Movie placement creates demand for non-existent shoe

LOS ANGELES - The unpaid inclusion of a nonexistent Adidas shoe in the movie The Life Aquatic has sparked a brisk consumer demand for the product.

This custom-made version of the Adidas 'Zissou' is now for sale on eBay. Other Web sites provide instructions for making your own Zissous.

After teaming up with director Wes Anderson on The Royal Tenenbaums, Adidas allowed the filmmaker to modify pairs of its shoes to fit the wardrobe needs of the characters in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. In the film, Team Zissou, a group of deep-sea explorers, wears pairs of Adidas sneakers with blue and aqua stripes, bright yellow laces and "Zissou" stitched along the side.

The shoe is said in the movie to have hit retailers in 1987 and was named for the film's lead character, played by Bill Murray. In actuality, the shoe shown is an altered version of a 1959 Adidas training sneaker called the ROM, which was updated in 1979 but is no longer in production.

Adidas didn't pay distributor Buena Vista to appear in the film. Neither did it co-promote the project. It also had no plans to even produce the shoes for the public.

The company may be starting to reconsider that idea, however.

Moviegoers have inundated Adidas with requests on where to buy the shoes, with customers showing up at the company's retail stores ready to purchase a pair. The company's consumer relations department has been receiving hundreds of phone calls and e-mails from desperate Team Zissou sneaker seekers. Online petitions have also hit the Internet and collected over 600 signatures. Homemade versions have been listed on eBay.

Read the article: www.adage.com