The adidas Adistar Jellyfish by Pharrell Williams is one of the most wanted silhouettes around right now. A €300 price tag, raffle-only releases so far, and resale that regularly runs triple retail. Here’s the full story behind the shoe, why it costs what it costs, and the two colourways we have in stock today.
Hey, Tom from Footshop here 👋. When Pharrell walked the runway in Paris in January 2025 wearing a shoe that looked like a jellyfish wrapped around a running silhouette, nobody expected it to become one of the most searched adidas models within eighteen months. adidas itself named it Shoe of the Year for 2025. Every pair we’ve had so far went through a raffle and disappeared within minutes. Right now we have two colourways sitting in stock, so this is the moment you’ve been waiting for.
Where the Adistar Jellyfish came from
The foundation is archival adidas running DNA. The Jellyfish sits closest to the Adistar Cushion 3 from the mid-2000s, with a few cues borrowed from the Response CL. Pharrell dropped an upper onto that frame that has nothing to do with running: lightweight mesh covered in layered, 3D-moulded TPU panels that rise above the surface of the shoe and form something like an exoskeleton. Hence the name. The original Adistar line was built around a so-called wind flow aesthetic, and the Jellyfish pushes that idea into sculpture.
Zac Andrews, adidas design director at the time, worked on the project, and by his account it was Pharrell’s brief that pushed the whole thing forward. He liked the early concepts but wanted them scaled up and exaggerated considerably. The result speaks for itself. The stack is tall, the silhouette is bulky, and the shoe reads more like an object than a sneaker.
What you actually get
The upper mixes textile and synthetics, the heel packs adiPRENE for impact absorption, and the outsole uses the durable Adiwear compound. Jellyfish branding appears on the tongue and the insole, alongside adidas and VIRGINIA marks. This isn’t a technological monster like the Boost models from the Hu era. It’s about form and proportion. That said, it wears surprisingly well, the ride is soft, and the shoe locks your foot in place.
Why the Jellyfish costs €300
Three hundred euro is a lot even for a collaboration, and it’s fair to ask what you’re paying for. The answer isn’t in the tech. It’s in how hard a shoe like this is to build in the first place.
1. Construction that can’t be faked
A standard sneaker collab takes an existing mould, swaps the colours and stitches on different overlays. The Jellyfish does none of that. Those TPU panels aren’t glued-on decoration, they’re 3D-moulded parts that follow the volume of the shoe and have to line up across the entire upper. Every colourway needs its own tooling and more production steps than a regular model.
2. Small numbers and tight distribution
adidas deliberately keeps Jellyfish production low and releases it through Confirmed and selected partners. It isn’t a marketing game. With this kind of construction you simply can’t build a hundred thousand pairs and ship them everywhere. That’s why every previous pair here went out via raffle in our Upcoming section, and why they sold out immediately.
3. Status the shoe earned on its own
The silhouette debuted on a Paris Fashion Week runway, not in a catalogue. The first pair went on sale in August 2025 and the Jellyfish has since picked up adidas’ Shoe of the Year title for 2025. On the resale market it routinely trades at double to triple retail, which is the hardest proof there is that nobody manufactured this demand with marketing. Buy it at retail and you’re getting a good deal.
The Jellyfish pairs you can buy right now
Here’s the good news. Both colourways are in stock at €300, no raffle and no waiting.
adidas x Pharrell Williams Adistar Jellyfish Chalk White/ Off White/ Clear Brown
Price: €300 | Style code: KH6730 | → shop it at Footshop
The one everyone calls Triple White, even though it isn’t purely white at all. adidas pairs Chalk White with Off White and a brown Clear Brown, so the result leans cream. The bonus nobody talks about much: the TPU cage glows in the dark. A clean summer shoe by day, a completely different character after sunset. adidas built the campaign around Jeremiah Smith, the Ohio State wide receiver.
adidas x Pharrell Williams Adistar Jellyfish Crystal Sand/ Trace Brown/ Core Black
Price: €300 | Style code: KH6729 | → shop it at Footshop
The newcomer, and one we haven’t carried before. A sand base, Trace Brown running through the cage construction and black accents on top. Next to the white pair this is the quieter, warmer option, and it handles the transition into autumn far better than anything cream. If you want to wear your Jellyfish daily rather than just photograph them, this is the practical pick.
“For the first time you don’t need to win a raffle. Just pick your size. 🔥”
Colourways that already passed through Footshop
Focus Olive / Core Black / Team Royal Blue
Royal blue over white mesh, olive accents and black moulded three stripes. For me the best balanced pair of the whole run. The blue is loud enough to get noticed, but you can still wear it with jeans and a white tee without looking like an exhibition. Ours went for €300 and cleared out instantly.
Carbon / Core Black / Carbon
Tonal black that turns the Jellyfish into a completely different shoe. The colour dials down the noise and lets the shape and the panel layering do the talking. If the bright versions felt like too much, this was the answer. It’s also the lowest-risk option in an outfit, because a bulky black shoe just works. Same price, €300.
How to wear the Jellyfish
A bulky shoe needs volume up top too, otherwise it reads as a mistake. Pharrell himself wears his with bootcut jeans and that’s the whole recipe right there. Wide legs that break over the stack, or trousers with pockets and plenty of length. Leave the slim cuts at home, that’s where the proportions fall apart. The white and cream versions handle cargo shorts fine when it’s summer and you don’t want to overthink it.
The full adidas x Pharrell Williams collection lives in one place on our site, so if his approach to design is your thing, have a look at what’s in stock.
So, are you taking a pair?
This is the first time you don’t have to hunt the Jellyfish down. Once these are gone though, we’re back to raffles, because the next colourways will run through them again. Keep an eye on the Upcoming section and turn on notifications in the Footshop app so the next drop doesn’t slip past you.
