Virgin Galactic Spacesuits by Adidas Will Have Us Dressing Like Astronauts
Virgin Galactic announces chic minimalist line in partnership with Adidas' Y-3.
Attention all astronauts and astronauts-to-be: white spacesuits are out, black spacesuits are in.
Against the backdrop of Spaceport America in New Mexico, the go-to $250,000-a-pop space-ride company Virgin Galactic announced Thursday an exclusive space apparel partnership with Y-3, itself a big name collaboration between Adidas and Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto.
The relationship will result in a range of vaguely Kylo Ren meets NASCAR crew chief garments, ready for eventual commercial spaceflight operations.
“Together with the incredibly talented team at Y-3, we will explore the potential to create innovative apparel and accessories — both for our staff and for our pioneering customers,” said Virgin Galactic head of design, Adam Wells, in a press release. “Our design teams’ shared values will doubtlessly result in the creation of some extraordinary, special, and highly treasured products, and we look forward to sharing their development stories as Virgin Galactic steps closer to commercial operations.”
With this announcement, Y-3 is set to become the first fashion brand in space. The line, known for bringing a street wear aesthetic to Yamamoto’s runway fashion, appears to not be shying away from its dark and textured look as they make the jump into space-wear. In the end, there is not a huge jump between this:
And this:
Which is totally rad because as Well notes in a video for the line, when it comes to flight suits, they need to be both comfortable to wear something that “looks good — that’s definitely a bonus.”
What may be of particular interest to sneakerheads familiar with the popular Y-3 Qasa high-tops are the Y-3 pilot boots, described as “very tough” but “light and flexible.” Quartz reports that the boots are made of leather and Nomex materials, a flame and heat resistant fabric. They also look baller and hopefully will be made available to all of us who can’t throw down thousands of dollars to go to space.
Lawrence Midwood, senior director of design at Y-3, says that every item in the collection is designed for a function reason, with safety being the factor that is of most “paramount importance.” Of also paramount importance: looking really, really cool.
