Toy Designer Quiccs On Working With Kevin Quiambao: 'Super Easy Customer'
World-renowned toy designer and graffiti artist Quiccs Maiquez recently collaborated with adidas Philippines to design former DLSU Green Archer Kevin Quiambao's first-ever Player Exclusive edition of the Adizero Select 3.0, dubbed "KQ63". The Adizero Select 3.0 Kevin Quiambao x Quiccs "KQ63" PEs were widely appreciated among sneakerheads and ballers.
The Adizero Select 3.0 "KQ63" PE is a low-cut silhouette that sports a lightweight mesh upper, in a hot pink colorway with some white and yellow accents. Quiambao's only important request to Quiccs was to have the sneakers decked in Pink.
"So lumapit sa akin yung adidas for the project na gagawin daw collab with KQ, yung silhouette yung Adizero Select 3.0. So, yun yung silhouette na dapat di-designan ko," Quiccs recalled during an exclusive interview with Sporty Noob at his studio in Mandaluyong last June. "Tapos kinausap namin si KQ, 'hi, hello, get to know you,' nag-iisang request lang niya from us was to make it pink."
Initially, he envisioned the silhouette to have the colors of the Philippine flag, but he clearly took note of Quiambao's request to use pink as the base color of the PEs. For KQ, the color pink represents the bright future of the Filipino youth. Quiccs even added a touch of green as a shoutout to Quiambao's alma mater.
"Nung unang in-envision ko kasi akala ko ano, yung direction namin more of Philippine flag colors. Pero sabi nga ni KQ, pink. So yun yung baseline objective, gawing hot pink. Tapos ni-research ko bakit pink, sabi niya ano daw it represents the bright future of the youth of the Philippines," Maiquez explained. "Pero at the same time, tinignan ko din yung trend sa NBA. Maraming, parang, for the past 3 years, very trend [sic] yung neon pink na shoes sa NBA. So, kahit sa ibang brand tsaka sa madaming player, marami sa kanila nagsusot ng hot pink."
"Tapos with that in mind, inisapan ko na rin ng way na meron parin konting Philippine flag flavor, kahit wala nang red and blue. Ginamitan ko parin siya ng sun, yung yellow. Kaya may yellow siya to white. Maraming natira parin na Philippine element about it. And onting-onting green dun sa shoes, to parang shoutout namin sa La Salle, which is si KQ is King Archer, nag graduate siya from DLSU tapos siya pa yung main guy ng UAAP team nila sa basketball," he added.
The initial release of the Adizero Select 3.0 "KQ63" PE came with Quiccs' signature TEQ63 toy decked in the same "KQ63" colorway but in reverse with more green colors than pink.
"Dun ko na lang trinanslate yung stronger to, parang reverse universe yung toy. Majority green tapos konti lang yung pink. Parang andun parin yung representation ng roots ni Kevin Quiambao sa DLSU," Quiccs said.
For Quiccs, KQ was an easy customer to work with. He even proposed to design a new logo for Quiambao, which was eventually approved by the Gilas Pilipinas forward and is now emblazoned on the left heel of the Adizero Select 3.0 "KQ63" PEs.
"Super easy customer. ‘Maganda,’ yun lang sabi niya, ‘go,’ ‘maganda, go’, "recalled the internationally-renowned toy designer with a smile. "Ang isang ano lang pala, yung what we worked on, yung lumang design [logo] ni KQ, sabi ko magpopropose ako ng bago na pwede mo [Kevin Quiambao] na gamitin kahit, ano, forever mo na gusto. So nagpresent ako ng three studies ng KQ logo, tapos may isa siyang napili. Tapos yun na nyung lumabas sa shoe. So medyo first time makita ng mga tao yung KQ logo na yun."