adidas Originals = Pharrell Williams Tennis HU

The latest heat to turn up at Looped headquarters is Pharrell’s first full signature sneaker with adidas Originals, and – although you might not immediately imagine him headband-clad and racket in hand – it’s from the court that this shoe was created. Introducing the Tennis HU.

Pharrell and adidas have been partners in style for a while now, with some seriously impressive drops emerging from their relationship. Since The Brand with the Three Stripes tapped him up to lead their lifestyle line in 2014, they’ve collaborated on everything from hand-customised Stan Smiths and a range of Superstars that ran 50 colourways deep, to futuristic reworks of the boost-bottomed NMD. But, even though the Billionaire Boy has been prolific, all of his efforts have come as special takes on existing silhouettes. The Tennis HU, however, is all his work.

We have to take it back to 2016 for the start of this sneaker’s story, when Pharrell met another legend in his own field – Stan Smith. Sitting together at the final of the US Open, the most famous face in footwear inspired Skateboard P to reimagine his signature shoe with modern styling. The Tennis HU stays true to the Stan Smith’s simple and smart aesthetic but adds several contemporary touches from lifestyle kicks – a one-piece, open-mesh upper, an ankle-hugging fit, and a flat, sculpted sole unit.

The Tennis Hu is as clean as they come in the sneaker game, so that gives you all the more opportunity to flex your patterning power elsewhere. We’re all over the bleached-out vibes in OBEY’s latest drop, which pair up nicely with tiger-camo cargo shorts from fellow US streetwear staple HUF. If you want to take things deeper into grunge territory, get some plaid involved with this hooded popover shirt – which adds just a touch of Breton for good measure. Yep, we’re happy.