Herr Fritz Träumer’s shoes are the stuff of legend.
Words Jennifer Croll Images Lifelounge and Adidas Originals
Style blogs are abuzz with the amazing images of Adidas sneakers designed by some mysterious German guy named Herr Fritz Träumer. Supposedly pulled from sketches from the sneaker designer’s private journals from some 50-odd years ago, the shoes morph weirdly into robots, tree roots, and chameleons, fully documented in a new book published by Adidas in collaboration with Lifelounge. But who is Herr Fritz Träumer, really? The first clue might be right in the pages of the book, where in one spread, Träumer’s designs propose fusing chameleon DNA with “leather” DNA, and in another, it’s claimed that a shoe-tree, from a genetically-modified seed, was “uprooted from the garden of his former home.” Perhaps the best hint as to Träumer’s identity is the original press release on Lifelounge’s website (oft-quoted around the web), where Träumer is referred to as a “mythical and enigmatic” designer. Mythical, you say? Lifelounge, which besides running a trend blog is a Melbourne-based advertising agency, has totally bamboozled everyone with this cunning little viral marketing campaign. But that doesn’t make the book any less stunning, and it doesn’t make us any less desirous of sneakers that double as limousines.
Freshhhhhhh...
