Pharrell's Louis Vuitton Butter Soft Blends Running and Skate Heritage

With Paris Fashion Week just days away, Pharrell Williams recently previewed Louis Vuitton's latest footwear offering: 'the ButterSoft'.

The Virginia-native took to his @skateboard Instagram account to share a first-look at the sneaker in a similar fashion to how he revealed his Adidas Superstar Supercolour collection back in 2014.

While bold in its color palette and LV-branding, the Louis Vuitton ButterSoft (the model's working name) boasts a rather simple design. The multi-piece model seems crafted from ultra-premium (butter-soft) leather in a format popular amongst running sneakers in the 1970s. The silhouette's height, panels, and overall shape immediately evoke images of the popular Nike Cortez–the iconic shoe from 1972. Pharrell and team's iteration, however, is more apt for flexing on the 'gram than banging out some kilometers.

Although the design has yet to be physically shared with the public, initial photos of the high-fashion sneaker showcase bulbous proportions across the upper and sole unit. Given Pharrell's connection to skateboarding–and his predecessor Virgil Abloh's–it's safe to assume the ButterSoft model has also been inspired by the action sport. The toe box and top of the tongue create a through-line to the ICECREAM Board Flip series the Louis Vuitton Creative Director developed with Reebok in 2005. Could this be Pharrell's way of celebrating that model's 20th anniversary? The bold, in-your-face styles that've been previewed thus far suggest it could be given that the Board Flip's employed similar visuals.

Louis Vuitton's Paris Fashion Week showing will take place on Jan. 21. Follow @HouseofHeat on X for realtime updates of Pharrell's latest work for the storied fashion house.