In 1925 Al Capone at 26 became the new Boss of a sprawling criminal network. At the height of his seven year mob-reign Capone seemed untouchable. Keyword: seemed. A lot can happen between today and tomorrow.

As a modern Eliot Ness adidas’ is facing their untouchable Al Capone in Nike. Nike is…well, Nike and they own about half of the market share of fresh kicks. adidas is facing a daunting task: Nike seems untouchable.

In Brian De Palma’s 1987 classic Untouchables Sean Connery uttered these infamous lines:
“You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?”

Today adidas emphatically answers those questions with “Your future is not mine:”

I watched this magnificent short four times in a row.

Your future is not mine: The rallying cry of adidas Originals for its Spring/Summer 2016 campaign “Future.” (Nike’s version of this was during the 2010 World Cup; their slogan was Write the Future).

Directed by Terence Neale adidas has Avengers Assembled a group of dynamic creatives including NBA-er Iman Shumpert (MVP for Best Hair!).

As the description of the YouTube video says: “Watch them confidently stride together towards an optimistic tomorrow, dismissing the hurdles of the negative future they seem to have inevitably inherited.”

Yes! You can effortlessly inherit the future the same way so many willingly accept criticisms and limitations as facts and truths or…you can actively create the future. Complain or Create: You Can’t Do Both.

(Man: the selfie stick ridicule…that alone is solid: we must be relentless in mocking the negative aspects of our culture least they become entrenched habits.)

So far in 2016: Kanye released Facts, adidas gave Snoop Dogg a football talk show and now this…adidas is finally bringing guns to its knife fight with Nike.

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Ziggy Was Here January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016

Also published on Medium.