Why Willy Chavarria Remixed an Unsung ’70s Hoops Shoe for His Latest Adidas Collaboration

On Thursday night, Willy Chavarria strolled into the Adidas store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles to celebrate the launch of his latest Three Stripes collaboration. Given the week he’d had—dressing a crew of celebrities for Monday night’s Met Gala before stealing the show on the red carpet himself—no one would’ve blamed him for seeming a little sluggish. But this is Willy Chavarria we’re talking about: the menswear maestro who’s racked up back-to-back CFDA honors, linked up with Kendrick Lamar on his Super Bowl merch, put on arguably the single buzziest show of the most recent Paris Fashion Week. There was plenty of pep left in his step, especially given the magnitude of this new Adidas drop, which features three sneakers (all plays on the ’70s-era Adidas Jabbar), tees, shorts, tracksuits, and a crewneck sweatshirt emblazoned with “CHICANO” under the collar.

Chavarria glided through the room, greeting several store employees like old friends and hugging me immediately upon meeting. In conversation, he maintains eye contact, smiles and jokes freely, and thoughtfully ropes others in to make sure nobody feels excluded. Perhaps it’s hard to feel exhausted when the work you’ve dedicated the last decade of your life to is finally receiving its due. You don’t need to pound a Celsius when you’ve found yourself among the most vital designers of the moment.

This Adidas partnership is, in Chavarria’s eyes, key to furthering his mission. “Before we ever started designing, we talked about feeling, meaning, period influence, and message,” he explained. Chavarria’s work has a distinct aesthetic shaped by Chicano culture, his time working in queer nightlife, and a smattering of other meaningful odds and ends. (While chatting with two of his frequent collaborators—photographer Carlos Jaramillo and art director Jess Cuevas—Chavarria noted that his all-time favorite movie is The Exorcist, which he plays on repeat in the background as he works.)

Chavarria’s visual identity remains deeply personal—and he’d never distill it for the sake of penning a partnership with a flashy brand. “Any brand I work for, I like to take a close look at what they do,” he said. “When I was younger I placed myself in the wrong spots, so now I always do my homework.” Through what he describes as “a lot of back-and-forth sampling” with Adidas, he landed on something that felt true to both his vision and theirs.

“In this case, we honed in on the Civil Rights era,” he said, “especially with regard to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We loved having that connection to the collection.” Abdul-Jabbar is one of the Three Stripes’ most notable brand ambassadors over the last century, with his work off the court as an activist as notable as his NBA tenure. For Chavarria, tying Kareem’s signature kicks into the collaboration felt like an extension of a message he’s always been working to communicate.