Known for a shoe wardrobe that ranges from statement heels to sneakers, 5’5½” Rita Ora, who wears a US size 8 shoe, turned a Manhattan street-style outing into a showcase for her own designs on August 18, 2016, wearing pieces from the Rita Ora x Adidas Originals “Color Paint Pack.”
Released that same day, the paint-by-numbers-inspired capsule was one chapter in Ora’s multi-year collaboration with Adidas Originals. For this outing, the footwear was especially distinctive: she wore the collection’s navy Tubular Defiant sneakers, which interpreted the colorful theme differently from the Superstar and Stan Smith styles released alongside them.
Rita Ora wears pieces from her Rita Ora x Adidas Originals Color Paint Pack while out in Manhattan on August 18, 2016, in New York City (Credit: WENN)
Rita Ora Styles Her Color Paint Pack From Head to Toe
Ora paired the sneakers with a cropped Adidas sweatshirt featuring the brand’s signature three stripes along the sleeves and the collection’s unfinished paint-by-numbers artwork across the front.
Black Adidas logo leggings kept the rest of the outfit simple, while mirrored flat-top sunglasses and a slicked-back, wet-look ponytail gave the sportswear a sharper street-style finish.
Rita Ora pairs her cropped Color Paint Pack sweatshirt and Adidas leggings with navy Tubular Defiant sneakers
The outfit also reflected how closely Ora’s personal wardrobe and Adidas partnership overlapped during this period. She regularly wore pieces from her collaborative collections outside their formal campaigns, making the sneakers themselves a recurring part of her mid-2010s street style.
Rita Ora wears black logo leggings and a cropped Adidas sweatshirt from her Color Paint Pack in Manhattan
Rita Ora’s Adidas Tubular Defiant Puts the Paint Effect on the Sole
The footwear centerpiece was Ora’s navy Tubular Defiant, one of the sneaker silhouettes reworked for her Color Paint Pack.
Rita Ora’s navy Adidas Tubular Defiant sneakers feature colorful accents concentrated around the chunky sole
The lace-up sneakers combine a dark navy upper with the Tubular Defiant’s substantial rubber outsole. Burgundy, dusty-pink, and blue accents appear across the sole, heel, and tongue area, creating the collection’s abstract painted effect without covering the entire shoe in graphics.
A tall tongue and pronounced heel counter further distinguish the silhouette from the lower-profile Adidas classics included in the same capsule.
A closer look at the pink, burgundy, and blue detailing on Rita Ora’s Adidas Tubular Defiant sneakers
How the Tubular Defiant Differed From the Superstar and Stan Smith
The Color Paint Pack also reworked two of Adidas’ most recognizable shoes: the Superstar and Stan Smith. Both have histories that extend well beyond celebrity collaborations; our guide to the most iconic Adidas sneakers traces the Superstar from basketball and hip-hop culture and the Stan Smith from its tennis roots to everyday streetwear.
For Ora’s Color Paint Pack, those familiar silhouettes interpreted the theme more literally. The Superstar and Stan Smith used blank or partially filled numbered graphics resembling an unfinished paint-by-numbers canvas.
The Tubular Defiant took a different approach. Its navy upper remained comparatively restrained, while the pink, burgundy, and blue treatment around the sole supplied the visual connection to the collection.
Ora wears the Tubular Defiant from her Adidas Originals Color Paint Pack, released in August 2016
That contrast also shows how Ora’s Adidas collections repeatedly used established sneaker silhouettes as a starting point rather than simply changing their color. Earlier in the partnership, she put a smoky graphic treatment on the Superstar for her White Smoke Adidas collection and later wore colorful Rita Ora x Adidas Superstar sneakers with comic-inspired graphics.
The Three Sneakers in Rita Ora’s Color Paint Pack
The footwear portion of the Color Paint Pack centered on three contrasting Adidas silhouettes: the chunky Tubular Defiant, the shell-toe Superstar, and the minimalist Stan Smith.
Rita Ora x Adidas Originals Tubular Defiant sneakers from the 2016 Color Paint Pack, originally priced around $110
The Tubular Defiant was the most sculptural of the three, pairing its dark upper with a thicker sole and scattered color accents.
Rita Ora x Adidas Originals Stan Smith sneakers from the Color Paint Pack
The Stan Smith translated the concept onto one of Adidas’ cleanest tennis-derived silhouettes, using outlined and partially colored artwork in place of the model’s normally understated finish.
Rita Ora x Adidas Originals Superstar sneakers from the 2016 Color Paint Pack
The Superstar brought the same idea to Adidas’ familiar shell-toe sneaker, a silhouette Ora returned to repeatedly throughout her collaboration with the brand.
Where the Color Paint Pack Fits Into Rita Ora’s Adidas Era
The Color Paint Pack was not a one-off celebrity endorsement. Ora’s Adidas Originals partnership stretched across multiple seasons and numerous capsule releases, giving her room to experiment with prints, color, unusual materials, and different footwear silhouettes.
For a broader look at that period, see our retrospective on Rita Ora’s Adidas Originals collaboration and sneaker style, which includes her limited-edition Samba and other designs from the partnership.
Her Adidas history on Best Quality Luxury Shoes Online Store goes back even further. Before her own capsule line, Ora was photographed in Adidas x Yohji Yamamoto Y-3 sneakers, while another early look paired an Adidas Originals x Opening Ceremony outfit with platform Adidas sneakers.
The August 2016 Color Paint look therefore captures something broader than a single sneaker release: by this point, Adidas footwear had become a recurring part of Ora’s public style as well as a canvas for her own designs.
Rita Ora Continued Designing Shoes After Adidas
Ora’s footwear collaborations did not end with Adidas. In 2019, she moved into luxury shoes with a dedicated Giuseppe Zanotti x Rita Ora capsule collection, which included heels, sandals, and boots developed with the Italian designer.
Her shoe wardrobe has continued to move between sneakers and statement heels, something reflected in our broader look at Rita Ora’s red-carpet footwear evolution.
The Tubular Defiant remains a particularly useful snapshot of her Adidas years because it shows the collaboration at street level: Ora wasn’t simply photographed promoting the Color Paint Pack—she wore one of its most distinctive sneakers as part of an everyday Manhattan look.
Because the Color Paint Pack was released in 2016, the original sneakers are no longer part of Adidas’ current seasonal lineup. Older Rita Ora x Adidas releases can still surface through sneaker resale channels, but availability, sizing, and prices depend on the individual model and listing.