“There’s a lot of heart in these laces.” That’s not a throwaway line or some nice PR quote — it’s how Niraj Makhija, the Managing Director of Dubai-based Dream Girl Tailors, describes the lace that drives adidas Originals’ new limited-edition drop: He means it quite literally. The Loomhood Collection by adidas Originals isn’t merely another fashion collab. It’s stitched with memory, family, geography, culture, and yes, actual love.
You can feel it in the details. A stretchable lace, cut just-so to fit the Samba OG and Handball Spezial, two adidas classics reimagined through the lens of local heritage. Each pair, named after a city, gives you the coordinates—the exact location of the artisans behind the work. This move turns a sneaker into something oddly tender: part GPS, part tribute, part time capsule.
adidas Originals is launching The Loomhood Collection across Dubai and Riyadh on April 21, with Cairo coming in just a few days later. But what makes this launch compelling has nothing to do with global streetwear rollouts. It’s what came before — the conversations, the calloused hands, the choosing of the fabric, the cutting of the threads. The people who made the sneaker personal.
Take Al Fahidi in Dubai, where this story kicks off. If you’re from the city, you know the neighborhood: narrow lanes, cafeterias serving karak tea, fabric shops stacked like treasure chests. Dream Girl Tailors has been operating there for over 40 years — long enough for the shop’s founder, Kamal Makhija, to go from arriving alone by boat to becoming part of Dubai’s fabric, literally and figuratively.
“We began with many rounds of conversation amongst ourselves, with Master Umesh, and with people from the textile market,” Niraj tells MILLE. “We explored every kind of fabric that has shaped Dubai’s style over the years… After a lot of trial and error, we landed on a stretchable fabric that felt just right. It had strength, flexibility, and the kind of finish that could bring the design to life.”
The design itself is rooted in Talli, a local lace craft made by artisans, often using cotton or silk threads interwoven with metallics like silver or gold. What’s poetic— and kind of brilliant— is how a form typically reserved for delicate garments became the foundation for something as everyday as a shoelace. Something you tie and untie, something that goes with you on walks, errands, daily life.
“Talli is an intimate, labor-intensive craft traditionally practiced by Emirati women,” says Dr. Reem El Mutwalli, the founder of The Zay Initiative, who was deeply involved in ensuring the cultural authenticity of the lacework. “It holds deep cultural and symbolic value. Seeing this heritage elevated in a contemporary, fashion-forward setting with a brand like adidas not only honors the artisans who have carried these techniques through generations—it’s cultural continuity in action.”
And thats the thing—no one parachuted in with a Pinterest board, picked a few “local motifs,” and called it a day. “What makes this collection exceptional is its intentionality,” Dr. Reem explains. “It wasn’t merely about aesthetic inspiration—it was about authentic representation and co-creation. By involving artisans, cultural institutions, and heritage specialists, adidas enabled a layered narrative to emerge.”
It’s that layering that makes The Loomhood Collection different. Even the naming — “Loomhood” — plays like a double entendre: part textile metaphor, part nod to neighborhood community.
Of course, it doesn’t stop in the UAE. The collection also travels to Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, a historic town rich in craft— the Sadu-inspired lace from that capsule is full of earth tones and sharp, geometric rhythm. Think about the kind of pattern you’d see on a camel saddle or majlis cushion — only now, it’s laced onto a street sneaker. In Cairo, the lace design draws from Khayamiya, the art of appliqué traditionally used on tents. The swirling colors, the repetition, the precision all stitched into the sneaker.
But let’s go back to the laces for a second, because there’s something symbolic about them. Laces are usually an afterthought, right? Just a functional detail. But here, they become the heart of the sneaker. “They’re usually something you overlook,” Niraj says. “But in this adidas pair, they stand out. A small detail, but one that holds a lot of meaning.”
And maybe that’s the larger point of The Loomhood Collection. That the things we often skip over — a stitch, a neighborhood, a name on a shop sign — actually hold the most weight. That heritage doesn’t have to live behind glass in a museum; sometimes it lives in a shoebox, gets pulled out, laced up, and walked through the city.
The collection is launching with a pop-up inside Dream Girl Tailors— the actual tailoring shop, not a recreated pop-up booth— before heading to adidas Originals stores in Dubai Mall and Riyadh Park Mall. In Cairo, it’ll be available at Maison 69. Buyers get the limited-edition laces and a customization tag that reads Loomhood.
And if all this sounds a bit romantic, well… maybe that’s the point. It’s rare that a big global brand gets cultural collaboration right. Not by scaling it or branding it to death, but by listening. And if that results in a lace that holds a legacy? That’s a sneaker worth tying.
