Fear Of God Athletics: A Look Back At What Never Came To Be
Going out with a thump
Update: Since publishing, I’ve received a response from an Adidas spokesperson on Fear of God Athletics and Adidas’ contract ending, which is as following: "Whilst we don’t comment on the details of our contracts, we can confirm we are already working on exciting plans for 2025 together.”
Fear Of God Athletic’s So-Called Era Is Coming To An End
No official announcement yet, but word on the street is that Adidas will not renew its contract with Jerry Lorenzo and Fear of God Athletics when it comes to an end this year. (The brand did not respond to my request to confirm.) The brand is currently in the midst of queuing up Fear of God Athletics Drop 4, which will be among the final launches for the brand.
Lazy analysis would ascribe the failure of the partnership to launch to the demise of streetwear but more likely it’s a cautionary tale on the degree to which established brands should approach collaborating with outside entities.
Announced as a partner in November 2020, during then CEO Kasper Rørsted’s disastrous regime, Lorenzo was brought on to lead the creative and business strategy of the German company’s basketball division. Lorenzo’s silo was called Fear of God Athletics, a division focused on performance product.
Lorenzo appeared to be excited about the venture, so much so that he caused sneaker culture to collectively gasp when on Instagram he unveiled a three-stripe tattoo on the back of his neck shortly after the announcement was made. In classic fashion, however, Lorenzo quickly pushed back on internet hectoring, declaring the three bars were rooted in his spiritual beliefs and represented the power of three.
In a show of support of the partnership, Adidas moved its basketball team to Los Angeles where Lorenzo was based and also helped fund a new design studio. At the same time, Lorenzo tapped ex-Jordan exec Jason Mayden to lead the division.
You Don’t Have The Answers!
Heading a label themed on performance offerings was a vindication for Lorenzo, who first proposed a stand-alone Fear of God Athletics division to Nike in November 2018, shortly after the the successful launch of Fear of God 1 basketball shoe, his first collaborative shoe with the brand.
In an exchange about his partnership with Adidas, Lorenzo told GQ that Nike initially showed interest in creating a Fear of God performance silo, but backed off at the last minute with no explanation. Less than two years later in mid-2020, Nike dropped Lorenzo, who was taken aback by the decision. “I [was] just in this really bad place. All the shoes sold out. I thought I performed well,” he told GQ.
Though Nike at the time was in the midst of what would become an incredibly fruitful partnership with Off-White designer Virgil Abloh, it’s decision not to go forward with Lorenzo was in line with the brand’s history of disinterest in long term partnerships with creatives who aren’t athletes (a stance Ye has spoken about at length following his falling out with the brand).
It didn’t help Lorenzo’s relationship with the brand that he chose in early February 2020 to promote the Nike Fear of God 1: “The Question” shoe with a campaign paying tribute to Allen Iverson, a player famously aligned with Reebok, a direct competitor. While Nike didn’t comment publicly on the effort, it made its feelings known by choosing to freeze out the campaign on social media.
Iverson campaign aside, the larger issue likely was that Nike likely had crunched the numbers and didn’t see a long-term, performance-based partnership with Fear of God Athletics making sense financially.
Making use of Nike and Fear of God’s resale premiums on StockX, I wrote about Nike’s decision to drop Lorenzo in a 2020 newsletter:
“Meanwhile, Nike and FOG over the course of two years released approximately 26 SKUs with an average price premium of 102%. Among FOG’s silhouettes, four of 26 shoes (the dreaded mocs) are selling below list. The top four most expensive FOG silhouettes range in average price from $827-$1,819.
“Just like shoes built for athletes (with the notable exception of Michael Jordan and LeBron James), sell through and demand for both Off-White and FOG was strongest at the start of the effort and has declined over time as excitement has fallen off and boredom has grown. Looking at the numbers, Nike execs had to conclude, why would we give FOG a bigger deal than we’ve provided Off-White?”
Impossible Is Nothing…Literally
Prior to joining Adidas, Lorenzo had let it be known in multiple interviews that he held an aversion to producing collections according to calendar dictates, a creative approach that made sense when he was creating his own product, but ran headlong into Adidas’ need to produce large volume seasonal collections on a strict production schedule.
After announcing Fear of God Athletics, Lorenzo told Vogue Business, “I think as soon as you get caught up in a system, the system takes precedence over the products, over the messaging. We want the product and the story to always take priority. Delivering on our own time allows us to do that…It’s not all do-as-you-please: Essentials follows a more regular drop pattern.”
Two years into the Adidas partnership with no product in sight, Lorenzo’s snail-like pace officially came to a head sometime in fall 2022 when Fear of God announced the brand was no longer leading the brand’s basketball division.
The announcement came in response to Adidas’ “Remember the Why” basketball collection and campaign it launched in December, which was widely viewed as looking suspiciously similar to Lorenzo’s Essentials label.
The brand also let it be known the debut Fear of God Athletics collection of shoes and apparel would launch in spring 2023, rebutting retail partner Foot Locker‘s earnings call in which the company highlighted an upcoming holiday 2022 Fear of God collection.
Whether or not Lorenzo had anything to do with “Remember the Why” was never addressed, but given lead times, it’s seems likely that Lorenzo and Adidas fell out sometime in midyear 2023 and Adidas subsequently scrambled to pull together the collection that lacked his branding but retained his DNA.
Lorenzo never said why he stepped away (or was demoted) from directing the basketball division and neither did Mayden, whose only mention of the change was an adjustment showing an end date to the role on his LinkedIn page (Mayden has since returned to Jordan where he’s a chief design officer), but one likelihood is that Adidas wasn’t willing to go two seasons without a basketball collection, something its wholesale partners not only expected but also built their holiday marketing campaigns around.
Bjørn Again
Despite the collapse, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden, who joined the brand in January 2023, remained hopeful, telling investors on a May 2023 earnings call that the brand would soon launch Fear of God Athletics Basketball 1 shoe, which would be followed by a Basketball 2 and 3 shoe. While retaining a sunny outlook on the call, Gulden had quietly conveyed behind the scenes that deals signed by his predecessor were being kept on a short leash, an attitude evidenced in March 2023 when the brand announced it was cutting ties with Ivy Park.
In April 2023, Fear of God staged its first official runway show in Los Angeles, and while the well-received presentation included some pieces from Fear of God Athletics, there was some confusion about which pieces other than footwear were Adidas offerings.
The debut Fear of God Athletics Basketball 1 shoe finally launched in December 2023 in a carbon colorway. In the same month, the brand launched its inaugural apparel collection with offerings ranging from $200 for a jersey t-shirt up to $700 for a car coat. Reviews were mixed with some complaints about pricing and sizing. Seven months later, there are still pieces from the collection available even after Adidas slashed prices on their website.
Over three years, Fear of God Athletics has produced a grand total of five shoe silhouettes: Fear of God Athletics 1, Fear of God Athletics Los Angeles, Athletics Adilette, Fear of God Athletics 86 Hi and Low. While additional colorways have launched, there has been no talk of a Basketball 2 shoe.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Four years later and both Lorenzo and Adidas appear to be in very different places. Adidas has shed the flashy partnerships with Ye and Beyoncé that defined the Rørsted years and literally has returned to its roots, leaning into its soccer heritage through Samba and other Terrace shoes, currently enjoying wildly popular demand. (And like a smack down from the gods, Adidas’ recent attempt to tiptoe back into the world of A-list influencers couldn’t have blown up in its face more spectacularly.)
Meanwhile, Lorenzo’s followers seem to be content with buying his Essentials line whose pricing and styling make more sense than Fear of God Athletics, which was positioned as a bridge brand between Essentials and Fear of God. Essentials no longer sells out upon arrival and is widely available at a discount, but it remains a well regarded brand.
As well, Fear of God’s mainline brand has come into his own, and its signature pared back looks emphasizing quality fabrics and classic silhouettes is meeting the moment that is quiet luxury, and from limited feedback I’ve received, is performing well at retail.
If Lorenzo is at all bothered by how things turned out at Adidas, he certainly hasn’t conveyed it. Cashing in on some of his success, Lorenzo earlier this year purchased a $20M home in Beverly Hills that he shares with his wife, Desiree Manuel, and their three children.
Last year he brought on the brand’s first CEO, Alfred Chang, who first worked with Lorenzo when he was with Pacsun, one of the few wholesale accounts carrying Essentials.
In an interview with Vogue Business in April 2023, Chang described the company’s annual revenues as between $200M and $300M, driven in large part by Essentials sales. “As we look forward, we do see a path to half a billion dollars, and then after that, we see a path to a billion dollars,” he added.
The company has yet to open the Los Angeles flagship store that’s been in the works for several years, though according to Chang, “We know that the store will get here when the time is right.”