diff --git a/lib/httparty.rb b/lib/httparty.rb
index c62c967..fbd0d71 100644
--- a/lib/httparty.rb
+++ b/lib/httparty.rb
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ module HTTParty
   # * :+maintain_method_across_redirects+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.maintain_method_across_redirects.
   # * :+no_follow+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.no_follow.
   # * :+parser+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.parser.
+  # * :+uri_adapter+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.uri_adapter
   # * :+connection_adapter+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.connection_adapter.
   # * :+pem+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.pem.
   # * :+query_string_normalizer+: see HTTParty::ClassMethods.query_string_normalizer
@@ -419,6 +420,17 @@ module HTTParty
       end
     end
 
+    # Allows setting a custom URI adapter.
+    #
+    #   class Foo
+    #     include HTTParty
+    #     uri_adapter Addressable::URI
+    #   end
+    def uri_adapter(uri_adapter)
+      raise ArgumentError, 'The URI adapter should respond to #parse' unless uri_adapter.respond_to?(:parse)
+      default_options[:uri_adapter] = uri_adapter
+    end
+
     # Allows setting a custom connection_adapter for the http connections
     #
     # @example
diff --git a/lib/httparty/connection_adapter.rb b/lib/httparty/connection_adapter.rb
index 635799c..7a4d467 100644
--- a/lib/httparty/connection_adapter.rb
+++ b/lib/httparty/connection_adapter.rb
@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ module HTTParty
     attr_reader :uri, :options
 
     def initialize(uri, options = {})
-      raise ArgumentError, "uri must be a URI, not a #{uri.class}" unless uri.is_a? URI
+      uri_adapter = options[:uri_adapter] || URI
+      raise ArgumentError, "uri must be a #{uri_adapter}, not a #{uri.class}" unless uri.is_a? uri_adapter
 
       @uri = uri
       @options = options
diff --git a/lib/httparty/request.rb b/lib/httparty/request.rb
index f8d2b9e..8f7b323 100644
--- a/lib/httparty/request.rb
+++ b/lib/httparty/request.rb
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ module HTTParty
         default_params: {},
         follow_redirects: true,
         parser: Parser,
+        uri_adapter: URI,
         connection_adapter: ConnectionAdapter
       }.merge(o)
       self.path = path
@@ -90,13 +91,15 @@ module HTTParty
     end
 
     def URI uri
-      if uri.is_a?(URI)
+      uri_adapter = options[:uri_adapter]
+
+      if uri.is_a?(uri_adapter)
         uri
       elsif uri = String.try_convert(uri)
-        URI.parse uri
+        uri_adapter.parse uri
       else
         raise ArgumentError,
-          "bad argument (expected URI object or URI string)"
+          "bad argument (expected #{uri_adapter} object or URI string)"
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/httparty_spec.rb b/spec/httparty_spec.rb
index 914202e..139c102 100644
--- a/spec/httparty_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/httparty_spec.rb
@@ -351,6 +351,45 @@ RSpec.describe HTTParty do
     end
   end
 
+  describe "uri_adapter" do
+
+    require 'forwardable'
+    class CustomURIAdaptor
+      extend Forwardable
+      def_delegators :@uri, :userinfo, :relative?, :query, :query=, :scheme, :path, :host, :port
+
+      def initialize uri
+        @uri = uri
+      end
+
+      def self.parse uri
+        new URI.parse uri
+      end
+    end
+
+    let(:uri_adapter) { CustomURIAdaptor }
+
+    it "should set the uri_adapter" do
+      @klass.uri_adapter uri_adapter
+      expect(@klass.default_options[:uri_adapter]).to be uri_adapter
+    end
+
+    it "should raise an ArgumentError if uri_adapter doesn't implement parse method" do
+      expect do
+        @klass.uri_adapter double()
+      end.to raise_error(ArgumentError)
+    end
+
+
+    it "should process a request with a uri instance parsed from the uri_adapter" do
+      uri = 'http://foo.com/bar'
+      FakeWeb.register_uri(:get, uri, body: 'stuff')
+      @klass.uri_adapter uri_adapter
+      expect(@klass.get(uri).parsed_response).to eq('stuff')
+    end
+
+  end
+
   describe "connection_adapter" do
     let(:uri) { 'http://google.com/api.json' }
     let(:connection_adapter) { double('CustomConnectionAdapter') }