After shaky social media debut, ‘404 Day!’ Adidas sneakers set to hit stores

According to Darius Billings, vice president of marketing and community engagement at The Athlete’s Foot, the idea was born when reps from Adidas approached him seeking to create a 404 Day sneaker and using The Athlete’s Foot as the retail lead.

“They wanted to make this authentic and really speak to Atlanta, from Atlanta,” says Billings. “So that’s when I said, I’ve got a perfect group that can help bring this project to life.”

The 404 Collective, comprised of civic and culture consulting firm Atlanta Influences Everything, digital media platform Butter ATL, marketing agency Finish First and the Trap Music Museum, has used the unofficial Atlanta holiday to celebrate the city and its culture since 2023.

While the idea to celebrate 404 Day existed before the collective, their multiple days of programming, including a scholarship gala, block parties and celebrity softball games, have stood out among 404 Day gatherings. Having worked with the group as a sponsor of previous 404 Day events, Billings invited them into the process.

The black 404 Day! sneaker features the Superstar model’s trademark rubber shell toe, with a black nubuck suede upper. There are black snakeskin leather stripes on each side and red tabs above each heel. “ATL” is emblazoned on the right shoe’s heel and the Adidas trefoil logo is stamped on the left.

The insole features maps of the Atlanta Police Department’s patrol zones. Gold accents are featured through out the design, including a “404 Day!” logo on the shoe’s side, peach logos on the tongues, and tips for the laces, which come in black, red and white.

Also part of the design are shoe charms. One is a “404 Day!″ license plate hangtag; the other is a lace lock shaped to resemble gold teeth, fixed at the shoe’s front and chiseled with the letters “ATL.”

“Atlanta is Black excellence, so we wanted to make sure it had a premium look,” said Jah Rawlings, founder of First Finish.

He added that the red rubber outsoles are a luxury nod to the “red bottoms” popularized by designer Christian Louboutin. “You know, bring back what we know as the heyday of the nightlife, living above the norm.”

Credit: The Athlete's Foot

Credit: The Athlete's Foot

On March 21, when unofficial images of the shoe were shared by Sneaker News, they flew under the radar. The following week, when they were posted on Instagram by popular sneaker forums ATATF and Nice Kicks, comments ranged from fire emojis showing approval to others calling the design “lazy.”

Some singled out the gold grill specifically, calling them “offensive.” Others asked why Atlantans with stronger ties to the city’s cultural association with gold teeth, such as Eddie Plien of Eddie’s Gold Teeth, weren’t invited to consult.

“It’s a part of the culture,” said Billings in response to comments about the shiny accessory. He also shared that Grillz By Scotty, who like Plien also gained notoriety in and outside Atlanta for making custom gold teeth “grills,” will appear at a VIP release party April 2 where the jeweler will make custom grills for attendees.

“The thing is, it’s removable, right? So if that’s something that you don’t like about the shoe, you can easily remove it when you change out your laces,” Billings added.

“I think what kind of concerned me with this shoe is that it seemed like a very generic attempt to colloquialize culture in the shoe,” said Atlanta-based fashion content creator Teferi Taylor.

In one of the more robust comments left on the post, Taylor pleaded for sneaker brands to “stop giving us these after thought products” and questioned if market research went into the shoe’s creation. “Atlanta is more than just the Olympics, black and red colors, wings, ‘grillz,’ and strip clubs.”

Taylor told UATL 404 Day is meant to celebrate not just what Atlanta’s cultural past but also what represents Atlanta now. “Most people are just going in on the shoe and saying it’s ‘trash’ but it’s really having a conversion about, is this the best that we could have done in presenting Atlanta to the world?”

Credit: The Athlete's Foot

Credit: The Athlete's Foot

The 404 Day! Superstar is the latest in a long history of Atlanta-themed sneakers to be released over the last decade-plus.

Nike has made multiple shoes, including last year’s Air Max 95 “Atlanta” where sneaker stores A Ma Maniere, Sole Play, Walter’s and Wish ATL joined forces to create a shoe paying homage to the rising Phoenix of Atlanta. Preceding that was 2016’s super limited Nike Air Trainer SC High “Atlanta ‘96 Olympics” and 2017’s Nike Air More Uptempo “ATL,” both conceived by local rapper Senor Kaos.

In 2021, Puma collaborated with Kenny Burns to create a MARTA inspired GV Special shoe. In 2018, record label LVRN and artist FKRO worked with Reebok to make versions of the Classic Leather model, a longtime favorite among Atlanta sneakerheads. In 2015, now-shuttered Buckhead boutique Epitome made a Saucony 5000 sneaker paying homage to the “big fish” sculpture in front of Atlanta Fish Market.

In 2014, Fila collaborated with former Castleberry Hill store Fly Kix to release a peach-inspired rendition of the “Original Fitness,” a model that has been revered in the city since 1980s, inspiring the acronym “Forever I Love Atlanta.” A similar concept was revisited in 2023, when Adidas dropped a “Peach Tree” Forum Low sneaker that summer.

Given that history, critics of the shoe asked why an Adidas legacy model like the Superstar, which is usually associated with New York City and 1980s hip-hop, was selected, rather than a currently popular sneaker like the Adidas AE1, worn by NBA player and Oakland City native Anthony Edwards.

Or, with the colorway’s proximity to that of Atlanta United, why not a soccer shoe like Adidas’ Samba?

“The idea was to have culture and community leaders ideate around this shoe because we are the ‘superstars’ of our city; we don’t play for a pro sports team,” said Rawlings about the shoe choice, speaking specifically to the collective.

A Butter ATL Instagram post revealing some of the creative process included the caption, “We’ve been putting the city on our back — now we’re putting it on our feet.”

“Adidas gave the 404 Collective a canvas to be able to create, what we felt would represent the city, carving out something creative that we can stand behind and give something dope to the city that we are part of,” said Rawlings.

Credit: Josh Williams

Credit: Josh Williams

With the shoe officially hitting the streets in early April, more feedback is sure to come. Rawlings expects people to warm to the shoe once they see it in person.

Meanwhile, people like Taylor remain skeptical and hope that if there is a sequel, other voices are invited into the room.

“I’m like most people, interested in seeing the storytelling that the collective will put around it, but I still feel like the storytelling and execution are mutually exclusive things,” said Taylor.

“The Instagram post was real-time feedback, with the market research and (a) focus group, that should have been done before design decisions and silhouette choices were made. You could have great storytelling but if the execution just isn’t there, it doesn’t really resound with the community.”

“We heard them,” said Rawlings, who joined the online conversation when the images were leaked.

“We’re not sneaker designers, but we understand culture, we understand the aesthetics, and we understand what’s fly and dope that represents our city. As we build on this next phase of what this may mean for 404 Day, we will definitely include some of the cool, dope sneaker designers that are in the city.”

Become a member of UATL for more stories like this in our free newsletter and other membership benefits.

Follow UATL on Facebook, on X, TikTok and Instagram.