Pharrell x adidas NMD Human Race Trail 'Respira' Friends and Family
Colorway: Purple/Khaki · Style code: AC7187 · Release date: 2017 · Price: $400 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Adidas NMD Hu Pharrell Complexland Sneakers (GY0089) · Adidas NMD Hu Pharrell NERD Sneakers (EE6297) · Pharrell x adidas NMD Human Race 'Pink' (GY0088) · Adidas NMD Hu Pharrell Black Sneakers (GY0093) · Adidas NMD R1 Pharrell HU Sneakers (BB0620)
The NMD arrived on 9 December 2015 as an exercise in recombination. adidas took shapes out of its own back catalogue (the Boston Super, the Micropacer and the Rising Star) and rebuilt them as a single modern silhouette, with a knit upper and coloured EVA blocks pressed into the sides of the midsole. The name is short for nomad.
What made it work underfoot was Boost, a foam adidas did not invent: BASF chemists worked out how to expand thermoplastic polyurethane into small capsules and fuse them into a block, and adidas brought it into its running line in 2013. The pellets stay visible, which is why the midsole looks granular.
Pharrell Williams' Human Race work took the platform somewhere else again, replacing colour blocking with embroidered text and treating the vamp as a place for a word. This trail version pairs a purple knit upper with khaki and teal rope laces that partly obscure the lettering. Japanese characters run the right shoe; Respira (breathe, in Spanish) runs the left. Teal leather heel tabs finish it.