Being from Manchester, I’ve watched Drama Call grow from a small local skate brand into one of the city’s biggest success stories. What stands out most, though, is how familiar it still feels. Despite the growth, the attention and the collaborations, the brand hasn’t drifted away from the people and scenes that got it here in the first place.
A lot of independent brands struggle with that; the bigger they get, the more disconnected they become. But for Drama, the brand has managed to avoid it. Whether it’s through skateboarding, football, fashion or music, the brand has always been a genuine reflection of Manchester. It captures the city as it is, not as a polished version of a city that is becoming more gentrified by the day.
That’s a big reason why its relationship with adidas has made so much sense, nothing about it has felt forced. When reflecting on the brand’s relationship with the Three Stripes, the early Manchester United projects landed because they merged a plethora of elements that the people resonated with. In Manchester, football and streetwear have always gone hand-in-hand, and matchdays, terrace culture, skateboarding and fashion have been sharing the same spaces for decades.
So, when the first Drama Call x adidas Superstar arrived, it felt like something that could work for the entire city. I’m a Manchester City fan, and as much as I respected Drama’s collaboration with United, there was no way I could step out in my rival's colours. But for the Superstar, it represented my home in a way that nothing seemed to have done before. The first pair was inspired by the Metrolink network, taking cues from the city’s tram system and incorporating the transport map and its recognisable blue colour palette.
The follow-up release, a stripped-back white and black version, felt like adidas and Drama Call were building something with longevity behind it and now, with the arrival of the third and final Superstar, there’s a sense of a chapter coming to an end, one that has seen Drama move from respected local label to a brand with a much bigger reach.
Of course, adidas has always been good at spotting culture. The Superstar is probably the best example of that and over the past five decades, it has found its way into basketball, hip-hop, skateboarding and football, constantly being adopted by different communities without losing its identity.
It’s this ability to cross between different scenes that gives the Superstar such a strong connection to Manchester. I guess this is why the launch of the final Drama Call collaboration felt so fitting. The "Black Cat" edition, inspired by the brand's resident cat Leng, was introduced through a pop-up at 70 Tib Street in the Northern Quarter.
The funny thing is, though, is that many people probably didn't realise that the weekend was so significant because of the address itself. Back in 1994, skateboarding pioneer Chris Hamer opened The Sheep Store at the very same location. It came at a time before the Northern Quarter became the creative hub it is now, and the shop was bringing brands like Stüssy, Supreme, Carhartt and The North Face to Manchester for the first time.
Hamer’s impact has seen him credited as one of the people who helped introduce adidas Superstars into UK skateboarding circles, sourcing deadstock pairs and championing the silhouette years before sneaker culture exploded into the mainstream. The shoe worked because it was durable, simple and adaptable enough to fit wherever it ended up.
Knowing that history makes Drama Call's choice of venue feel just right. Whether planned or coincidental, it links two different eras of Mancunian culture. One helped establish the Superstar’s place in British skateboarding and the next spent recent times introducing the same silhouette to a new audience.
And now, as a few days have passed since I visited the pop-up, that’s what I keep coming back to. Neither Chris Hamer or Drama Call created the Superstar, but what they did do was give it relevance to their own time and place.
Another takeaway from the release is that when you look at the journey from The Sheep Store to Drama Call, you realise that culture works in mysterious ways. Places take new meanings and one generation leaves things behind for the next to reinvent themselves.
Manchester has changed massively over the years, but moments like this remind you why the city is literally, one of a kind.
You can grab the new Drama Call x adidas Superstar collaboration in select adidas retailers now.
