Y-3

Y-3 was founded in 2002 as a creative joint venture between Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto — at the time an unprecedented kind of partnership between a sports-performance company and an avant-garde fashion designer. The name combines the Y of Yamamoto's name with the 3 stripes of Adidas's mark; the brand's first runway collection was presented at Paris Fashion Week in October 2002, an event that legitimised what the broader industry would later call 'designer × sportswear' as a permanent product category. The Y-3 vocabulary settled around a few principles: Yamamoto's love of all-black drape and asymmetry, Adidas's deep technical archive, the use of materials sourced from the parent brand's running and basketball lines, and a commitment to seasonal runway shows alongside the Adidas product calendar. The Qasa Hi (2013), the Pure Boost Y-3 ZG Knit, the QR-coded campaigns, and the long-running football kits (Spain, Real Madrid, Arsenal at various points) are all examples of the cross-pollination at work. The partnership has continued for over twenty years — making Y-3 one of the longest-running designer × sportswear collaborations in fashion. Yohji Yamamoto remains creative director at 81. The Y-3 standalone stores in Tokyo, London, and Paris, plus heavy presence in Adidas's own retail and at premium multi-brand stockists, anchor the brand in a category it essentially invented.