When Branding Goes Full Cult: Are We In Too Deep?
Let’s talk about shoes. Not just any shoes—I'm talking about the ones with three stripes that are responsible for more overpriced sneaker queues than a Friday morning at Caffeine & Classics.
Adidas Sambas have crept into the closet of everyone under 35 who has a TikTok account or an appetite for nostalgia. Social media did what social media always does: rediscovered a moderately cool thing, polished it into a grail, and pushed it into the mainstream with the subtlety of a foghorn. But this isn’t really about shoes. It’s about what happens when marketing stops targeting a demographic and starts inducting them.
What Adidas (and their disciples) have quietly achieved is not a campaign, but a belief system. Try suggesting to someone that maybe, just maybe, they look like they’re cosplaying a Berlin arts student from 2004. You’ll get a look. This is tribal. This is spiritual. This is very, very good marketing. The Sambas renaissance isn't just the result of aligned influencers or scarcity drops. It’s years of patient, underground brand culturing.
The lesson? Don’t manufacture hype. Create mythology. Not every brand can spark a movement, but every movement starts with a core that’s weirdly obsessed—and incredibly consistent. If your audience is finishing your sentences before you start, you’re not marketing to them. You’re preaching.
Adidas Sambas have crept into the closet of everyone under 35 who has a TikTok account or an appetite for nostalgia. Social media did what social media always does: rediscovered a moderately cool thing, polished it into a grail, and pushed it into the mainstream with the subtlety of a foghorn. But this isn’t really about shoes. It’s about what happens when marketing stops targeting a demographic and starts inducting them.
What Adidas (and their disciples) have quietly achieved is not a campaign, but a belief system. Try suggesting to someone that maybe, just maybe, they look like they’re cosplaying a Berlin arts student from 2004. You’ll get a look. This is tribal. This is spiritual. This is very, very good marketing. The Sambas renaissance isn't just the result of aligned influencers or scarcity drops. It’s years of patient, underground brand culturing.
The lesson? Don’t manufacture hype. Create mythology. Not every brand can spark a movement, but every movement starts with a core that’s weirdly obsessed—and incredibly consistent. If your audience is finishing your sentences before you start, you’re not marketing to them. You’re preaching.