A New Era for Song For The Mute
When the Australian fashion brand Song For The Mute joined the adidas family in 2022, it was an unexpected move. At that time, the spotlight was on rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, who had a multibillion-dollar deal with the German sportswear brand for his Yeezy line. However, antisemitic comments by Ye led to the collapse of his partnership with adidas, leaving the company with €1.2 billion in unsold stock. It was unlikely that a small, under-the-radar brand like Song For The Mute, launched in 2010, would step in to fill the gap.
“When we started, it was only supposed to be a small partnership for the APAC market,” says co-founder Melvyn Tanaya. “The order was for 3,000 shoes, which seemed massive for us. It sold out within minutes.”
Since then, Tanaya and co-founder and creative director Lyna Ty have built a strong relationship with adidas across six collections. They now sit at the designer family table alongside notable names like Grace Wales Bonner, Willy Chavarria, and the new big name, Bad Bunny.
They have outlasted Ye but still need to fight for attention at adidas, especially when Bad Bunny has the resources to launch his sneakers at the Super Bowl. When it came to producing their next collection for the brand, they had to change the game.
“We started questioning how we continue to ride this wave and give markets something that’s unexpected,” Tanaya says.
Until today, Tanaya and Ly had focused on the spectator side of sport, creating designer sneakers made for strolling the shopping strips of Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo, reflecting the textural richness and urban sophistication of their clothing. “China is our biggest market for the collaborations followed by Korea, Japan, and the US,” Tan says.
This time, they decided to find their inner athlete and design performance sneakers and sportswear.
“We pitched it to them that over the upcoming collections the range will evolve as we do as runners,” Tanaya says. “This collection is for people who are starting their running journey, like us, and want the right shoe to help them do that.”
While some commentators argue that sneakerhead culture has peaked, with the return of formal footwear to fashion frontlines, the performance market remains strong.
“In the last five years, with the growth of running as a sport and hobby, new avenues have opened up for lifestyle-related collaborations like this,” says Patrick Monti, general manager of Melbourne sneaker store Up There. “We don’t see that slowing down at all.”
Adidas agrees, and has signed SFTM for another four collections, making them a close second to Wales Bonner as the longest-running fashion partner, outside the Y3 and Stella McCartney mainline ranges.
When asked about the size of their orders now, compared with the original 3,000 sneakers, Tanaya humbly avoids giving a clear answer.
“We are just happy seeing our dream come true,” Tanaya says. “It’s not about making noise.”
If only Ye had realized that.
