WHY ADIDAS PUT A STREAMER NEXT TO RAYAN CHERKI FOR $170

Adidas built the Hyperboost Euphoria launch campaign around a footballer and a streamer, not two footballers. Rayan Cherki fronts it alongside Sidemen streamer Tobjizzle, and that pairing is the actual story behind adidas Originals's caption that not every adventure makes the group chat, some of them becomes the story.

That line only makes sense once you know who adidas picked. A shoe campaign built entirely around athletes tells you it is selling performance. A campaign that puts a Ligue 1 midfielder next to a full time streamer is selling something else, a shoe meant to survive a night out as easily as a training session. The Hyperboost Euphoria drops July 23 at $170, and the casting is the clearest signal of who adidas thinks actually buys it.

Cherki's professional football career used to be the entire pitch for a running silhouette relaunch on its own. Tobjizzle streams to a Sidemen adjacent audience that spends more hours a week watching content than watching ninety minutes of football. Putting them in the same campaign, instead of pairing Cherki with a second athlete, is the decision that actually defines this launch.

Tobjizzle Is the Real Headline Here, Not Cherki

A streamer fronting a $170 sneaker campaign next to a professional athlete used to be the exception. Now it is closer to the rule adidas is testing across its whole 2026 lineup, and putting a Sidemen name alongside Cherki tells you adidas is chasing the audience that watches Tobjizzle's stream more hours a week than it watches Ligue 1. Rayan Cherki brings the on pitch credibility, the reason the shoe gets called a performance shoe at all. Tobjizzle brings the reach that turns a shoe drop into a stream moment, screenshotted and reposted well past adidas's own account.

The Shoe Is Not the Hyperboost Edge Anymore

The Hyperboost Euphoria takes adidas's performance focused Hyperboost Edge running shoe and rebuilds it for everyday wear, trading race day engineering for oversized Boost cushioning, a carved out midsole that cuts weight, and a wide stance platform with an extended heel for stability. It launches in two versions, the bold TPU net covered Hyperboost EPHR and a semi transparent mono mesh Hyperboost EPHR LT, in white, black, and a blue with black colorway. This is the same move adidas has made with its Y3 line, most visibly on Kylian Mbappe's FC27 cover shot by Gabriel Moses, where a performance silhouette gets reworked for a lifestyle audience that will never run in it.

Bellingham, Messi, and Pedri Already Wore an Earlier Version

Jude Bellingham, Lionel Messi, and Pedri were all spotted in the Hyperboost silhouette during the World Cup before adidas ever confirmed the Euphoria launch, which means adidas had real match footage of its biggest names in the shoe before a single ad ran. That is not luck. That is adidas seeding a shoe through its own athletes months ahead of a campaign, then building the actual marketing push around a streamer instead of leaning on the athletes it already had. The World Cup spotting did the credibility work quietly, and the Cherki and Tobjizzle campaign is doing the reach work loudly.

$170 Buys You a Streetwear Shoe With a Running Shoe's Résumé

Crocs ran the same trade this year when it put Twitch's Kai Cenat in front of its Echo II campaign for the third time in twelve months, betting that a streamer's daily audience beats a celebrity ambassador's occasional post. Adidas is making the identical bet at a higher price point, on a shoe with an actual performance lineage behind it instead of a foam clog. $170 is not cheap for a lifestyle sneaker, but it buys cushioning technology adidas built for competitive runners first, which is a better price to craft argument than most streetwear collabs can make.

Call the temperature on this one early. Streamer led footwear campaigns are not a trend anymore, they are the standard adidas, Crocs, and everyone chasing a young audience is now building toward by default. The athletes still show up first, quietly, in real competition. The streamer shows up second, loudly, in the actual ad. Adidas just proved which one it thinks sells more shoes.

Watch the next Boost line launch for the same split. If adidas pairs another performance name with a streamer or a full time content creator instead of a second athlete, the Cherki and Tobjizzle pairing was not a one off casting choice, it was the new default brief every agency pitching adidas has already been handed. The Hyperboost Euphoria is the test case. July 23 is when adidas finds out if the streamer audience actually buys the shoe or just watches the stream about it.