I’ll be waiting for my Nike 360° camera and my Under Armour FPV drone too, thanks…
Although I’m fairly certain Adidas isn’t trying to enter the photography world after abandoning its $1.3 billion deal with Kanye, this Adidas M film camera concept absolutely made me do a spit-take. Not for one second did I think that the company’s retro branding would carry forward so well onto high-end camera brands, but this concept by Thiago Botelho has me absolutely hooked. The camera styles itself on the Leica M6, but with a cheeky rebranding featuring the same camera body (albeit a little cleaner) along with a new lens, and a red Adidas logo on the top… As the company says, Impossible Is Nothing.
Designer: Thiago Botelho
The camera is unapologetically a Leica, although that Adidas branding on it really feels like a winning collab to me. There’s a macro Elmar 50mm lens mounted on the front, and the rest of the camera’s details and trimmings are on point too, from the textured body to the controls on the top that give you the flavor of full analog photography.
Right beside the Adidas branding is the camera’s built-in flash (although there’s a mount for an external flash too), and a viewfinder on the top right corner.
A textured knob on the top helps you control the camera’s shutter speed, offering the only real control on the camera apart from the focus ring on the lens itself. Beside it lies the camera’s “accessory shoe” that’s used to mount external flash modules for a more powerful light source while shooting in low light or at high shutter speeds. On the other side, lies the shutter button with a threaded socket for ‘cable release’, and a reel counter that lets you know how many more photos you can click.
Designed as a CGI exercise by Botelho, a Brazil-based designer, photographer, and CG artist, the Adidas M shows that there’s really no limit to how versatile some logos can be. The three-leaf logo really feels like it belongs on the camera, although the best way to really make this a Leica x Adidas collab would be to also include a highly powerful sports photography mode within the shutter speed knob. Also, is it just me or would an entirely red camera look even more appealing?
