Caroline Hú x adidas CLOT

• Beanie Stolper: The adidas CLOT Taekwondo by Caroline Hú feels like a study in contrasts yet makes perfect sense, martial arts precision meets ballet softness. What drew you to that balance?

  Caroline Hú: I didn’t intentionally pursue a balance between opposites or extremes, exaggeration or simplicity. At that moment, I simply wanted to create a shoe that felt like an oil painting in tone, yet carried a sense of childlike playfulness. The upper uses a debossed texture, removing all visible stitching and replacing it with pressed lines. For the silhouette, we reworked the Taekwondo shoe by adjusting the size and shape of the opening, which I found to be a very interesting experiment.

BS: Ballet-core has suddenly been everywhere, especially in London, yet ballet and movement have always existed. How do you navigate trends that are really just rediscovering something timeless, and do you ever feel it’s better to stay trendless?

CH: I’ve never really followed any so-called trends, even though I understand that “trend” is an unavoidable word in the commercial world. I only focus on what I want to create at any given moment. Whether or not it fits into a current trend, or if I intentionally avoid something because it’s too popular, doesn’t affect my process. I believe that only by staying uninfluenced by external noise can I create something truly unique.

BS: Talk me through the process, how did the collaboration with Edison Chen originally start? An email? A DM? Where did it go from there?

CH: Edison was one of the judges of the Business of Fashion China Prize competition, which is where we first met. Since then, he has always been very supportive of me and of younger designers and artists in general, which I deeply appreciate.

BS: The sneaker comes in inky black, powder pink, and cream-and-blue, all giving off distinct moods. The pink feels romantic, the off-white ethereal, the black quietly powerful. Were those tones chosen instinctively, or with emotion in mind?

CH: The colors of black, off-white, and pink originated from colors and prints I used for the Spring/Summer 2026 collection. The first colorway I decided on was actually the off-white and blue combination, it’s one I personally love. The pink and black versions came later, and we spent a lot of time experimenting with how the same color could express different emotions through material contrast and texture.

BS: Your world is full of painterly tones and textures, how did you translate that delicacy into a sleek, technical trainer?

CH: My process usually starts with a quick sketch, followed by choosing materials and colours based on what I’m feeling in the moment. I’m always curious about challenging new combinations, and this time, merging the Taekwondo shoe with my own aesthetic was a particularly fun and meaningful experiment.

BS: The adidas Originals Taekwondo silhouette is a classic, what did you want to keep, and what did you want to completely reinvent?

CH: The adidas Originals Taekwondo silhouette was perfect for this collection, as I was interested in creating a shoe around the idea of a ballet shoe. In the past, I worked with the adidas Originals Samba and SL 72 series. I’ve always loved the sole design of the Taekwondo shoe, so we tried to keep that part as it was, but for the upper, I completely reworked the cut, proportions, and materials. We put the most thought into the padding and material selection, especially the elastic band emulating the grosgrain ribbon of a ballet shoe, even up to the very last stage before production, we were still making adjustments to get it just right.