Jonathan Anderson continues his streak of unpredictable collaborations by reviving a cornerstone of athletic history: the 1975 Diadora Equipe. Launched on May 15, 2026, this limited-edition release eschews modern lifestyle trends in favor of raw, Italian-made performance and functional integrity. By focusing on construction over provocation, the JW Anderson x Diadora Equipe offers a grounded alternative to a market flooded with status symbols.
JW Anderson and Diadora have centered the release on the Equipe, a running shoe Diadora originally developed in 1975 for professional track athletes. This detail is worth noting. The Equipe did not come from a lifestyle brief or a marketing department. It came from sports and function—the idea that a shoe must perform well before it can look good. This origin makes the collaboration more grounded than the many drops flooding the market right now.
Founded in 1948, Diadora started as a mountain boot workshop in Caerano di San Marco, a region of northern Italy already recognized for its manufacturing craft. The brand transitioned into sportswear in the 1960s, but its credibility stems from outfitting serious athletes long before lifestyle sneakers existed. The Equipe debuted in 1975 as the brand’s first dedicated running shoe and featured the now-iconic Fregio logo stripe. For decades, the shoe defined a certain kind of athletic seriousness: low-profile, purposeful, and built to last.
Jonathan Anderson understood this, which is why this release is so successful. The Equipe has aged in a way that most archival silhouettes haven’t. It does not feel like nostalgia for its own sake. The shoe carries weight because it predates the era when sneakers became status symbols. It was never designed to be cool. That is precisely why it is now.
The designer kept the slim silhouette and distinctive swallowtail toe intact. The heel-wrapping outsole, one of the original’s more unusual structural details, is also preserved. The finish is the only thing that changed. The collaboration comes in four colorways: Green Night, Navy Peony, Empire Red, and Princess Blue. Each pair features branded hardware and co-branded laces—quiet details that signal the collaboration without shouting it. The shoes are made in Montebelluna, a town in Italy’s Veneto region that has produced technical footwear for decades. This is no coincidence. Manufacturing location matters right now, and Anderson and Diadora are aware of it.
The campaign was photographed by Sammy Khoury and features actor Conor Sánchez, a deliberate departure from the traditional casting of athletes or influencers. The images first appeared as Hypebeast exclusives ahead of the release.
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This is not the first time Anderson has worked with footwear brands outside his own label. His long-running partnership with Converse, which began in 2017, produced memorable reworkings of the Chuck 70 and the Run Star Hike, which features a chunky platform sole. In 2023, he collaborated with Wellipets on rubber clogs featuring a frog face on the toe — a deliberately absurdist move that drew attention at Milan Men’s Fashion Week.
The Diadora project feels different. It’s quieter. It is more focused on construction and color than on provocation. Highsnobiety described the result as “a delightful oddity,” noting that the Equipe and JW Anderson models have the same kind of unexplained appeal.
The JW Anderson x Diadora Equipe retails for €390. It is currently available at jwanderson.com, diadora.com, JW Anderson stores in London, Milan, and Tokyo, and Nordstrom.