Adidas once again demonstrates that the territory of sports brands is in performance, but also in the rituals that surround sport. In Dubai, the company has transformed the traditional carb-loading before a marathon into a collective and cultural brand experience, integrating naturally into the preparation of the runners.
Runners were able to collect a free portion of pasta by presenting their race number.
After the tea shop that Adidas installed in the mountains of Kazakhstan for hiking lovers, on this occasion it decided to insert itself into an already existing ritual, turning an individual functional act into a collective moment. The pre-race activation consisted of the runners being able to pick up a free portion of pasta by presenting their race number or ID. runnerthus generating a common meeting point before the starting line. The initiative was conceived and produced together with Havas Middle East, which has led the creative concept and its local deployment in Dubai.
It should be remembered that Nike recently opened a pop-up soup store in the Guangzhou region (China), so that running fans could recover after exercise.
To give shape to its idea, Adidas collaborated with Sagra Italian Pastificio, Dubai’s first artisanal pasta laboratory, developing a limited edition ravioli inspired by the Adizero EVO sneaker. Thus, the activation took place at the Adizero House of Fast, located in Kite Beach, a common location for the community runner of the city.
To expand the reach, beyond the in-person meeting, Adidas partnered with the delivery platform Careem, making Adizero Pasta available throughout the city for a limited time. In this way, carbohydrate loading was no longer exclusive to official participants and became a gesture shared by the community. runner as a whole.
“With Adizero Pasta we wanted to be part of that ritual and make it relevant to Dubai”
According to Bilal Fares, General Manager of Adidas in the Middle East, “The week of a marathon is not just about running, but about preparation, routines and shared moments. With Adizero Pasta we wanted to be part of that ritual and make it relevant to Dubai, combining local craftsmanship and city-scale access.”
For her part, Diana Mukhometova, Brand Communications Manager of Running & Outdoor at Adidas, pointed out that the objective was to activate a behavior deeply rooted in culture. runner through the launch of a specific product: “We wanted to go beyond race day and focus on the rituals that all runners share before going out to compete. The idea was to transform carb loading, traditionally individual, into a shared cultural experience throughout the city”he explains.
According to Adidas, the collaboration with Sagra Italian Pastificio was key to giving the action authenticity and credibility, preventing it from being perceived as a simple branding exercise. “Local craftsmanship brought culinary soul to the concept”notes Diana Mukhometova, while the alliance with Careem allowed the ritual to be scaled beyond a single physical activation, turning it into a moment accessible to the entire city. As a whole, the initiative was built from a universal insight into the runningwith a community-first approach and transversal execution that integrated creativity, production, PR, social and partners.
