2022
The Project
The Ravi x adidas Superstar project brought together a beloved Dubai restaurant and an iconic global sneaker. We transformed Ravi’s heritage, colors, and stories into a fully designed product and campaign experience—capturing its cultural legacy through shoe details, packaging, and visuals that celebrated the everyday charm of Dubai’s most iconic street-food spot.
2022
The Purpose
This collaboration mattered because it spotlighted real Dubai culture. Instead of luxury-driven storytelling, it honored community, nostalgia, and the city’s multicultural roots. Ravi represents decades of memories and belonging, and elevating it onto a global adidas platform gave people a sense of pride while reminding the region that authentic, homegrown stories deserve the global stage.
2022
The Approach
We built the project from cultural immersion—spending time with the Ravi family, studying their history, and translating textures, colors, and memories into design. Every element, from shoe accents to campaign visuals, was rooted in authenticity. We crafted the creative direction, packaging, narrative, and launch rollout, ensuring the drop felt real, community-driven, and globally relevant.
Ravi x Adidas Superstar
A limited-edition collaboration celebrating the cultural mashup of Dubai's favorite street-food landmark, Ravi Restaurant, and the timeless adidas Superstar. We brought heritage, nostalgia, and modern sneaker culture together to create one of the region’s most talked-about drops.
My Role : Art Director
Agency : Sweetwater MEA
The Challenge
Dubai is often viewed through a lens of luxury — but adidas wanted to celebrate the real Dubai: the culture shaped by communities who built the city. For the Dubai chapter of its global restaurant collaborations, adidas partnered with Ravi Restaurant, a beloved institution since 1978.
The challenge was to transform this humble, iconic spot into a hype-driven product launch without losing the essence that made it meaningful. We needed to spark excitement among sneaker fans, honor decades of community loyalty, and introduce the story to new audiences — creating a moment rooted in authenticity, not spectacle.
The goal: make true Dubai culture unforgettable.
The Strategy
We made Ravi the hero, not a backdrop. Its original identity — the green facade, menu typography, heritage patterns, and 1978 storytelling — became the design DNA for the collaboration.
The creative platform embraced the idea:
Streetwear meets street-food to celebrate true Dubai culture.
Every decision was community-first. Local artists shaped visuals, regular customers became campaign faces, and the restaurant’s real story guided every brand moment. Retail, social, and experiential touchpoints were designed to feel owned by the people, not by advertising. The strategy ensured the drop wouldn’t just sell shoes — it would turn cultural pride into global hype.
The Direction
We brought Ravi’s world to life through immersive, hype-ready storytelling. The launch took place at the restaurant, preserving its raw aesthetic while turning it into a shareable sneaker event — with fridge displays stocked with shoes, brand-infused dining setups, and visual surprises rooted in everyday Ravi life.
The product design featured bilingual branding, “Ravi Restaurant 1978” heel detailing, and colors lifted directly from the restaurant’s recognizable look. Customization bars, retail-specific experiences, and culturally driven content pushed the drop into the spotlight. By celebrating real people and real places, the campaign elevated a neighborhood icon to global relevance.
We transformed Ravi’s everyday storefront into a cultural billboard, integrating adidas Superstar branding directly into the façade, turning a local institution into an authentic streetwear moment.
We extended the collaboration inside the ordering moment, layering adidas Superstar graphics across menus, tiles, and shutters to make the act of ordering part of the experience.
By using an auto rickshaw chai bar, we grounded the collaboration in something instantly familiar, keeping the adidas Superstar story culturally relevant, accessible, and rooted in everyday street life.
We didn’t cast models, we elevated the people who already belonged there, dressing Ravi’s staff in adidas Superstar uniforms to keep the collaboration credible, human, and rooted in real service culture.
Every interaction mattered. From the plate to the chai cup, adidas Superstar branding appeared where hands met food, making the campaign part of the experience.
The menu itself became a canvas, bringing adidas Superstar design language into Ravi’s daily offerings, so the collaboration appeared at the exact moment decisions, orders, and rituals were made.
An everyday fridge was repurposed into a point-of-sale display, placing adidas Superstars inside Ravi’s dining space so the product felt discovered, not staged.
A familiar street ritual entered one of the world’s biggest retail spaces, Ravi’s branded tuk-tuk moved through Dubai Mall serving chai, collapsing the distance between street culture and flagship retail while turning the store into a living, participatory activation.
Retail space was re-engineered into a street-inspired environment, using flooring, frames, graphics, and scale to house the chai tuk-tuk, turning the adidas store into an immersive Ravi’s x Superstar landscape.
In-store navigation was redesigned using street-style signage, stacked crates, and floor graphics, turning the adidas retail layout into a Ravi’s-inspired marketplace where product, storytelling, and movement naturally guided discovery.
A familiar street kiosk was abstracted into a sculptural retail display, using bold framing, colour, and lighting to insert Ravi’s identity into the adidas floor without disrupting the store’s flow.
A closer look at the ritual, focusing on material, detail, and craft to elevate the Superstar moment.
The Maker’s Lab opened the collaboration to younger audiences, inviting kids to colour Ravi’s x adidas tile patterns, turning cultural branding into a playful, hands-on creative experience within the store.
Soft furnishings became brand touchpoints, Ravi’s x adidas patterned pillows added warmth, texture, and cultural detail, subtly extending the collaboration into the store’s quieter, human moments.
The Superstar was presented on a custom Ravi’s trunk case, using familiar materials, colour, and craft to anchor the product in culture rather than conventional retail display.
The Maker’s Lab extended into apparel, letting guests customise their own t-shirts using Ravi’s tiles and graphics, transforming cultural motifs into personal expressions of the collaboration.
A moment of quiet pride - Chaudary Abdul Hameed with the Ravi’s x adidas Superstar, calling it the proudest moment of his life, where legacy, craft, and culture came together.