The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 373 — What Asics is doing right ✅
The cool kids are wearing Asics now.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate y’all.
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Alright, gang. Let’s jump in.
Asics is cookin’
It’s too early to crown a footwear brand of the year or anything like that. But Asics is having a phenomenal 2024 so far. The brand seems more present in the mainstream than ever.
Doesn’t it feel like you’re just seeing them everywhere these days? Outside. On the internet. The brand’s presence seems more pronounced in the mainstream than ever before.
Case in point: Look at the Asics Rangers! This Philly kid is roasting all of his friends for wearing the brand, but it’s trendy now. They’re not niche anymore.
This Asics explosion is partly because the Meshy dad shoe trend is still in vogue. The other part is that Asics has run a very focused strategy centered around those mesh shoes and it’s working well.
The Playbook: Over the last few years, Asics has done three key things that have put the brand in a great place.
First: It’s mastered its collaborative strategy. Collabs have ruled the footwear industry over the last decade and Asics might have the most thorough one working right now.
It keeps a mainstream collaboration on deck, usually with longtime partners like Kith, CDG or Bodega (who actually have one coming up this week).
It also partners with brands outside of the mainstream in the U.S. like Above the Clouds, Hal-Studios, Up There Store and more. Not only does that introduce the consumer to new brands, but it also keeps Asics in a position where its collaborative partner is not overshadowing it like, say, a Joe FreshGoods may do at times with New Balance.
Second: It’s introduced us to a ton of new silhouettes. The GT-2160, the Gel-Kayano 10.1 and 12.1, the Gel-NYC and Gel-NYC 2055. The list goes on.
Don’t get it twisted: Some of these aren’t new at all. But because Asics has been a niche brand for so long, the retro models are basically new.
Third: The pricing! This is key. A big spot where other brands struggle (*cough* Nike *cough*) is pricing.
Even the worst Jordans are running you upwards of $180. A pair of Air Maxes can cost you $150.
You can buy the Gel-1130 from Asics for $110. The GT-2160 is just $120. Same for the Gel-NYC. The Kayano models can get up to $150, but they feel worth it. You can’t say the same about every pair of Jordans you own.
When you throw all of these things together, you land upon a strategy with a little something for everyone. Collabs for the hypebeasts. New models for folks looking for something fresh. Cheaper options for folks who want a new shoe to wear. It’s smart.
It’s also paying off: The Japanese brand had record profit margins heading into the summer, and its shares have exploded lately. What it’s doing is working.
The big picture: Asics isn’t Nike or Adidas. It’s not going to catch the big brands in revenue anytime soon. The company’s market cap is just over $13 billion, which clears it of competitors like Puma ($6.4 billion) and Under Armour ($3.3 billion) but is still more than $30 billion shy of Adidas.
But it’s got something those same big brands crave just as much as revenue: The people’s attention. That counts for a lot these days.
Happy birthday, Foot Locker
Somebody’s got a birthday coming up. Foot Locker is dropping a series of sneakers this week in collaboration with Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, and Converse to celebrate its 50th anniversary, which is officially on September 12th.
The state of play: I thought this would be as good a time as ever to discuss where the company stands today. It’s not in a great place, but in a much better place than it was.
The backdrop: Foot Locker was essential for any footwear brand that wanted to matter. To make a bit of a comparison here, the DJ was to the music industry what Foot Locker was for footwear.
If you were an artist in the 90s and early 2000s, you wanted to get your biggest records to the most popular DJs nationwide. They’d play huge parties with huge crowds. If your song was featured, chances were you had a hit.
That’s how it was for Foot Locker. It would take off if you could get a prime shelf slot for one of your models in Foot Locker or have it featured in an ad.
Things changed: The internet happened.
Those distribution channels that had become essential were disrupted. Brands, like artists, started to push and sell their products themselves, so Foot Locker, like the DJ, became less important.
The boiling point: Just a few years ago, Nike decided it was pulling back from Foot Locker, and we began to see less of its biggest partner on its shelves. That hurt. After decades of being a staple in the footwear industry, there were legitimate questions about what FTL’s future would be.
Yes, but: Today, things are a lot better. Mary Dillon’s Lace Up plan is working. The brand is back in Nike’s good graces. Because of Nike’s DTC dropoff, it has reestablished significant relationships with its competitors, which is healthy for the brand.
Foot Locker will likely never have the significance in the culture that it once did again. But it’s clearly on the up-and-up these days. That’s a good thing for the industry’s health. The more distribution channels, the better for the consumer.
The kicks are out for New York Fashion Week
Footwear brands are never the main character of fashion week, nor should they be. But, as high fashion and footwear have melded together over the years, your favorite brands occasionally pop up.
That’s been the case so far through the first bit of New York Fashion Week. Here’s what we’ve seen so far.
Nike: Nike had Jordan Chiles pop out in a new Air Max silhouette called the “Muse.” It has that chunky, meshy characteristic that’s working in footwear right now while featuring a futuristic look.
Adidas: Willy Chavarria debuted a new collection in collaboration with Adidas inspired by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It also featured pairs of the Jabbar sneakers that get straight to the point.
Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.
Jordan Brand: Jordan Brand is featuring a new collaboration with Who Decides War on the Jordan Flight Court — a non-OG sneaker, folks! Interesting move.
Asics: The brand is showing off a floral take on the Gel-Terrain in collaboration with designer Cecilie Bahnsen. Here she is talking about it with Footwear News.
A look at the joy a pair of shoes can bring
Plus a look at Celtics star Jaylen Brown’s mysterious shoe that he’s been seen wearing all summer.
Brown was at Rucker Park this weekend chatting with locals in NYC when he gave away a pair of the mysterious (and shimmery!) kicks he’s been wearing in runs throughout the summer.
I love these shoes a lot. I can’t wait to learn what they are. I’m not sure how they perform as shoes with a functional basketball focus, but I love the way they look.
More than that, though, I love this moment. Shoutout to Jaylen Brown for giving this kid a moment he’ll never forget.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Nike SB Dunk Low “Escargot” — Thursday, September 12
Nike Book 1 “Python” — Thursday, September 12
Bodega x Asics Gel-Kayano 20 “Small Wins” — Thursday, September 12
Puma LaFrance “1 of 1” and MB.04 — Thursday, September 12
Nike Foamposite “Royal” — Friday, September 13
Futura x Nike Jam — Friday, September 13
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. We’ve got a fantastic week ahead of us. Let’s attack it with all we’ve got.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns (or you wanna just shoot the breeze!) hit me via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or send me a message on Substack here.
Until next time, folks. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
as someone who fell in love with fieg's asics collabs in the early 2010s, so dope seeing the brand get its more mainstream flowers. you make quality kicks for years, you get results!
So...should we start a pool (or a poll at least) on which sneaker maker is making Brown's shoe (or if he started his own company himself)??