One of the most famous things Rick Owens ever said is, "Working out is modern couture. No outfit is going to make you look or feel as good as having a fit body." It's a philosophy he clearly lives by — the guy is absolutely shredded — but after years of lifting weights wearing the odd sporty pieces from his mainline collections, he's leveling up his gym wardrobe.

And he's called on adidas for help.

After a decade apart, the last Rick Owens x adidas collection having released in 2017, the duo returns for Spring/Summer 2027 with performance gear that's both bizarre and cutting-edge in equal measures.

The collaboration is huge, literally, from the wide array of styles to the downright enormous silhouettes.

Owens worked with adidas' Climacool technology for jackets that inflate into sculptural balloons, allowing in-built fans to cool the wearer. Combine this with fan-wielding puffy shorts and an ice vest (adidas' new innovation originally for footballers in the sweltering heat of the 2026 World Cup), and you have what Rick Owens calls a "personal air conditioning system." It's literally wearable AC!

The timing couldn't be better. Owens presented these cooling clothes at Paris Fashion Week, whilst France, a country with a distinguished lack of AC units, is in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave.

Although Rick Owens' ballooning adidas suit isn't for fashion editors struggling in Paris' sweltering heat, but rather for high-performance athletes. As Owens states in a press release, the goal of the system is "cooling a runner's torso as much as possible before a race."

Owens and adidas admittedly weren't the first to think up such a thing. In Japan, workers who spend their days outside have long resorted to similar fan-propelled outerwear and adidas previously dropped inflatable clothing for Mercedes' Formula 1 team. However, Rick Owens took it to a new, almost comical extreme.

Not everything is quite as outlandish as the Michelin Man-coded AC system, though. Black technical running shoes and track pants, loaded with Owens' signature long drawstrings, are amongst the most wearable pieces from the collaboration, which is releasing next year. Although even the tracksuits embody Owens' signature freakiness.

The designer, when describing the lightweight black jogging suits and flesh-toned leather adidas get-ups, said he "fetishized" the classic three-striped sportswear. Of course you did, Rick, you ingenious weirdo.

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