The Earlier Party

The Adidas Originals campaign had this closing event in Berlin, some club called Alte Münze, where they were going to hold a ceremony for the winning teams. Teams that had spent months competing for the right to be celebrated as transcendent beings or whatever the brief said. It was the kind of thing that usually feels empty—brand activation, content, a way to get young people interested in shoes—but I went to the earlier event in Munich and it didn’t feel empty then.

That was at the start of the campaign. We hung around with people from Frontline Shop, from Blonde, from Art School Vets. Did stupid things that felt necessary at the time. And there was this hostess, Negar, who I was flirting with successfully enough that I actually believed it was working, that something was happening. The kind of moment where you think: this might be the start of something. It wasn’t. I never messaged her. Still think about it.

The Berlin party had music—Jinjin & The Ragdolls, Dreea, Sarah Farina—and the usual celebrities and personalities jumping around. Marcus Staiger. MC Fitti. Bonnie Strange. But it didn’t have the same charge. Maybe it was just that the novelty had worn off. Maybe I was already nostalgic for the Munich night before Berlin even happened.

What stays is that moment with Negar. Not the party, not the brand, not the winning teams. Just her, and the belief—false as it turned out—that I could be charming in a real way.