Follow Up: Yohji Yamamoto x Adidas
Behind the Design of the Adidas 3 Stripe Trekking Boot
For our first article of 2022 we worked with earlyScab to create a curated retrospective of some of our favourite lesser known early designs from Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto’s long standing collaborative partnership. 3 weeks later, we received a message from Damon Butler who told us that he was the original designer of our favourite pair in the selection, the 3 Stripe Trekking Boot. In his messages, Damon opened our eyes to not only the backstory of the pair but also uncovered the gems that are his early sketches and ideas for the pair which we have to show to you in this follow up article.
The original brief for the 3 Stripe Trekking Boot was, in Butler’s words, to “come up with the craziest looking boot you can!”, a brief that certainly comes through in the final product. It turns out that the pair wasn’t actually originally intended for Yohji but as a Japan exclusive non-collaborative Adidas release. According to Damon, the structure in the early days of the partnership was much less about specific model designs and more about adapting existing offerings from Adidas through materials and colour ways, which echos through a number of the other pairs we featured in our original article, than creating specific models or lines as the pair now do in Y-3.
Butler broke down some of the specific details of the pair in his messages to us. Explaining that the core inspiration came from mobile cranes, their tyres and various attachments; think claws, clam buckets and hooks. This inspiration is specifically present in the pairs redefined shell toe, which Damon stated he ‘wanted a freaky mechanical version’ when building his designs, something he definitely succeeded in. The other key inspiration was that of ski boots for the pivoting design in the construction of the upper that can be seen in the early sketches we’ve been provided with. A point of inspiration that you can dive into in our most recent article which focuses in on ski boots and our other favourite winter sports footwear offerings from bobsleigh spikes to speed skates.
We think you’d agree with us that this is maybe one of the most impressive collections of designs we’ve seen in a while. We love connecting with the CONCEPTKICKS community in this way and would love for anyone involved in any of the projects we cover to reach out in the future. Thank you Damon for showing us your designs and creating such a special pair of shoes.