Adidas, in collaboration with Los Angeles design studio PlayLab, has built a temporary 200-meter running track in an abandoned gypsum quarry in the New Mexico desert. It’s a land art installation that blends into the natural environment and redefines running as a meditative, sensory experience rather than a competitive sport.
The project marks the relaunch of Adidas’ EQT (Equipment) line, but instead of flashy ads or urban billboards, the brand chose silence, space, and earth. The track is made entirely from local materials like quarry dust, sand, and biodegradable paint. No artificial turf, no rubber. Just a soft white surface that will naturally fade and return to the landscape over time.
“We wanted to place this track far from the noise, not in the middle of a major city, but in a remote, quiet place that people would have to make an effort to reach,” explains Archie Lee Coates, co-founder of the design studio PlayLab. “It had to exist outside the usual cultural hotspots like New York or L.A.”
Nothing is permanent, and that’s the point
Two minimalist walls wrap around the path. The outer one rises just one meter high enough to cut off the horizon and lock your focus inward. The inner wall climbs to two meters, enclosing a quiet resting space with curved wooden benches and a fire pit at the center. It’s as much for reflection as recovery.
The layout draws inspiration from ceremonial circles and ancient pathways. The track follows the land’s natural slope, absorbing light, wind, and footsteps without resistance.
Adidas Introduces Reflective Running Experience
This project flips the usual idea of what a running track should be. There are no bleachers, signage, start, or finish line. Here, running becomes a quiet, almost meditative act. The desert air, the pale dust rising with each step, the gentle curves of the path, everything invites a slower rhythm. Instead of sprinting toward a goal, move within a loop, a space that asks you to feel more than perform. It’s a response to the overstimulated, hypercompetitive fitness culture.
How Adidas Integrates Sport with Natural Surroundings
PlayLab wanted to collaborate with a desert landscape. The track follows the natural contours of the former mine. There’s no artificial leveling or forced geometry. The materials come from the ground beneath it. The paint will wash away. The structure will erode. It’s built to be temporary and biodegradable, repeating the cycles of the desert itself.
The project’s vision takes cues from iconic figures in land art, drawing subtle inspiration from pieces like Hansjörg Voth’s “Golden Spiral” and the monumental earthworks of Michael Heizer. The result is a space that feels both artistic and an elemental part of the desert, not imposed upon it.
Even the color palette is a bleached white, soft gray, and muted earth tones, blending with the sun-bleached surroundings. When viewed from above, the track becomes a subtle motion in the landscape.
The desert track is a thoughtful intervention. It invites runners, or simply wayfarers, to engage differently with their environment and their bodies. It’s about redefining what it means to move, to pause, and to belong in a place, even just for a moment.
In the middle of nowhere, Adidas has created a quietly radical space.
Images © Playlab
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