Adam Barry grew up in Marlton, New Jersey, about 13 miles from Independence Hall. His classmates once called him “Commodore” after a field trip to Philadelphia, where a statue of Commodore Barry, father of the American Navy, stands just outside the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now Barry is the senior creative exterior designer at GM’s Performance Studio, and Chevrolet handed him the brief to dress five vehicles for America’s 250th birthday. The coincidences practically wrote the pitch.
The result is the 2026 Stars & Steel Collection, a lineup that spans the Corvette, Colorado, Silverado 1500, Silverado HD, and Silverado EV, all assembled in the United States. Each model carries tone-on-tone flag-inspired stripes, a 250th anniversary logo, and black wheels as standard. The design mandate, as Barry described it, was “to visually communicate American technology, horsepower, and restraint, while not slathering on too much red, white, and blue.” Applied across five vehicles with wildly different body panels, that constraint turned out to be the whole job.
One Motif, Five Canvases
Getting the stripe treatment to read coherently from a Corvette hood to a Silverado HD hood took time. Barry’s solution was boldness through simplicity: a graphic stark enough to work across completely different proportions without losing its identity. The tone-on-tone execution makes it subtle at a distance. On black, the stripes are dark gray; on white, a marginally deeper hue. “Just different values of each other,” Barry said. Up close, on the Corvette, there’s more to find. A stylized flag worked into the graphic incorporates the phrase “1776 to 2026” along its bottom edge, small enough that most owners won’t notice until they’re washing the car. Barry called it “complicated to execute, but something that I knew was possible.” It’s his favorite detail in the collection.
Red appears differently on each model, calibrated to the vehicle’s character. The Corvette, Silverado 1500, and Silverado EV get red Brembo brake calipers. The Colorado gets red recovery tow hooks instead. The Silverado HD channels its red energy into a Max Trailering Package that pushes the rated tow figure to 21,600 pounds. Barry’s color language is consistent even when the hardware is completely different.
The Corvette, Obviously
When Chevy asked which Stars & Steel model was his favorite, Barry said “yeah, of course” before the sentence was finished. The Corvette is where the project began, and production is capped at 250 units, one for each year of the republic. Buyers choose between Arctic White with Satin Silver stripes over a Santorini Blue interior, or black with Satin Black stripes over an Adrenaline Red interior. Sill plates carry unique graphics, an interior plaque records the build sequence number, and wheels come in Black Gloss, Carbon-Flash, or carbon fiber. Red accents extend to the seatbelts, floor mat stitching, and engine cover on select models. The Stingray and the ZR1X are both eligible, which means the same graphic vocabulary spans from entry Corvette to the brand’s performance apex.
The Trucks Do More Work
The Silverado 1500 Stars & Steel starts from the RST Crew Cab in short-box, four-wheel-drive configuration and adds a 6.2L V8 with a performance air intake, red six-piston Brembo front calipers, 22-inch gloss-black wheels, a spray-in bedliner, a roll-top bed cover, and a sunroof. Convenience Package II brings a seven-speaker Bose system and a trailer brake controller. Chevrolet sold nearly 363,000 Silverado 1500s in 2025, and the Stars & Steel edition gives that buyer base a package with substance behind the appearance.
The Silverado EV version builds on the RST and adds 24-inch gloss-black wheels, black nameplates, and the same Brembo heavy-duty brake upgrade with six-piston front calipers and 15.7-inch rotors. For an electric truck that weighs what electric trucks weigh, the larger brake hardware is a practical argument, not just a visual one.
The Silverado HD goes deepest on capability. Standard equipment includes the 6.6L Duramax diesel making 470 hp and 975 lb-ft of torque, the Z71 off-road package with off-road suspension and skid plates, the LTZ Convenience Package II, the LTZ Plus Package, and the Gooseneck/Fifth Wheel Prep Package. Ventilated front buckets, adaptive cruise control, and heated rear outboard seats come along with it. The Max Trailering Package raises the tow rating to 21,600 pounds. Based on the LTZ Crew Cab Trail Boss, it is the most optioned Stars & Steel model by a significant margin.
The Colorado rounds out the collection in midsize format. Starting from the Trail Boss Crew Cab with the 2.7L turbocharged four and four-wheel drive, it adds the Midnight Edition package with 20-inch gloss-black wheels, a 40-inch off-road light bar, and black nameplates, plus red recovery hooks, rocker panel guards, skid plates, and a spray-in bedliner. For buyers who want the anniversary theme without a full-size footprint, the Colorado makes the case.
The Number That Ties It Together
250 turns up everywhere in this collection with the single-mindedness of someone who planned it that way. The Corvette run is 250 units. The anniversary is 250 years. With every Stars & Steel vehicle sold across all five models, Chevrolet donates $250 to nonprofits supporting veterans. The program began in January 2026 at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, where a one-of-one Stars & Steel-inspired Corvette ZR1X sold for $2.6 million, with all proceeds directed to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which builds and provides mortgage-free homes for families of fallen first responders and injured veterans.
Chevrolet ran a similar play in 1974 with Spirit of America editions tied to the approaching Bicentennial. That was 52 years ago. Barry, who was still years from being born when those trucks rolled out, now owns the follow-up.
Thirteen miles from where it all started, and he found his way to the job anyway.
2026 Chevrolet Stars & Steel Collection Photo Gallery
Source: Chevrolet. Images courtesy of Chevrolet.
