Remember Vivienne Westwood's Excellent ASICS Sneakers? Imagine Them in Leather
Vivienne Westwood's ASICS sneaker collaborations were wildly weird, even for the vaunted British fashion house. Westwood did everything from slapping logos atop quintessential ASICS running shoes to remixing conventional kicks with zip-up "jackets."
And now they're back. But not really.
That is, the new Vivienne Westwood Shopper Stomper sneaker is not an ASICS sneaker. But it does share similar DNA.
Compare the $550 Shopper Stomper, currently available online as part of Westwood's Spring/Summer 2025 collection, to the GEL-Kayano shoes that released as part of Westwood's initial ASICS team-up several years back.
One to one? Hardly. But the vibes aren't terribly dissimilar.
Notice the shroud that covers the sneaker's upper, made adjustable by an oversized pull-tab. Consider the grippy sneaker-style sole. Obviously, the Shopper Stomper is a meatier proposition than Westwood's net-covered ASICS sneakers but you get the gist.
Interestingly, though the Shopper Stomper appears to be cut from leather, it's apparently a synthetic with similar texture.
They join the various other Stomper shoes that comprise the impressively robust seasonal Vivienne Westwood footwear lineup, which include a sandal-style sneaker called the Catch Stomper.
Westwood's ASICS collaborations, which began in 2020, were ahead of their time.
ASICS' contemporary readjustment as a mature alternative to the Nikes and adidas of the world really only took hold in the past few years, as sneaker tastes shifted to include more technical-looking silhouettes.
Westwood's prescient approach encompassed a handful of styles that predated modern footwear inclinations by a good couple years or so.
Even the Shopper Stomper, with its muted monochrome form and easy-on upper, feels relatively ahead of the curve, or at least aligned with several other contemporary statement shoes. Just another sign that the house of Westwood is still often circumventing trends in its own patient way.
