Pharrell Williams Interview: Adidas Virginia Jellyfish Collaboration

At 52, Pharrell Williams is wrapping up the most fruitful year of his career. 

Sure, he’s produced for some of music’s highest-selling recording artists and with his visionary eye, helped shape the look of 2000s streetwear. The mid-2010s saw him further flourish, raking in countless trophies for 2013’s inescapable “Happy.” In 2022, he launched his own luxury digital auction house, Joopiter. More recently, in 2023, he became Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director and showed his first collection later that summer. And last year brought the release of his The Lego Group-produced biopic “Piece by Piece,” among other accolades. Yet, despite all of this, 2025 has felt something like a renaissance period for the prolific creator. 

He began the year by unveiling his latest Louis Vuitton sneaker, dubbed the Buttersoft, in a mosaic array of 50 different colors that recalled his 2015 Adidas Supercolor collection. By mid-year, Williams and designer Thibo Denis got people talking again after unveiling the skate-inspired Tilted model. But despite the high-fashion association and the persisting hype around Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton appointment in the wake of Virgil Abloh’s death, there was another piece of footwear that was getting even more attention.

Pharrell was first spotted wearing the Virginia Adistar Jellyfish last summer while attending the Paris Olympics. At the time, little was known about the sneaker, including its oceanic inspiration. The early word was that the protruding pair was a customized version of Adidas Adistar Cushion 3 sneakers made specifically for Williams. He was then spotted in them again. And again. Before long, it became clear that this was one of his next sneaker collaborations with Adidas.

While the new Virginia Adistar Jellyfish is reminiscent of its Adistar Cushion 3 inspiration in its layout and shaping, it’s already established an identity of its own. The flat overlays of the original Adistar Cushion 3 have been turned three-dimensional with rubberized tentacle-like, jutting lines that extend to the shoe’s Adiprene-cushioned midsole. 

“We did a lot of experimenting, pushing materials and methods that hadn’t been used this way before,” Williams tells Footwear News. “The sculptural upper uses a Flow Mold process, but we went beyond the normal limits on height and shape. We wanted it to move and breathe, to feel alive. Then we added our touch: glow-in-the-dark details and bold colorways.”

According to Jimmy Manley, vice president of cultural collaborations and partnerships at Adidas, the Jellyfish spurred a shift in the way the brand designs product. “Jellyfish is a reflection of shared vision, into the creative world of Virginia while honoring the legacy of the adidas Adistar. It’s pushed us into a space of breaking design codes and approaching world building differently than we’ve done before. Jellyfish is not the only franchise we have visions for,” Manley tells FN.

Pharrell and Adidas have released hundreds of sneakers together — and that’s no exaggeration. From the aforementioned 50-style Supercolor collection to the enduring NMD Human Race franchise, the partnership has within the last decade covered more ground than some footwear companies do in their lifetime. Yet, over the last few years, it felt like the collaboration had lost some of its juice. It needed something fresh, something that broke away from the Adidas Boost-backed looks that populated the line. Enter the Jellyfish.

“People want to see themselves in what they wear,” Williams tells Footwear News. “They want things that feel expressive and unexpected. The Jellyfish has that. It’s playful, bold, sculptural, but it’s also functional. It takes something classic from the Adidas Adistar and pushes it forward.”

After more than a full year of building anticipation, the Jellyfish debuted at retail in August in an orange style alongside the reveal of a wider Pharrell project named Virginia after his hometown of Virginia Beach. Part creative platform, part brand, a press release describes Virginia as a “destination built for super fans” that will combine Pharrell’s various areas of expertise including music, fashion, design and community. It also functions as a pseudonym for select Pharrell output including 2024’s Black Yacht Rock Vol. 1: City of Limitless Access.

“We launched it quietly because I wanted people to find it on their own, to discover it when they needed it,” Williams says of Black Yacht Rock Vol. 1. “That’s one of the key things for me with this [Virginia] project, I want it to be about discovery and inspiration for people.”

If the music was under the radar, the sneaker launch was anything but. The shoe sold out instantly with launches from both the Virginia website (blackyachtrock.com) and the Adidas Confirmed app, which the sportswear brand uses to release its high-profile product. With a retail price of $300, resale prices instantly ballooned to over $1,000 for the shoe’s most popular sizes. 

With buzz around the Jellyfish peaking, Pharrell returned to Virginia Beach in early October to hold a pop-up event featuring new sneaker colorways, new Virginia merch and a special activation at the just-opened Atlantic Park Surf facility. It was there that the new line’s beach-themed items, which range from Virginia-branded towels and surf boards to binoculars and fishing lures, started to make even more sense. 

Of all of Pharrell’s successes this year, the Atlantic Park Surf venue and its neighbor, the Atlantic Park entertainment and shopping district, is the most community-focused venture — and the most ambitious. The former is a massive, 116,000 square foot surf park which can produce up to 1,000 waves per hour ranging from 1 to 6 feet. Situated just steps from the Virginia Beach coastline, Atlantic Park Surf offers beginner surfing lessons, private coaching and pro sessions. Visitors can even pull up a chair or rent private cabanas to take in all the action. 

As for the wider Williams-backed Atlantic Park area, it features The Dome, a live music venue that replaces the city’s original Virginia Beach Civic Center, and a growing list of dining and shopping options. 

During his visit, Williams launched the Next Wave Youth Surf and Swim program, a year-long partnership with Adidas and Atlantic Park Surf which will help young Virginia Beach residents learn the ways of the water. For the early October pop-up event, the initiative tapped the Ebony Beach Club to teach local youth how to surf. 

“[Atlantic Park] is a world we’re building with incredible brands and experiences that reflect the spirit of Virginia Beach,” Williams says. “A place where young people will find confidence in the water, where community comes together, where artists collaborate and new ideas are born. Virginia Beach is already a cultural destination, but there’s so much more to come.”

The full story of Pharrell’s prolific year can’t be told without acknowledging yet another hometown triumph. In July, Williams put on his executive producer hat, reuniting with longtime collaborators and fellow Virginia Beach-born duo Clipse for the release of Let God Sort Em Out, the group’s first album since 2009. Along with production credits, Williams’ vocals appear on five of the album’s 13 songs. The record received near-universal praise, with many critics and peers calling it the best hip-hop release of the year. 

“Clipse are family,” Williams says. “They never rushed, they just trusted. Seeing people connect with this album now and seeing this moment for them, it feels right, like divine timing. You can’t plan that. You just stay true and let God sort ’em out.” 

And just this past weekend, Pharrell tapped Clipse to help launch the latest color of his hit Jellyfish sneaker. On Saturday, the hip-hop duo were seen around Las Vegas driving an “Imported From Virginia” delivery truck to tease the release. On Sunday, the latest blue colorway was released exclusively at the Adidas Brand Center on the Vegas Strip.

Despite its numerous tie-ins, the reach of the Jellyfish isn’t confined to Virginia. Nearly 3,000 miles away in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles, buy-and-sell resale shop Syndicate touts the shoe as one of ’25’s most in-demand items.

“Any sneaker that can do double retail and more in this economy is great,” Syndicate co-owner Cristian Rodriguez tells Footwear News. “Every pair we post flies and there are always people hitting us up asking if they are still available.”

Rodriguez points out another key metrics that shows the Jellyfish hype is real: there are more customers buying the shoe from Syndicate than seeking to resell it.

Since its August arrival, one question has repeatedly resurfaced on social media: is the Jellyfish the best sneaker of the year? Within the sneaker community, there are often premature debates over which release deserves the title. Williams has heard the chatter, and he sees it as a sign that he and Adidas are moving in the right direction.

“I’m grateful,” Williams says. “To me, the Jellyfish is about energy. Movement, light, flow. We spent a lot of time getting the form right, making something that feels alive. So when people respond to it, it means they feel that energy too.”