How ASICS became a luxury fashion powerhouse through SportStyle From Vivienne Westwood to Thom Browne

ASICS has taken Europe by storm. The Japanese company is thriving across the Old Continent, posting a 43.7% year-over-year increase in sales during the first quarter of 2026. While the brand has openly stated its intention to further expand its presence in Asia, its global performance continues to reward strategic investments in sport, particularly in running and athletics. Yet among all disciplines, its influence in the world of tennis has grown most significantly.

Tennis and Luxury Fashion: ASICS' Winning Strategy

In addition to boasting ambassadors such as Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz—two ATP Top 10 players among its roster—ASICS can also count on a strong contingent of Italian athletes. The fluorescent outfit designed for Jasmine Paolini became one of the talking points of the last Australian Open, standing in perfect contrast to the understated look worn by Lorenzo Musetti at the same tournament, arguably one of the cleanest kits on tour. Both players were already among the ASICS ambassadors involved in the brand’s 2025 collaboration with French luxury ready-to-wear label A.P.C., marking the fashion house’s debut in tennis through the launch of both On-Court and Off-Court collections.

More recently, Matteo Berrettini made a statement at Indian Wells, stepping onto the court in fuchsia GEL-RESOLUTION X sneakers. The vibrant footwear contrasted sharply with both the tournament’s blue hard courts and the classic black-and-white BOSS apparel that has long defined the Roman player’s image. The synergy between A.P.C. and BOSS perfectly encapsulates ASICS’ approach: leveraging its high-profile ambassadors to attract luxury fashion brands into the sportswear space. This strategy has transformed the company’s SportStyle division into the true engine of its European growth, driving an impressive 85.6% increase in sales during the last quarter.

Kiko Kostadinov, from Gorpcore to High-End

GEL technology is ASICS’ true signature, a revolutionary innovation that remains effective today despite having been developed back in the 1990s. For this reason, the Japanese company has always sought creative ways to enhance and reinterpret it, ensuring its status as an evergreen staple. A major turning point came through its partnership with Kiko Kostadinov, the Bulgarian fashion designer based in London, whose disruptive vision revolutionized the aesthetic identity of the Japanese brand.

Until then, in 2017, ASICS footwear had largely been perceived as highly technical products, designed purely for performance. Kostadinov’s collaborations instead forged a distinctive identity, beginning with the very first creation born from this partnership: the GEL-Burz. A shoe characterized by a bulky, industrial, almost brutalist design, yet still rooted in athletic functionality. It embodied an ugly-chic aesthetic that would later become a pioneer of the movement known as gorpcore.

Over the years, Kostadinov’s collections evolved and achieved remarkable success, to the point that his studio was integrated into ASICS SportStyle to support the brand’s global development. Numerous hybrid products emerged, reimagining classic silhouettes through a futuristic lens. This also led to the introduction of an alphabetical classification system with a unique nomenclature code used to identify the season of a collection, its color palette, and the different model variations.

Despite some ups and downs between the designer and the brand, the definitive turning point arrived in 2023 with the launch of the ASICS NOVALIS line. The collection features technical garments with tailored cuts, representing a complete shift in direction that marks the transition beyond gorpcore toward a high-end identity, while still preserving the functionality inherent to utility wear. The designs are cleaner, more geometric, and crafted from premium materials that position the products within price ranges more commonly associated with the luxury market, while maintaining a high level of comfort. This synthesis perfectly explains ASICS’ most recent collaborations.

Vivienne Westwood and the Punk Reinvention of ASICS

Before the NOVALIS era, ASICS’ support of Kiko Kostadinov in 2017 laid the groundwork for further collaborations with the fashion world. One partnership in particular helped establish the Japanese footwear giant’s global reputation and cement its presence on the runway. In 2019, ASICS joined forces with Vivienne Westwood, releasing a limited-edition capsule collection of five sneaker models across two separate drops.

The first release featured the GEL-MAI and GEL-Kayano 5 OG, both inspired by Westwood’s fascination with the past and the creative transition that led her to reinterpret punk as an aesthetic movement before a subversive one. The GEL-MAI design drew directly from Pirate, the iconic Autumn/Winter 1981 collection created by Westwood alongside Malcolm McLaren, known for its geometric patterns, African-inspired motifs, and pirate references. Both sneakers showcased the signature Squiggle print that characterized the original collection.

The second drop united three additional models—HyperGEL-Lyte, GEL-SAGA, and GEL-DS TRAINER OG—through a common inspiration: Daphnis and Chloe, the Rococo painting by François Boucher that held a special place in Westwood’s imagination thanks to its presence in London’s Wallace Collection. All three sneakers featured the iconic Orb logo on the heel and a CHAOS tab along the side, two of Westwood’s most recognizable design signatures.

The collaboration continued through 2021, introducing additional releases that reimagined what is perhaps ASICS’ most iconic silhouette: the GEL-KAYANO. Originally designed in 1993 by Toshikazu Kayano, the performance runner embodies the company’s traditional spirit, with its voluminous design inspired by the stag beetle, Europe’s largest beetle species. The GEL-KAYANO 26 and later the GEL-KAYANO 27 retained the industrial materials and substantial construction that define the model, while looking toward the future through Westwood’s unmistakable lens. Punk-inspired mesh overlays, exposed layers, and intentionally unfinished details reflected a design philosophy rooted in rejecting convention and established structures.

Cecilie Bahnsen and the Rise of the Mary Jane Sneaker

Following Westwood, high fashion increasingly embraced ASICS. Few collaborations illustrate this better than the partnership with Cecilie Bahnsen, the Danish designer educated in London and founder of the Copenhagen-based luxury label that bears her name. As Bahnsen herself describes it, her creative approach lies at the intersection of couture and ready-to-wear, a concept she defines as everyday couture.

Her garments are highly technical, meticulously hand-drawn and embroidered, yet designed for daily life—or even for riding a bicycle, as she often notes. Muted palettes and water-resistant fabrics ensure functionality across different environments. Combined with Bahnsen’s long-standing admiration for Japanese aesthetics, the partnership with ASICS—and similarly minded brands such as The North Face and Uniqlo—felt almost inevitable.

In 2022, the two parties unveiled their first collaboration during Paris Fashion Week, an artistic upcycling project involving fifty pairs of sneakers embellished with surplus materials sourced from Bahnsen’s archives. Scalloped trims, decorative beads, and couture-inspired details were applied to traditionally masculine, rugged silhouettes to introduce a more feminine sensibility. Produced as a limited edition, the project also aligned with ASICS’ sustainability commitments, as company data from 2021 and 2022 indicated that 90% of its running shoes incorporated recycled materials.

The collaboration reached its peak in 2023 with the launch of the ASICS GEL GT-2160 during the July edition of Paris Fashion Week. The design transformed the sneaker into a Mary Jane-inspired hybrid: the lacing system was repositioned lower on the upper to create two elegant eyelets closer to the toe, while the traditional tongue was replaced by glossy Velcro strap closures.

The model proved so successful that a second drop followed later that year. This version reintroduced the tongue, wrapped in a double strap embellished with floral motifs. The color palette also evolved, moving beyond stark black and white into brighter shades of blue. More than simply representing the first true example of a Mary Jane sports sneaker, the design marked ASICS’ definitive arrival in luxury streetwear.

GEL-QUANTUM 360 and the Future of SportStyle

Paris Fashion Week continues to serve as the stage for Cecilie Bahnsen’s ongoing experiments with ASICS footwear. The Spring/Summer 2026 shows introduced the GEL-QUANTUM 360 I, another functional reinterpretation of the brand’s sneaker heritage. The silhouette still references the Mary Jane aesthetic, but in a slip-on version, eliminating zippers, straps, and laces altogether. In their place sits a geometric floral cut-out integrated directly into the upper, echoing the decorative motifs found throughout the shoe’s surface.

The sole remains the only traditionally athletic component, featuring ASICS’ signature GEL cushioning, while the upper adopts a smooth neoprene construction in place of the usual performance mesh. A subtle shift in color also appears, with the classic black launch version joined by a pale pink iteration—the first of its kind within Bahnsen’s ASICS collaborations. A unique blend of elegance and functionality, the design stands as a celebration of femininity through the Danish designer’s lens and one of the flagship products within ASICS’ increasingly influential SportStyle line.

Thom Browne, the GQ Bowl and a Surprise Sneaker Debut

At the intersection of sport and fashion, one pivotal moment for ASICS came during Super Bowl LX, held on February 8, 2026, when the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Two days before the game, the Legion of Honor Museum hosted the second edition of the GQ Bowl, an event designed to merge the popularity of American football with the world of high fashion while capitalizing on the global spotlight surrounding the Super Bowl.

The event’s guest of honor was Thom Browne, the American designer credited with revolutionizing menswear through the introduction of the shrunken suit—his iconic cropped gray tailoring. In tribute to his aesthetic, the traditional red carpet was transformed into a gray carpet. Browne even skipped New York Fashion Week to attend the event and unveil his Fall/Winter 2026 collection.

Against the backdrop of Auguste Rodin’s monumental sculpture Les Trois Ombres, housed within the museum’s Adolph B. and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels Gallery, actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II recited verses from Dante’s Inferno, a literary source that also inspired Rodin’s work. The poetry accompanied a procession of models dressed in sculptural shades of gray. Among them were Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Marcus Allen.

Stefon Diggs, another NFL wide receiver who competed in Super Bowl LX with the Patriots, played a prominent role as well. Appearing alongside supermodel Gigi Hadid in the official GQ Bowl teaser video, Diggs is also a long-time admirer of Thom Browne and an ASICS brand ambassador.

What united all three athletes throughout the event was their footwear: ASICS sneakers. Their presence ultimately served as the official announcement of the Japanese brand’s partnership with Thom Browne, marking the designer’s first-ever venture into both sneakers and SportStyle.

Why Fashion Collaborations Are Driving ASICS' Growth

The collaboration begins precisely at the intersection of tailoring and performance footwear. Its goal is to preserve Browne’s distinctive aesthetic—typically associated with black wingtip shoes and traditional menswear—while translating those characteristics into the language of ASICS sneakers. The result is refined rather than radical. The GEL-KAYANO silhouette, already among ASICS’ most classic designs and a favorite of Browne as a runner, remains intentionally faithful to the original. The capsule’s color palette is equally restrained, consisting of several shades of gray alongside black and white, perfectly aligned with the designer’s understated approach.

The primary signature element is unmistakably Thom Browne’s: the grosgrain pull tab featuring the brand’s iconic red, white, and blue stripes. It appears on the heel, beneath the laces, and on the insole, providing the collection’s sole burst of color. While the overall aesthetic remains largely unchanged, the materials receive a significant upgrade. Premium suede, a hallmark of Browne’s tailoring expertise, enriches the traditional mesh upper. Even the stitching surrounding the ASICS side stripes has been meticulously executed, featuring refined zig-zag embroidery.

These subtle details define a collaboration that may not be as disruptive as those with Westwood or Bahnsen, but remains distinctive in its own right. Browne’s interpretation stays deeply rooted in both his identity and the traditions of tailoring, reflecting the weight of a debut into sneaker culture—an arena the designer had previously admired only from afar. Perhaps the most symbolic element of the partnership is the creation of a limited-edition fanzine titled The Working Hour. Conceived as a visual essay, it follows a character through the streets of Tokyo over the course of a day before concluding with a scene of someone running while dressed in a bespoke suit. The project shifts the focus away from the product itself, offering a glimpse of the creative experimentation that has long defined ASICS SportStyle’s most successful partnerships with the world of high-end fashion.