Stella McCartney Gives Fashion’s Favorite Sneaker A Vegetarian Makeover

From being one of the original adopters of sustainable production practices to spearheading innovative vegan materials (see her outfit for Justin Timberlake at this year’s Super Bowl), high fashion’s resident vegetarian’s latest takeover includes big plans for athleisure. Stella McCartney, an early pioneer of sustainability in fashion and one of the industry’s first fur-free advocates, has brought her cruelty-free ethos to the white sneaker sector, where she’s given the iconic Stan Smith low-top a vegetarian makeover.

Now in vegan leather, the shoe is the fruition of years of collaboration between Adidas and McCartney’s eponymous label. With the exception of a few minor tweaks for the sake of branding (note Stella McCartney’s name stamped on the heel and encircling the Adidas logo on the heel notch), the shoe remains largely as it was, save for her face on the left shoe’s tongue, as opposed to the typical sketched portrait of Stan Smith himself. Instead of minor perforations lining the vamp, the designer opted for stars hole-punched through the vegan hide in the same pattern.

While McCartney may be no stranger to it-accessories—remember the Fallabella?—the update is not only a step towards sustainability on all tiers of the fashion period, but it’s also deftly chic. The ethics behind the pair make them one of Adidas’ coolest collabs yet, and that’s a big pair of shoes to fill.