Y-3 and adidas have created the kits for the Japanese National Team

Rarely have there been such persistent leaks about a partnership as with the one between the Japanese National Team, adidas, and Y-3, which waited to debut at the Paris Fashion Week. On the runway of the show, designer Yohji Yamamoto presented his creations, the Home and Away jerseys that the Japanese National Team will wear for the first time at the Paris Olympic Games, officially starting on July 26. Both kits - the Home version in blue and the Away version in red - come to life from the concept of fire, as seen from the all-over flame graphics. Although Yohji Yamamoto is not new to such collaborations in the world of football, this is the first time the designer has created a kit for a national team. His "first time" had to be with the Japanese team, to which he is strongly connected. Japan is the country where he was born and where he found all the opportunities to become one of the most relevant designers in the fashion system, even in 1966 when he began his studies at the famous Bunkafukuso Gakuin, Tokyo's most important fashion institute.

For Yohji Yamamoto, it is also the first time he has created kits for two teams in the same year. In March 2024, the collaboration between Y-3, adidas, and Real Madrid was launched, one of the most anticipated in the world of football, thanks to the immense success of previous editions. Indeed, 2024 marked the tenth anniversary of the first historic collaboration in which Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, along with the Three Stripes brand, created the third kit for Real Madrid, at a historical moment when football and fashion were not as connected as they are today. Now that this relationship has reached its peak, the return of the collaboration has managed to create excitement among enthusiasts and collectors - thanks also to the photo featuring Zinedine Zidane and Jude Bellingham. adidas and Y-3 wisely chose to ride the hype. However, this is not the first time an official football kit has been presented in front of the front row of a fashion week. Before Y-3, it was Wales Bonner in 2022, who previewed the new kits of the Jamaican National Team during the Paris Winter Fashion Week.