ASICS just handed the aux cord to seven of the smartest sneaker shops on earth and told them to remix a dad shoe.

The result comes in the shape of the ASICS GEL-Cumulus 16 “TOMO,” a one-off take on the 2010s-era runner cooked up with retailers Extra Butter, Sneaker Politics, Concepts, Feature, Somewhere, Lapstone & Hammer, and The Whitaker Group. 

“Tomo,” meaning friend in Japanese, is a friends-and-family project made public where these hand-picked retailers weighed in on every detail from the ground up.

Visually, the ASICS GEL-Cumulus 16 “TOMO” is pure retro runner. The sneaker's creamy colorway layers reflective silver mesh with hits of glossy metallic overlays, emerald-toned ASICS tiger stripes, and pops of metallic violet at the heel.

Mood-shifting gradient laces (finished with metal tips) thread through a puffed tongue stamped with kanji, nodding to the insider “TOMO” program. 

Underfoot, the GEL-Cumulus 16 stays faithful to the original through cushy, mile-eating cushioning and pillowy midsole geometry that made this line a quiet favorite with runners long before “dad shoes” became an aesthetic.

ASICS, like many sportswear labels, regularly gives best-in-class retailers the keys to its sneakers. Think Kith’s long arc of GEL-Lyte sneakers that turned archival runners into lifestyle staples, for instance.

But bringing together seven of the world's coolest stores for one sneaker? That's upping the stakes.

If you want a pair of the resulting shoes, you’ll have to go to the source. The “TOMO” GEL-Cumulus 16 releases on September 27 for $170 exclusively via the seven collaborators’ stores.