label. The company name, however, didn’t appear on the suits because the Soviet government didn’t want the Russian Olympia team to advertise a capitalist brand. The three stripes remained and sparked off a real hype around Adidas – despite the censorship.
As a symbol of the western world whose fashion stayed an abstract phenomenon for a long time for the Soviet population, Adidas embodied a modern, western look, even though most alleged Adidas products were in fact cheap fakes from China. Gangsters in particular could illegally access the western market and therefore wore and preferred the comfortable sportswear by Adidas that soon became the incarnation of authority and power.
Today, track suits are particularly worn by the so-called Gopniks, a criminal Russian subculture whose members are known as wannabe gangsters, because the Russian market is flooded with Adidas fakes from China that are cheap affordable for the lower class society.
Click here if you can’t get enough of Adidas either.
