adidas by Stella McCartney unveils the pinnacle of its Spring/Summer 2021 season with Beach Defender, a multipurpose collection designed to support athletes on land and in water. Aiding the next generation in their pursuit of change, the campaign and collection explores their relationship with the world through movement, from wild water swimming to cleaning our planet’s waters.
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Following Netti Hurley and Monika Mogi’s interpretation of ‘land’ earlier in the Spring/Summer 2021 season, Beach Defender sees the pair pull through their creative identity once again to share their vision of ‘water’. The inspiring line-up of handpicked creators and activists include marine biologists, waterfall climbers and wild water swimmers, enlisted to capture their message on film against a stunning natural world backdrop.
Redefining what it means to be a young woman in Japan, photographer Monika Mogi visualizes raw and fresh expressions of the collection in action. Casting Nagakura Nami, a mother, activist, and mineral water researcher, Monika travelled to where she lives by Mount Fuji, using the unique landscape to document tender moments between mother and daughter as they swim in the wild and preserve the land around it. Starring alongside Nagakura, Takigawa Ayaka is a Sawanabori practitioner, mountain guide and hiker who is a firm believer in all forms of movement that foster a connection to nature. Takigawa Ayaka describes how her first experience with Sawanabori instilled a sense of adventure within her; a sense of adventure that is captured as she is seen climbing the rocks and swimming in the serene pools of a Japanese waterfall.
From the UK, filmmaker Netti Hurley dedicated time to identifying cast members who are setting the tone for a better future, celebrating their passion and energy on film. Open water swimmer and journalist, Seren Jones was chosen for championing the importance of swimming as a life-saving skill, encouraging more people in BIPOC communities to learn how to feel safe in the water.
Starring alongside Seren is Ayesha Tan Jones, artist and musician and co-founder of Shadow Sistxrs Fight Club – a physical and meta-physical self-defence class for women, non-binary people and QTIPOC. Netti captures the parallels of Ayesha’s practice and how it impacts on their own life, including Qi Gong and Kung Fu that bring power and peace, seen through the grace and ease of Ayesha’s movements. Narrated by spoken word artist, Abondance Matanda, Netti captures Seren and Ayesha with emotive visuals as they move across the banks of Bewl Water.
Using the latest material technologies and innovations, the Beach Defender collection delivers on the performance needs of next-gen athletes. The 3-in-1 ClimaCool Vento shoe with removable inner sock can be worn for a large variety of workouts; the Bikini Top and Bikini Short made with recycled polyamide offer a supportive, racer style for run and swim, and the Pull On jacket features a built-in mesh bag to collect sea trash. Taking inspiration from natural waters, the palette features a fresh colour blocking style with tones of white and storm blue.
“We created this campaign to shine a spotlight on those connected to, and helping to protect the world and its waters. I was so inspired by the idea of creating multipurpose pieces that are designed to be both kinder to the planet, but also perform in different environments and for different workouts.
Within the collection we have created some really unique pieces, like the 3-in-1 ClimaCool Vento shoe which you can take apart and wear separately for so many different workouts and activities, and the Trisuit which you can wear straight from run to swim. We developed items that have multiple functions to encourage conscious consumption, and represent the philosophy of these activists in how they care so deeply about their impact on the environment”, said Stella McCartney.
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The Beach Defender collection is now available on adidas.com/adidas_by_stella_mccartney and via the adidas app.
