The First Modern Leather ASICS SportStyle Sneaker Is More Dress Shoe Than Dad Shoe (EXCLUSIVE)
What does it say about the state of sneakerdom that ASICS, maker of archetypally technical running shoes, has finally created an all-leather sneaker? And what does it say that the first-ever leather ASICS SportStyle sneaker is more dress shoe than dad shoe?
This pioneering ASICS shoe, revealed exclusively by Highsnobiety, is not the first leather ASICS shoe — that honor belongs to some of the elderly masterpieces in the ASICS Walking collection — and it's certainly not the first ASICS shoe to wear leather panels.
But never before has the taste-setting ASICS SportStyle line gotten so plush.
Even though it utilizes the GEL-Quantum Kinetic sneaker as a base, ASICS SportStyle's first modern leather shoe doesn't look quite like anything you've ever seen before.
Well, it kinda looks like that one-off ASICS loafer created by GmbH but even then, only barely. (and, for what it's worth, both that shoe and TheSoloist's wild ASICS boot were also leather but this is the first contemporary leather SportStyle sneaker.)
The GEL-Quantum Kinetic sole is pretty much intact but the upper is almost entirely retooled save for the sockliner, maybe. Otherwise, it comprises slabs of washed-out black or brown leather accented by brogue-style punch-outs and a shiny one-piece vamp with integrated eyestays.
There's a surprising amount of action on the toebox, where an enormous ASICS "a" is shaped from the same small holes, in case the tiny metal "a" at the ankle is too subtle.
Since these leather ASICS SportStyle shoes are only samples created just over a month ago, they may not hit production or, at least, not in this form.
But they do hint at a bigger picture for the footwear biz.
That is, though there will likely never not be demand for more overtly technical running sneakers, sometimes simply referred to as "dad shoes," there's growing demand for luxe-ish footwear of the Miu Miu variety.
Not necessarily flat shoes, mind you, just sport-ish sneakers unexpectedly made of grain leather or suede.
This gives the kicks a more tangible edge, lending them a feel of tasteful maturity. Not that technical sneakers aren't stylistically timeless but their inorganic fabrication does make them a shorter-lived proposition.
Hence the uptick in walking shoes like Mephisto (and Mephisto-likes) and even some suavely textural silhouettes from companies as utilitarian as Converse and as luxe as Margiela.
So, that ASICS is dabbling in more leathery territories speaks to its own adaptation. It was already king of the dad shoes but it's throwing its crown into the ring of post-dad shoes, too.
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