Aaron Kai x adidas Stan Smith Primeblue Little Kid 'Doodles'
Colorway: Cloud White/Vivid Green/Scarlet · Style code: FY2687 · Release date: May 2021 · Price: $93 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Aaron Kai x adidas AM4AaronKai 'Core Red' (EG7485) · Aaron Kai x adidas AM4AaronKai 'Black Camo' (EG7484) · Aaron Kai x adidas Stan Smith Primeblue Big Kid 'Doodles' (FY2686) · Aaron Kai x adidas Superstar 360 Primeblue J 'Pop Art Style Waves' (FX4920) · Aaron Kai x adidas Superstar 360 Primeblue Infant 'Pop Art Style Waves' (FX4926)
Instead of plain white leather, this little-kid Stan Smith wears a Primeblue textile upper printed with Aaron Kai's doodles. Kai is a post-pop artist who was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, and co-founded the streetwear label Lemon; his doodle artwork runs over the Cloud White base while Vivid Green and Scarlet pick out the accents. The change of material is as much the point as the print. Primeblue is adidas's fabric made partly with Parley Ocean Plastic, which puts a recycled ocean-plastic fabric into a shoe that has been leather for most of its life.
It released in May 2021 at $60 in the little-kid size run, one of the Aaron Kai Stan Smith Primeblue pairs adidas made for children, and it keeps the shape a parent recognises: low-cut court silhouette, padded heel tab and a rubber cupsole. What changes is the mood. A shoe usually sold as a blank canvas arrives with a drawing already on it, and the green and red accents tie the artwork back to the Stan Smith's traditional green tab. Primeblue and its sibling fabric Primegreen are adidas's recycled-material fabrics; the standard adult Stan Smith moved to Primegreen in 2021, the same year this pair came out, so a kids' Primeblue edition fits the moment rather than standing apart from it.