Ocean Plastic Kicks

If I have to hear Happy one more time I’m going to do something I’ll regret. But that’s not what this is about—what this is about is that adidas announced a collaboration with Pharrell Williams, and I’m interested enough to look past the song.

The first products from this partnership are supposed to be made with Pharrell’s bionic yarn—a material woven from plastic recovered from ocean waste. He’d been pushing this material before, through his work with G-Star RAW, and there’s something genuinely compelling about it: post-consumer ocean garbage spun into something you wear. The environmental PR writes itself, obviously, but the material is real and the concept is worth taking seriously even if the press release language isn’t.

What I’m actually hoping comes out of this is a clean pair of Superstars. Pharrell has good taste when it comes to the classics, and adidas Originals at their best don’t need much—just the right colorway, the right material. And knowing Pharrell’s relationship with headwear, there will almost certainly be a hat involved. A hat with physics-defying proportions. I’m ready for it.