adidas Runners

Brand Identity · 2026

Independent concept

The mark: three equal-width stripes in a rising stepped wedge, locked to a heavy RUNNERS wordmark

The challenge

Explore an adidas Runners identity centred on running crews and the streets where they meet, rather than on a single product or athlete.

The solution

Three stripes become a recurring street graphic, paired with large type, blue campaign imagery and lime details for running data.

White corrugated shoebox photographed on black, RUNNERS and three raked black bars printed across the lid — Packaging: the stripes cross the lid like a crosswalk

Near-monochrome overhead photo of a pair of black trainers and a spray can resting on a sidewalk beside a finished blue RUNNERS stencil printed on the pavement — The start line dries on the pavement, stencil, shoes and can left behind

Close crop of a phone home screen showing a white app icon with the three-stripe mark, labelled Runners — The mark holds at 60 pixels on a real home screen

White woven strap printed with a stepped three-bar wedge mark, BERLIN, and 021 in black, hanging against a blurred blue field — Race webbing carries the three-bar wedge mark bottom-to-top

Grainy night photo of three unbranded black race vests hung abreast on a rail, breaking a white finish tape printed with RUNNERS — Nobody wins alone: the kit takes the tape together

Flat type specimen reading THE STREET IS THE STADIUM in white condensed caps on black with lime hairline rules — The type system set on its own lime grid

Flat black field with a single white hairline rule and a small centred RUNNERS NIGHT SHIFT 021 lockup — The system's quietest state: one rule, one line

Corner LED billboard on a city building, blue face reading THE STREET IS THE STADIUM beside a right face showing a ghost-mannequin running singlet lit at night on wet black asphalt — Corner takeover: the campaign line at street scale, the kit standing in for the runner

Flash-lit black running jacket shaped as a hollow ghost-mannequin mid-stride on black with a repeating blue RUNNERS BERLIN 02:14 ticker across the frame — Key art: the garment suspended, the ticker running through it

Project Information

This self-initiated concept uses “The street is the stadium” as its central line. Pavement markings, race equipment and night-running imagery provide the visual references.

The stripe motif moves between an app icon, packaging, race webbing and campaign layouts. Condensed headlines keep the message short and prominent.

Blue and black set the campaign palette. Lime distinguishes technical details such as distances and times in the proposed system.

CAIO BARRETO

Creative Direction:
Caio Barreto

Design:
Arthur Rosa, João Alves

Motion & Interactive:
Renan Rosa

Strategy & Project Management:
Priscila Oliveira

Fonts:
Söhne Breit, Söhne Mono — Klim Type Foundry

Year:
2026

Brand Identity · Concept

Self-initiated concept work. adidas Runners is not a client of CAIO BARRETO. Imagery generated, not photographed.