Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 label and adidas’ long-standing partnership continues this season as the Japanese designer has his say on the latter’s Stan Smith silhouette.

The minimalist tennis shoe, which was actually adidas’ first ever court silhouette when it launched in 1965, is arguably one of the label’s most recognisable sneakers thanks to its clean upper and three rows of perforations in place of the classic three stripes.

Y-3 adidas

In fact, according to adidas, the Stan Smith is its best ever selling sneaker with over 40 million pairs sold to date. So the fact that Yamamoto’s Y-3 has decided to riff on the silhouette in celebration of twenty years of collaborating shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Y-3 adidas

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Releasing on October 3, the collaborative Y-3 Stan Smith arrives in two monochromatic iterations: the first features a matte black outsole, a white leather upper, and a black tongue, while the other comprises an all black make-up with a white tongue.

Both sneakers are then rounded out with a portrait graphic of Yamamoto and his name neatly debossed on the heel.

Y-3 adidas

2023’s Y-3 x adidas Stan Smith is just the latest in a long list of collaborations between the two labels, a catalog that includes a zippered Stan Smith back in 2017.

In the last year alone Y-3 has also released takes on the adidas Gazelle, Forum, and Ultraboost, and even birthed a brand new silhouette, the ITOGO, back in March.

Having collaborated on nearly every sneaker in adidas’ back catalog, the Stan Smith was always going to pop up again. I suppose the only surprise is that it took so long.