New York is a city that never sits still and never sleeps, yet somehow always feels like it’s walking in circles. For most visitors, those circles look like Times Square selfies, Statue of Liberty ferries, or overpriced rooftop bars. But the real city, the one people actually live in, is made in the corners you almost miss. It’s the bodega you stop at on the way to the train, the park bench where someone is always reading a book, or the community cafe that refuses to get swallowed up by a chain. That’s the map Highsnobiety wanted to redraw, which is why we linked up with KEEN and Brooklyn artist Aya Brown for a walking tour of New York that skips the tourist trail and traces the pathways that actually matter, hitting the street with KEEN’s Jasper collection, shoes for everyday life.
Aya’s New York is a city of people, not landmarks. On this walk, she leads us through locales like Oro Latino Inc., a local shop steeped in neighborhood identity; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a space that has nurtured generations of spoken word and experimental performance; Casa Adela, the Puerto Rican restaurant that feels like a second living room for anyone in the know; and La Plaza Cultural, a reclaimed community garden where nature, protest, and art overlap. Aya takes us off the feed and into the streets, reminding us that New York’s culture is defined as much by resilience as by hype.
And that’s where KEEN comes in. The Jasper line has always been about hybrid living, sneakers with climbing shoe DNA designed for the people who move between worlds. Since its launch in 2008, the Jasper has been the kind of sneaker that says, “I might be trekking a park later, but right now I’m grabbing a coffee.” For fall 2025, KEEN is reintroducing the Jasper collection.
The Jasper Collection draws from climbing heritage and reimagines it for city life. The Jasper Original stands out with toe-to-tongue lacing and suede uppers in colorways that move with your style, from office commutes to downtown detours. The Jasper Zionic builds on the classic with a technical tread designed to handle shifting terrain, paired with bold palettes that command attention. Together, they redefine utility and style as inseparable, because in cities like New York, both are essential.
Watching Aya lead a group through the Lower East Side in Jasper Original and Jasper Zionic, it’s clear how much walking becomes more than just a way to get around. It becomes a form of storytelling, a performance of care, even a quiet protest against a city that often feels engineered to push people out. Aya’s walk, and KEEN’s sneakers, insist on reclaiming the streets as spaces of community, intimacy, and self-expression.
This collaboration highlights how finding hidden gems isn't about clout, but about shifting how we experience the city. Together, Aya and KEEN, with the help of the Jasper collection, create a new walking map, one that resists overexposure and embraces the overlooked. This effort and intention are an invitation to walk differently, to see differently, and to step into a New York that’s still being written with every block.
Click here to discover the real New York and more from KEEN.
