The day we met Wenlock and Mandeville

As a daddy blogger I am often contacted by companies or PR firms asking me to look at or review their products.  To the surprise of those that know me in the flesh, I do have a bit of integrity and I normally politely turn down the ones that don’t really have anything to do with me and my world.  For arguments sake, the thought of reviewing a £700 princess throne that would have lasted 5 minutes with my unruly mob, was an obvious no-go.  As was the Breastfeeding book (no breasts or babies that need them), coconut milk dessert (me and hairy shells don’t mix), an airport meet and greet service (am still shell-shocked from the trauma of our last foreign holiday) and the pregnancy care water (a great product I’m sure, but I’m sans fallopian tubes).

Then along came an offer that I couldn’t refuse – would I be interested in popping down to the Adidas office in London to take a look at their new Disney/Pixar range and their London 2012 Olympic collection?  Would I ever, I love trainers, I love Adidas trainers and I love seeing stuff that nobody else has seen yet and then telling my mates about it (I guess that makes me an ocular gossip).  I replied with an air of nonchalance that I would like to take them up on their kind offer and even waited a whole two minutes before replying.  The fact I spent that 2 minutes making a phone call to my trainer freak sister (50 pairs and counting)  just to brag and ended the call with a “ner ner nener ner”, wasn’t one of my prouder moments, but fun nonetheless.

So Saturday found me the Mrs and the little’uns travelling to Covent Garden, all ready to have a nose around the Adidas offices and all the new gear.  Within minutes of arriving, Wenlock and Mandeville, the official mascots of the games, turned up and totally enchanted my children.  Apparently they are made from the last two drops of steel used to make the Olympic Stadium, but the way Kaede was hugging them to death I rather think they are made from something a lot more pliable.  It was good for the kids to meet them though, as since we lost out on the Olympic ballot this will be the closest they get to anything Olympic.

Anyway, with the kids occupied I got to look at the range without distraction.  It’s hard to be all kid-like if you have to deal with kids at the same time and believe me, being surrounded by so many trainers I truly felt like a kid in a sweet shop.  I headed for the Cars 2 range, a series of trainers and clothing for kids with the characters from the film on them.

I’m like a Crow, I’m a sucker for shiny things and I’m sure I raised a few eyebrows with my wows and oohs.  I did try to maintain an air of professionalism and objectivity, but one pair had Lightening McQueen on the sole for god’s sake, how awesome is that?  They also had some pairs based on the Disney Princesses which definitely scored high on the cuteometer.

Then I moved onto the ‘Originals’ section, all those classic designs from yesteryear and in kids sizes.  I still remember my first pair of Gazelles, blue for the first pair and burgundy for the second.  Now I’ve just turned thirty-ten I stick to black, but they have some wicked colours for the kids now (just typing that sentence made me feel 60.)

My sister had charged me with stealing some pink and grey clothing for my eight month old niece Isobel.  I managed to find this (see below) but rather wisely they were watching me like a hawk, so I’ll have to buy it for her instead.

The Olympic 2012 range is looking quite snazzy and by this time Kaede had started tugging me by the sleeves indicating that she wanted this top and that top and those trainers – a monster of my own making.

Both the Cars and the Olympic range are released this month with the Originals either out already or coming soon. 

For the sake of transparency, I will add that as we left they gave us some bags with goodies, plus a pair of trainers each for the kids.  They weren’t expected but very much appreciated, I am now the coolest Dad in the world apparently.  But to be honest (and hoping I’m not shooting myself in the foot here) I would have wrote this piece anyway, so thanks to Adidas for the look around and the trainers, I’m just gutted I can’t squeeze into them myself.