The adiZones are dense, hypnotic, highly branded insertions in UK's public parks.

They are standardized 25mx25m areas, where cluttered symbolic opportunities to do sport, play, movement, and fitness outdoor on a 24/7, 365 days a year basis are rolled together with unique branding opportunities; over 15 Adidas logos are contained within the oversized 2012 logo of any adiZones. Initially conceived for the 5 Host Boroughs, the adiZones are now being rolled out all over UK.

In September 2008 Adidas committed £1million to ‘the development of a new sporting venue in each of the five London boroughs hosting London 2012’.
Given the strict IOC rules restricting forms of advertising in the Olympic stadium or other competition areas during the Games, Adidas heeded the call to maximize their marketing opportunities and produced the adiZones.

Costing £150.000 each and delivered in UK by The Great Outdoor Gym Company, the adiZones - as stated by the marketing material distributed by Adidas- are ‘a perfect solution to the Government’s target of the 5 hour offer’.
But despite the unique penetration in otherwise brand-free public spaces that each adiZone represents for Adidas, their costs are only partly borne by the company, with the remaining 50% matching funds distributed between government agencies and local authorities who are also in charge of the £5000 yearly administration costs included in the package.

Pushing further the hybrid proximity between public targets obligations and private demands for deeper branding integration in everyday life, the adiZones appear as a symptomatic confirmation of the established trend towards a corporatization of contemporary cultural life in the UK and beyond.
Their outlandish presence in the uncharted spaces of local parks pries open new directions in this trend under the benign emblem of the Olympic rings. Whether such tendency will expand or not, to conceive the adiZones as 'outdoor sporting venues' is grotesque and below any serious sporting standard.