The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Brandon Davis, owner and co-founder of Houston sneaker and lifestyle store The Better Generation, didn’t want to let the 2026 FIFA World Cup pass by without the brand doing something to commemorate the moment.
A native of the Houston area, Davis views the World Cup as an unprecedented moment in the city’s history. The brand had an obligation, he felt, to do something to showcase the city.
Enter the “Grassroots” Predator Sala shoe, a collaboration among The Better Generation, adidas and designer Andu that was released last month.
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“Sometimes with these big national moments, it’s always in LA, it’s always in New York, it’s in Chicago, and so Houston has never really had, in my opinion, a world moment like this,” Davis said. “If we pass that up, I just felt like it would have been a letdown to me and also our community that we’ve built.”
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Items included with the “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, are photographed in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026. The items include a reversible bag and art pins created from artists’ work to highlight artists from around the world.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Art pins and a printed graphic highlighting the artists featured in the “Grassroots” Predator Sala collaboration are photographed in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Brandon Davis, owner and co-founder of The Better Generation, is photographed in Houston on Thursday, June 18, 2026. The organization partnered with Andu to create the adidas “Grassroots” Predator Sala for the FIFA World Cup.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Brandon Davis, owner and co-founder of The Better Generation, holds a metal “red card” keychain included with the “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Metal yellow card and red card keychains included with the “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, are photographed in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Brandon Davis, owner and co-founder of The Better Generation, poses for a portrait in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The Predator Sala is not one of adidas’s more well-known models such as the Samba or the Superstar. But the shoe is based on the company’s Predator cleat, and Davis said there is no better time than the World Cup to try and sell a special-edition version of the model.
He also added that he thought the Predator Sala proved to be a better canvas for the story they hoped to tell through the shoe, which is based around global connection and building something from the ground up.
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That’s why the outsole is brown, representing “starting from the mud.” The hairy suede tongue and fuzzy laces are green, and touches of gold on the shoe, add to the idea of “coming up into your goals.”
The shoe’s upper also features wavy lines meant to represent both the movement of a soccer net when a ball hits it and the longitude and latitude lines on a globe.
“We decided that we wanted to take it super lifestyle because we wanted an everyday consumer to be able to pick this up and wear it with a lot of different options versus it being like a hyper-specific thing,” Davis said. “It’s supposed to live outside of the soccer world.”
The “Grassroots” Predator Sala, an adidas shoe created through a collaboration between The Better Generation and Andu for the FIFA World Cup, is photographed in Houston, Thursday, June 25, 2026. Metal yellow card and red card keychains, art pins and a printed graphic are included in some packages.
Raquel Natalicchio, Houston Chronicle
It wasn’t just through the shoes that The Better Generation and Andu aimed to tell the story of connection and growth.
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They created a reversal tote bag in green and brown featuring their logos. They collaborated with artists across the globe, including Houston-area artists such as Donkeeboy, to create 26 special pins to go along with the shoe. They created sturdy yellow and red keychains.
Even the box itself helps further the story. The outside covering features the wavy lines featured on the shoe while the inside is lined with images of dirt, further emphasizing, literally, that grassroots and rising-from-the-mud ethos.
“Having somebody else put this much time and energy into the details, the consumer, even over social media, can respect that and get behind you as a creative and as a store because they know how much effort you put into it,” Davis said.
Only 1,248 pairs of shoes were created, which is the same number of players on the roster of the 48 World Cup squads.
Brandon Davis, owner and co-founder of The Better Generation, poses for a portrait in Houston on Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
The shoe had been available at three price points, each of which provided different add-ons in addition to the shoe. The lowest price point was $135 for people who just wanted the shoe. They also got two pins. A price tag of $175 got customers the shoe in addition to six pins, the red and yellow cards and the tote bag.
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The top tier of the shoe cost $300 and buyers got all the pins plus the cards and the tote bag.
Davis said only about 62 boxes at the $300 price point were sold but interest was more than six times that.
They didn’t expect such a high demand at the price point but Davis thinks the effort that went into the storytelling and design made the shoe worth the expense.
“It’s extremely validating to know that we can pull off something like this,” Davis said. “For us to be able to stand on our own with adidas, it shows that if we make the right product, tell the right story, we can sell more than I would have initially expected going into this.”
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