Think of something synonymous with BAPE and you’ll likely picture the Japanese streetwear label’s archetypal Cloud Camo print.
So the fact that it’s taken until 2024 for BAPE to dress an adidas Originals sneaker in its epochal camouflage graphic — despite the pair's debut collaboration dating as far back as 2003 (!!!) — is quite remarkable really.
Still, here we are: meet the BAPE x adidas Originals Stan Smith, a new camo-covered collaborative sneaker releasing on February 10 that's been designed to celebrate the NIGO-founded Ura-Hara brand’s thirtieth anniversary.
Comprising all the features we’ve come to expect of a traditional adidas Originals Stan Smith — a synthetic leather upper, a chunky white midsole, and gold foil branding — BAPE’s latest take on the heritage silhouette arrives with some celebratory twists, like a special edition golden deubré and a co-branded tongue.
BAPE’s latest adidas collaboration comes a few months after their most recent link up late last year, which happened to focus on the same Stan Smith silhouette.
On that particular occasion, instead of dousing the entire sneaker in camo, BAPE released two much more subtle iterations of the famed tennis silhouette, with pops of the graphic reserved for the heel tabs.
BAPE’s newest adidas Stan Smith, though, is perhaps its most outlandish to date. Which is something we've come to expect of the brand. I suppose the only perplexing facet about this whole thing is that a camo-covered Stan Smith hasn’t happened sooner.
