We were commissioned by Adidas London to create a seating sculpture for their new Originals Flagship Store based off Carnaby Street, the sculpture entitled ‘In Honour of The 4%’ – was named in response to the underrepresentation of female athletes in America, who only receive 4% of sport media coverage. Created in the shape of the iconic Adidas trefoil, the sculpture is covered by patchworked deadstock and secondhand Adidas clothing, which form mural artwork collaboratively designed in partnership with artist Melissa Kitty Jarram.
Jarram created artworks in response to the topic of women in sport, the artworks were then scaled to develop large pattern pieces that were the starting point for each chair’s upholstery, measuring just over 2.5 meters each. Our team sourced second hand and deadstock Adidas Originals clothing, which was deconstructed to create flat patches of fabric, that were then cut into the shapes and patterns that when reassembled using patchwork techniques created artworks.
The sculpture was produced during the Covid-19 UK lockdown, working from their homes, the Bethany Williams team sourced and patchworked the large scale artworks that make up each trefoil piece. Inspired by the techniques often used in the construction of sportswear, we used coverstitching for seams of the artwork. As our first foray into furniture design, we worked with the specialists at Loose Buttons Upholstery, for the furniture construction of the sculpture, who are Manchester based custom furniture makers.
