The latest sneaker brand to find itself shining bright is ASICS, a label considered mostly irrelevant in the streetwear world as recently as just a few years ago. Like other brands who take the forefront of industry relevance, ASICS has seen a lot of success from their collaborative roster featuring taste-making giants like JJJJound, Kith, Dime, Kiko Kostadinov, Angelo Baque, Vivienne Westwood, and more. But what we’re most interested in is how ASICS is leveraging collabs to tap into the mainstream women audience, specifically their Gel-Kayano 14 collection with Canadian womenswear giant, Aritzia.
From a styling perspective, Aritzia’s colorways with ASICS builds on the success of the Japanese sneaker brand’s partnership with JJJJound just under a year ago. All three of the sneakers deliver a similarly neutral color palette, making them easy to fit into almost any rotation. The Blanc De Blanc colorway features a range of greys and metallic silver, giving the pair an approachable depth, and the White/Black colorway feels almost inherently Aritzia with its muted, neutral creamy hits of color – both an easy addition to a capsule closet.
Strategically, it’s Aritzia’s mainstream popularity that makes this collab so successful. Unlike sneaker competitors, who for years took women’s models far less seriously, delivering the “shrink it and pink it” version of the shoes women actually want, ASICS pulled in an authority of the industry to cosign their endeavor. And the results speak for themselves – the collaboration sold out.
In fact, its success went beyond the initial release. Since their delivery, pairs of the ASICS x Aritzia Gel-Kayano 14s have been sold on StockX at an average resale premium of around 30%. If that weren’t enough to declare this partnership a success, Aritzia has also seen their non-collaborative pairs of the ASICS Gel-Kayano 14 sell out in most sizes.
It’s been over a year since ASICS delivered its incredibly popular release with JJJJound – a partnership that set the sneaker world on fire, begging the question of whether or not ASICS was here to stay. In the time since, the brand has become a staple in the closet of pop culture’s who’s who and internet influencers. Their partnership with Aritzia further boosts ASICS’ already marketable success, and marks Aritzia’s arrival in the sneaker game as a major collaborator.
