adidas Y-3 Kaiwa 'Core Black'
Colorway: Core Black/Core Black/Cloud White · Style code: FX0909 · Price: $306 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: adidas Y-3 Kaiwa 'Core Black' (EF2561) · adidas Y-3 Kaiwa 'Core Black' (BC0908)
Y-3 has been Yohji Yamamoto's line with adidas since 2003, and by 2018 it was working in the same oversized register as the rest of footwear, but on its own terms. The Kaiwa launched that August: a high-cut shoe built from grain leather with suede for texture, carrying moulded foam protrusions along the midsole that give it visual weight it does not have on the scale. A bespoke sockliner produces the close fit the line favours.
The detail people fixed on was the midfoot panelling: sculpted side sections carrying Yamamoto's name, hardware with no obvious performance function that exists to state where the shoe comes from. Branding otherwise sits on the tongue and heel in monochrome. The first release was black and white, with a yellow pair following shortly after. This all-black version is the plainest reading of the shape, where the moulded forms have to do all the work and the white sole is the only line drawn around them.