Denim Tears Has Put the Ghana Must Go Bag on an adidas Superstar

The first Denim Tears x adidas Superstar has appeared, and the reference is difficult to miss.

Its upper is woven in the red, blue, black and white check associated across West Africa with the Ghana Must Go bag. Black leather Three Stripes cut through the pattern; cream laces, an aged sole and the Superstar’s shell toe keep the shape familiar. Even the blue shoebox carries a strip of the same check.

Calling it “laundry-bag plaid” gets the visual joke and misses the story.

In 1983, Nigeria’s government ordered undocumented migrants to leave the country at extremely short notice. More than a million Ghanaians were expelled. Many carried what they could in cheap, capacious woven polypropylene bags, and the object became inseparable from the phrase “Ghana Must Go”.

The bag never stayed fixed as a symbol of that moment. It became everyday luggage, market carrier, moving bag and household standby; an object associated with commerce, migration, resourcefulness and return. It also retained the discomfort of a name born from xenophobia and forced departure.

That tension makes the choice feel entirely at home in Tremaine Emory’s world. Denim Tears has built its visual language by placing Black history inside recognisable American clothing. Here, a West African object meets another globally travelled design: the adidas Superstar, itself passed between basketball, hip-hop and fashion for more than half a century.

The image was shared as a first look rather than an official launch announcement. Reports place the Superstar 82 and a matching Stan Smith 80 in November 2026, with apparel also rumoured, but the brands have yet to confirm the full collection, price or exact release date.

A Superstar carrying history as well as colour. This is the Denim Tears x adidas story we were waiting to see.

Product image: @veezeworst via Cultaddix / The Adi Connection. Editorial image: Obinna Obioma.