As hyped as pro gamer Nadeshot is to have his own sneaker, he knows there’s a line he can’t cross. Nadeshot, who was born Matthew Haag, is elated to have his name on a pair of Adidas. His face? That’s an entirely different story.
“I’m not buying a fucking sneaker with my face on it,” Haag says.
Haag founded the esports company 100 Thieves in 2017 with the mission to be “the premium lifestyle brand for the gaming generation.” Alongside fellow gamers Jack “CouRage” Dunlop, and Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, Haag is joined by Drake, music industry mogul Scooter Braun, and Cleveland Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert as the owners of the company.
In 2022 and 2023, 100 Thieves earned recognition for its clothing, winning Esports Apparel of the Year back to back, and now the gaming giant is teaming up with Adidas for the first time on a new eight-piece collection. The duo’s collaborative capsule is highlighted by a Rivalry Low “Nadeshot” with co-branded heels, tongues, and lace dubraes. It also features a gaming jersey, tracksuit, and more.
“The tracksuit itself, to me, that is what Adidas is in my head, and I can’t believe we have our logo on it,” Haag says. It’s fucking crazy.”
At first thought, the sneaker and gaming communities might not seem to have much in common. But they each come with rabid fanbases, collectors, and cultural tastemakers that help the niche industries crossover and reach more mainstream audiences.
“Gaming is kind of just a background and a combination of so many different cultures,” Haag says. “It’s not like one person or one thing that defines the people that do this thing. That’s just kind of what everybody does. It’s like the through point, the thread that everybody’s a part of.”
This is far from the first time that the world of sneakers and gaming have crossed over. Most notably, Adidas also partnered with iconic gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins in 2019, Nike has a deal with FaZe Clan, and we’ve even seen the Swoosh appear in the wildly popular game Fortnite with Air Max skins and specific game modes.
The 100 Thieves x Adidas collection is available now at Adidas.com, the 100 Thieves online shop, and other select retailers.
Check out our full interview with Nadeshot below for more on the capsule, the future of 100 Thieves x Adidas, and more. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Can you take me through the early stages of this partnership, and how 100 Thieves x Adidas happened?
You know what’s wild is that we’ve been talking with Adidas for two years, but I actually don’t even know where that intersection actually was. We have investors that had a relationship with Adidas, but then I meet this guy Ben [Asquinth], who’s been with us since the beginning of the project, and this kid is so tapped into Call of Duty, the world that I come from.
I was like, “Holy shit. Who is this kid?” Because he is in the thick of it. I don’t even know how to compare it to traditional sports, but it’s like he’s an inside reporter. And so it made it easy for us to get along and for him to fight the good fight for 100 Thieves internally with Adidas, because it’s a big company.
It’s a complex situation with a really big collaboration. So it was actually great because I’ve gotten to hang out with him in LA now a couple times as we were going through the designs of the sneakers and the whole collection. And this was the first time where I got to hear the backstory of his part where it was like he told me he felt like he was putting his career on the line by pitching such a niche gaming team like ours. So that was really where everything started. I’m grateful for it because it kind of turned into some of the coolest products we’ve ever made at 100 Thieves.
Would you ever have thought that something like this would have been possible when you first started the brand in 2017? You have a sneaker with your name on it.
In gaming, it’s only been done once or twice. So just comparatively speaking, I’m like, “How in the world is this the reaction when in all actuality, this is really the first or second time that’s happened in gaming?” So just a wild circumstance for me, and I don’t even know how we ended up here. Truly, I have no idea.
You mentioned the couple other times that happened—Ninja had his Adidas stuff, FaZe has done things with Nike. I feel like the worlds of sneakers and gaming aren’t as unique to each other as people think they are. Can you talk about the crossover between the two worlds?
So we had the Ninja sneakers. We had the Nike LeBron that they did with FaZe Clan, and then the only other ones that I saw were Cloud9 and Puma. And the problem that I’ve always had, and which is why 100 Thieves started in the first place, was that when I was 16 or 17 years old, I was all-in on gaming, but gaming was something that I was doing that I was trying to hide away from high school. I wasn’t athletic, I wanted to play all the sports, but I couldn’t. And this was just something that I did to pass the time, something that made me happy.
And so for us to travel down 15 years later and for this to be something where people just react to it like it’s a common thing. It’s just bizarre to me. I just always wanted to have something that was wearable, and that’s really the inception of 100 Thieves. Because I wasn’t going to go to school wearing my gaming team’s T-shirt or a jersey or anything like that. If some kid shows up in a football kit, it’s a totally normal thing, or an American football jersey. And that just didn’t exist for gaming. And so as we went through the initial start of the sneaker. To be honest with you, I didn’t even care if my name was on it. No bullshit. At one point, they pitched my face being on the tongue for probably one of the family and friends collection, and I’m just like, “Yo, listen, we have to make it wearable.”
So your face isn’t wearable for a sneaker?
Hell no, what the…I’m not buying a fucking sneaker with my face on it. And so with Ninja, it was a really big deal because this was such a massive moment, but it was for a very, very specific audience. But for me, I’m 31 years old, I want the kids that I grew up with to have a seamless transition as like, “Yo, if you know, you know, and that’s why it’s dope,” but if you don’t know, you can still walk down the street wearing it. So that was the whole objective and the goal for me at least.
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