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Sneaker Room and adidas are teaming up on the Adistar Control 5 with Puerto Rico at the center. Wepa!
Last year, adidas and Sneaker Room gave people a preview of what this story could become. During the Puerto Rican Day Parade, a custom adidas Adistar Control 5 appeared and immediately caught attention. It was not just about putting island-inspired colors on a shoe and calling it culture. It felt like a real attempt to honor Puerto Rican identity through details that people could recognize, understand, and feel proud of.
This year, that moment becomes a full release.
The collaboration brings together adidas and Sneaker Room, the Jersey City-based boutique and cultural institution known for mixing product, storytelling, and community work in a way that connects to their roots.
The shoe is rooted in Puerto Rican history, pride, and tradition. It also carries a direct community purpose. Profits from every pair sold through Sneaker Room will go back to Puerto Rico to support the construction of an outdoor roof for an elementary school in Salinas. That roof will help create a safer and more dedicated space for students to learn, gather, and grow.
That detail should not get lost in the excitement around the product. Sneakers can create attention, but projects like this show what can happen when that attention is pointed toward something useful. It is one thing to make a shoe inspired by a place. It is another thing to make sure that place feels the impact after the release is over. In Puerto Rico, they might say, “Del dicho al hecho hay un largo trecho” (there is a big difference between talking and doing).
The Adistar Control 5 itself is a good choice for this type of project as well. It is a model that adidas has been leaning on lately, quietly delivering some of its strongest releases.
The sneaker includes nine interchangeable tongue patches inspired by symbols of Puerto Rico, including the Flor de Maga, the coquí, and the pava. These details allow the wearer to change the look of the shoe while also making each pair feel more connected to personal identity. These symbols are not random design references. They show up in family stories, school lessons, music, neighborhood murals, souvenirs, festivals, and everyday reminders of home.
“Nuestra Cultura al Mundo” is printed on the back of the sneaker, which translates to “Our Culture to the World.” That phrase also connects to a broader adidas platform meant to uplift Hispanic and Latino/a/e voices across sport, culture, and community.
For Sneaker Room founder and CEO Suraj Kaufman, the project is about representing Puerto Rican culture in a way that feels honest. Kaufman said the response to last year’s custom Control 5s showed how deeply the story connected with the community.
Puerto Rican culture has always had a strong presence in sneaker culture, especially in places like Jersey City, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Orlando, and other areas with large Puerto Rican communities. In those places, sneakers are not just a hobby, they are tied to style, family gatherings, pride, school, music, barber shops, block parties, and the way people represent where they come from.
A pair like this can speak to people who grew up seeing the flag in apartment windows, at parades, on car mirrors, in bodegas, and at family cookouts. It gives people something they can wear with pride in their culture.
Before the shoe arrives in Jersey City, adidas and Sneaker Room are first taking the celebration to Puerto Rico.
On May 16th, adidas Cornerstone Community and Sneaker Room will host a community celebration at Instituto de Subcultura in Santurce from 5-10pm. The event is being presented as a thank you to the island that inspired the project. It will feature an art exhibit from local Puerto Rican artists, music by OrteeZ, and hosting by Muela Inmunda and Suraj Kaufman.
The event will spotlight local artists through work inspired by adidas and Puerto Rico. A limited number of sneakers will also be given out on a first come, first served basis while supplies last.
Starting the rollout in Puerto Rico feels like the right move. Too often, brands pull inspiration from a community and then center the celebration somewhere else. Here, the first stop is the island itself. That shows that the people and neighborhoods that inspired the sneaker are a priority and not an afterthought.
The celebration will then continue on May 30th in Jersey City, where adidas and Sneaker Room will host an in-store activation around the official release. The event will include live DJ sets and a street takeover called Salsa on Central at 5pm, in partnership with the City of Jersey City. The celebration will also include a salsa concert and a performance by Danny Matos Y La Zaborinque.
This collaboration also continues adidas’ work through Cornerstone Community, an initiative focused on supporting BIPOC-serving retailers through community engagement, training opportunities, and impactful local programming. Last year, adidas and Sneaker Room worked together during Hispanic Heritage Month to support school murals, provide book bags, and create youth experiences in Salinas and Aguada. This release continues that work rather than treating community impact as a one-off effort.
For those who saw last year’s custom pair and hoped it would become something bigger, this release answers that. The custom Adistar Control 5 from last year helped start the conversation. This year’s global release gives more people a chance to participate in it.
The Sneaker Room x adidas Adistar Control 5 releases May 30th at Sneaker Room retail locations and online at snkrroom.com. Check them out below.
Sneaker Room x adidas Adistar Control 5 “Puerto Rico”
Release Date: May 30, 2026
Price: $145 USD
