Adidas is getting in on the cyberpunk hype with two limited edition sneakers, designed in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, which, according to CDPR Biz Dev Director Rafal Jaki, will be available in select Asian countries starting November 11. The X9000L4 (about $250), with a cyberpunk logo on the bottom, comes in four colors: gray, black, white, and leopard print, as shown in the photo above. Each shoe has stylish accents in red, turquoise, gold, purple, and silver.

Hypebeasts, on the other hand, seem to find neither model appealing. Still scratching their heads over recent collaborations like the truly questionable Lego Shoes, which might at least work for kids, the community doesn't seem to be making much of a fuss. Reaction has been mixed to say the least, with some on Hypebeast's Twitter feed calling the shoes ugly, while other users say they would never wear them for $200. The main problem on each channel seems to be that Adidas is using existing shoe models, increasing the price, and adding a few brand-adjacent colors, rather than designing something unique that fits the brand they are collaborating with.

As a non-hypebeast, I don't think it's bad, but it is strongly reminiscent of another attempt by Adidas to make gamer shoes for cool people, namely the Ninja Adidas collaboration released in December 2019. What I can't get behind is the Ninja logo, which was probably tactically placed on the inside of the shoe by someone who wanted to hide it.

And the second cyberpunk shoe, the X900L4 (around $190). This is a black shoe with mesh accents, a yellow sole, yellow laces, and a yellow cyberpunk logo; while the X900L4 is more of an everyday shoe, this model is made specifically for running. One might naturally ask, "Why doesn't this one glow in the dark? Glowing in the dark is literally cyberpunk cyber.

The shoe joins a long line of products in cyberpunk 2077, a genre that itself is supposed to represent the pitfalls of capitalism, yet we are asked to buy a great deal of stuff of a thousand different qualities and of varying degrees of actual usefulness. It's all part of Cyberpunk 2077's ongoing marketing offensive, but at this point, I'll be glad the game is out before someone tries to sell me a Cyberpunk 2077-branded stress ball.