adidas turns Dubai restaurant Ravi into a sneaker — Superstar Ravi sells out in 15 minutes

In 2022 adidas was looking for a collaboration that could represent Dubai — a city built by migrants from more than fifty nationalities, most of them far from home. The obvious move was another artist or celebrity tie-up, but that felt disconnected from the people the brand wanted to reach.

Havas Middle East proposed the opposite: Ravi, a no-frills Pakistani street-food restaurant in Al-Satwa that had fed cab drivers, construction workers, artists and CEOs for 42 years. adidas redesigned its Superstar sneaker around the restaurant — replacing the Originals logo with Ravi's original one, mixing a new shade to match waiters' uniforms, and printing the unchanged 40-year menu on the tongue.

The launch leaned on streetwear retailers, murals, local influencers and press partners rather than paid media. The shoes sold out online in 15 minutes, broke the record for the longest queue at the Dubai flagship store, and started reselling for more than a hundred times retail.

The idea reframed a brand collab as a tribute to a community institution, and the work went on to win Grands Prix at Dubai Lynx for Integrated, PR, Entertainment and Creative Strategy, plus a Bronze PR Lion at Cannes.