You already saw me getting a short interview of The Kaiser, aka Franz Beckenbauer. Here now some more pics from the trip. I was invited to check out adidas Campus. The main purpose was the official launch of the Worldcup Final ball. Beckenbauer and the complete South African soccer team attended the event.

I have to admit that even though I am into soccer, it is not a sport that I follow all that much. Therefore the campus tour and especially the Walk Of Fame were far more interesting for me. Seeing the beginnings of a company with so much heritage and especially for once getting a full picture was really impressive. The Walk of Fame shows you everything from the first to the last adidas innovation, accumulated making it very overwhelming.

While adidas is a very modern company, I was actually quite surprised of how privincial the atmosphere was at the headquarter. Situated in the South of Germany the campus is all green, cafeteria with plenty of terrasse space, basketball, soccer and tennis facilities and much more. One could almost call it cosy. I always ask myself how a company like adidas or a company like Diesel (they also sit in the middle of nowhere in Italy) can be in such a business while having their headquarters sitting in the countryside. Interestingly it does not seem to have too much influence on the innovation of a company if set up the right way.

Tom, Annie and AK took really good care of me (as usual) and even though it was a quick visit, it was lots of fun.

Take a look at the campus in more detail here below!

This is once again hilarious…. Darth Vader speaking for the TomTom GPS system.

Last week we were invited to visit the adidas World Headquarters. Since we had never checked them out before, we got a nice tour of the campus, but primarily we came to see the launch of the worldcup final ball. In case you do not remember, check it out here.

The highlight of the short trip was our 10 minute interview with the Kaiser, aka Franz Beckenbauer. Anybody who only cares a little about soccer knows, that he is one of the most important personalities in German and even international soccer. He was really easy to talk to, super chill guy and it was great that he gaves us a bit of time. Some of the bigger soccer magazines did not get personal interviews, so it was definitely an honor for us. Thanks to AK, Annie and Tom for making this happen!

Last week we attended the MTV EMA’s in Berlin. Was a first for such an event. When you sit in front of the TV the experience is definitely very different and only when you have been there you realize that the whole thing is one big TV production.

MTV managed to get Beyonce, Jay-Z, U2 and the Foo Fighters to perform, so that was definitely a treat. At some point we really wanted to be at the Brandenburger Tor for the collaborative performance by U2 and Jay-Z, that was unforunately only streamed to the EMAs. Check out some snapshots from the event….

When Highsnobiety started it was a blogspot blog, over 4 years ago… and was a hobby. A lot has changed, but one thing is for sure, we would have never thought when we started that we would be working with brands such as Gucci. Its a real pleasure and exciting to enter that world. Let’s see what will come from it. Make sure to check out Selectism.com and Highsnobette.com for some regular updates on Gucci product and events.

Today we got this Gucci tote, packed with a Mark Ronson record, to celebrate their Icon Temporary pop-up store in New York. It will be touring the globe starting next year!

Here in the office we have declared the Nike Match Classic as a favorite among the recent releases – just a solid sneaker. The suede uppers, vintage details and small Swoosh work well. The red one is really nice, even though we have to say that the brown colorway with red lining is probably the best one out this season!

We got this really cool new USB Key at the Absolut Event in Stockholm that we just reported about. It is actually the size of a key and to date the least disturbing one we came across.

Of course we did not only go to Stockholm for panel discussions and art, Absolut also treated us along with 900 other invites to a Halloween Party. As you can imagine, Absolut knows how to through a party. They built a huge black cube next to the Lydmar Hotel and used both the hotel and the cube for the party. DJ’s and live music were in place, along with a bit!!! of vodka.

I was unfortunately too busy partying to take pictures, thanks to Notcot for providing them.

While in Stockholm we got to hang out with Jean from Notcot, a great site that you should definitely have a look at if you did not do that already. Alison from Ketchum invited us and took really well care of us throughout the entire trip. Thank again for that!

Lots of other great people were in place too, unfortunately I had no camera with me at all time. A quick shout out to Sven from KMB, the Tokion Magazine crew, and the rest of the PR people.

This past weekend we were invited by Absolut Vodka to attend the celebration of the Absolut Art Collection in Stockholm, Sweden. Having been an active fan (!) of the brand for some years now, we could of course not decline the invitation.

Friday started with a presentation by Absolut. We were given a brief history of the brand. Absolut is 30 years old and was until very recently state owned, which made their approach to design and advertising only more impressive. It was also nice to see the comparison of the bottle with competitors 30 years ago and today, which made you realize how timeless that design really is, or maybe how progressive it was at the time.

Then a nice gathering and lunch followed. The whole event took place at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm, a super nice design hotel. We can only suggest it for your next stay in the city.

After the lunch we came to the actual topics of the trip – The Absolut Art Collection. In the last 30 years Absolut amassed over 800 artworks done by artists from all around the globe for them. They started with Warhol and continued with Haring and the list only continues as impressive. For the event in Stockholm they invited some of their artist collaborators, including David Shrigley, Silvie Fleury and others. A panel discussion about Commissioned Art – Career Boost or Sell Out took place. It was great hearing some actual artists address the topic. Funnily it does not seem to be a problem for most of them, as long as they can keep their artistic freedom.

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to have longer conversations with David Shrigley and Silvie Fleury. More on that soon!