Filipino artist Egg Fiasco lives out 'dream' with adidas UltraBoost collab
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino artist Egg Fiasco is living a reality he never thought possible.
This as his art career reached new heights with a milestone collaboration with sportswear giant adidas.
Tasked to design a shoe representing the Philippines in the adidas UltraBoost DNA City Pack, Egg shared the surreal experience of fulfilling a career goal.
"When I look back, it seemed impossible to get us from the streets and design [a shoe]. It's a dream," Egg shared on Friday during the shoe's launch in adidas Brand Center in Makati.
"I'm a fan of the brand ever since I was younger eh... [And] for me, it was like 'What? Is this really happening?'. Sobrang surreal," he added.
Just the second Filipino artist to come out with a shoe design with adidas, Egg bared that it was a different experience that had challenged him as an artist.
It then became a collaborative effort among a close knit group of Filipino artists, including renowned toymaker Quiccs who also designs shoes with the brand.
"When they approached me to reach out to design a shoe, I was really surprised and excited. But at the same time, I felt challenged... It's really a new platform for me kasi," said Egg, who is known more for his murals and graffiti work.
"A shoe design is a different experience for me. So I needed the point of view of my friends who focused more on fashion," he added.
Little did Egg know that his working with his fellow artists would blossom into a unique take on the culture of the Philippines as its represented in the City Pack.
Celebrating the vibrancy of Filipinos
The whole idea of the City Pack was to capture the essence of a country's culture, as the pack includes designs from other Southeast Asian countries with artists representing their own heritage.
Egg's vision for the Philippines design was a bit out of the ordinary, but remained authentic nonetheless.
Working together with his fellow Filipino artists, Egg found Filipino culture represented in video games.
Having workshopped ideas with his friends, playing games became a frequent topic that eventually became a springboard for the design.
"We ended up with the concept of childhood memories. [Like] naging natural lang siya na napagusapan namin yung ginagawa namin nung bata, and then naisip namin an video games yung pinakapinaguusapan namin so we thought it's a good concept to kick off," Egg shared.
The shoe itself used a color palette similar to that of 90s video games, which coincidentally was near to Egg's own palette in his works.
The design also missed any of the signature symbols you might see in a Philippine-inspired shoe, like the colors of the flag or the three stars and the sun.
But Egg, a native of Iloilo, reiterates that his design was no less Filipino than any other, as culture was not contained only in its traditional sense but can also come from its people.
"We focused more on translating our childhood, living here in the Philippines," he said.
"[We noticed na] yung vibrancy ng games na nilalaro namin is the same vibrancy ng mga tao sa Philippines and our culture... Marami tayong pakulo eh," he quipped.
'Not just writing on the wall'
While Egg basks in the fulfillment of a career milestone, he also does not miss the importance of the collaboration was to artists like him, and those wanting to follow the same path.
Known also for his graffiti art, Egg holds on to where he came from and banners it at the top.
"Since dun ako galing [sa graffiti], I'm proud to say that yun ang roots ko. Graffiti is one of the most authetnic and honest art," he said.
"We're just doing it for the sake of graffiti eh, we don't expect anything... We just express ourselves," he added.
And the budding artist could not minimize the part played by adidas in uplifting not just himself, but a whole industry of local artists as they are able to showcase their talents to a global community.
"I think, adidas saw the potential. [That graffiti], it's not just the writing on the wall. The wall speaks," said Egg.
"adidas saw the potential of the message, and the energy behind those artists," he added.
A pair of Egg's UltraBoost DNA City Pack shoes will set you back P10,000 and is already available to cop in adidas' stores.
Five other designs from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are also available in the pack and cost the same price.
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