Y-3

Y-3 is the collaboration brand developed by adidas and Yohji Yamamoto. Their partnership began in 2001, after Yamamoto had introduced adidas footwear and three-stripe elements into his eponymous womenswear. The first Y-3 collection, Spring/Summer 2003, was presented in Paris on 6 October 2002; 2003 became the first market season.

The brand operates within adidas’s trademark, technical, manufacturing and distribution system under Yamamoto’s fashion and artistic direction. Japanese and German teams connect his long silhouettes, released tailoring and black-led palette to footwear engineering, sports materials and global production. Y-3 is therefore distinct from both adidas performance mainline and the Yohji Yamamoto company’s internal labels.

Runway periods in Paris and New York established a mixed-gender clothing, footwear and accessories programme, followed by durable product systems such as Qasa, Y-3 Sport, Y-3 Atelier and performance running. The label remained active through the Spring/Summer 2027 presentation in Paris on 27 June 2026; no public evidence supports a closure or relaunch between its debut and the current programme.

Y-3 applies fashion proportion to sports construction. Yamamoto’s long coats, fluid trousers, asymmetry and preference for black are developed through adidas footwear platforms, technical cloth, cushioning, weather protection and performance manufacturing. The three stripes function as both protected sports identity and a graphic element altered by scale, placement and movement.

Authorship is deliberately divided. Yamamoto directs silhouette and fashion language; adidas contributes engineering, product development, manufacture and distribution; specialist teams resolve footwear, apparel and performance use. The result depends on those separate capacities and cannot be reduced to a logo licence or to solitary designer authorship.

The runway and campaign system repeatedly treats movement as part of the clothes. Football, dance, staged weather, projection and immersive performance have tested garments in motion, while team kits and running or tennis programmes carry the same design language into verified athletic use.