Adidas Shows How Pride Month Promos Can Go Beyond the Rainbow

June is Pride Month, a time for celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community that many brands have started integrating into their own marketing schedules. Historically, this meant adding a rainbow motif to traditional designs, but there's the concern that companies aren't doing enough to really show support to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

In short, simply adding a rainbow to your logo is nice, but it's not always paired with measurable change or activism, so it comes off as surface-level.

What Adidas is doing, however, takes this idea of thinking beyond just the rainbow motif a little further. The German sportswear company partnered with South African designer Rich Mnisi for a collection of Pride Month apparel, none of which really uses the boilerplate rainbow design.

Instead, the designs touch on sports-specific themes like soccer and cycling, in addition to classic Adidas collections like Originals and its swimwear products.

Credit: Adidas

The "Let Love Be Your Legacy" designs things like hand-drawn flowers, abstract shapes and vibrant colors (not in ROYGBIV order, mind you), with the famous Adidas three-stripe design in pink and red.

"In creating this collection, I had a strong impulse to speak to my inner-child and express to the world how LGBTQIA+ ally ship can create a legacy of love," Mnisi said in a press release. "Unifying these themes together through my own visual language and Adidas' iconic performance and lifestyle pieces is a powerful combination — making the collection a symbol for self-acceptance and LGBTQIA+ advocacy."

Credit: Adidas

When we wrote previously about how companies can do more during pride month than simply change their colors, we were focusing more on efforts to make a difference in the community beyond just visibility. Now, this brings the focus back to the visibility, but demonstrates different ways to do it.

Ad: adidas x RICH MNISI collection for Pride 2023 is now available via adidas US

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While it might be your first instinct to just rely on the rainbow for Pride Month promotions, it's good to look beyond that and think about different stories woven into Pride Month and consider how branded products can reflect those stories. Like Adidas demonstrated here, you can capture a feeling and story related to the community without going with the tried-and-true rainbow.

With a little creativity, you can make an even more memorable promotion and resonate even more deeply with end-users.