It almost feels like the whole year the echo of the adidas Away Days video did not fall completely silent. Now as it finally went online on youtube also the remaining small group of people that might not have seen it yet (if there are still any) have the chance to watch it. We talked with Patrick Zentgraf about how he together with his friends Kai Hillebrand and Sandro Trovato got the honor to play a small part in such a big project and what it meant to him personally.
Interview by Roland Hoogwater
Photos by Danny Sommerfeld
How did it happen that you and three of your German Adidas teammates got tricks in the Away Days video?
About a half a year ago Torsten Frank got a message from the people over at Adidas, the idea was that Kai (Hillebrand), Sandro (Trovato) and me would all film one trick for the Away Days video.
Do you know why did they choose you guys?
Some of the american guys over at Adidas had heard about us and I guess they liked what they saw.
Basically we often skate, tour and chill together so they wanted to catch that vibe by including us in his part. On the other hand it could be that it is because of Adidas’s German roots and they needed some Germans to show that (laughs)
Do you know in what part of the video you will be in?
Well as I said we all skate together so our tricks will be in Lem Villemin’s part, not to fill the timeline but to show the kind of flavour we have together. It is not just a trick though we also landed in Lem’s intro, you see us pushing through downtown Frankfurt together. Lem really liked the idea as well so we started filming some tricks and along the way Torsten would comment on our trick and as the video progressed he basically started to give us more of an idea what kind of tricks would fit well with Lem’s footage.
So what direction did Torsten give you?
Go tech (laughs).
I heard that you also met some of the higher ups.
Yeah! I met some of the higher ups at Adidas we talked for a bit and they told me you get what you deserve if you put the work in so to then be given such a golden opportunity is something I wanted to give my all for.
So did this opportunity change your attitude and motivate you?
I am just really thankful to have this chance and I feel really good about being able to have a trick in a major video but at the same time I don’t think my expectations changed, I mean it would be nice to turn am but in the end I’ll just take it as it comes and keep it moving.
Alright keep it moving then!
https://youtu.be/SOsrt_TSIxA?t=32m39s