After a slew of collaborative sneaker releases that involved best-selling platforms like the Gel-Lyte III, Asics and Ronnie Fieg have taken a DeLorean-sized departure from their usual MO, back to the year 1988 – when the shoe that would eventually become the EX89 first made its debut.
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The latest release in the duo’s ongoing partnership arose from Fieg’s curiosity in the original Gel-Extreme basketball silhouette: here re-envisioned by Asics’ designers and the Kith founder in three colourways inspired by the orange, silver and blue vestments of the New York Knicks.
Reimagined retro sneakers are, for good or ill, a dime a dozen these days; yet even in a marketplace saturated with as many high profile launches (e.g. AMBUSH x Nike; Teddy Santis’s ongoing partnership with New Balance) as this one, the re-release of the Asics EX89 has struck an unusually powerful chord.
Importantly, the original EX89 design has never before been re-released, making the present collaboration with Fieg a historic first for Asics. This desirability is further amplified by the original Gel-Extreme’s provenance (it being the first basketball shoe to be designed by Toshikazu Kayano – creator of the self-styled Gel-Kayano collection).
In aesthetic terms, it would appear that Fieg and his Asics collaborators have stayed relatively close to the original EX89’s recipe. The shoe combines a robust, neutral coloured sole unit with fairly minimal uppers: detailed for this release in orange, off-white or blue-accented white. Asic’s characteristic ‘tiger stripe’ detailing adorns the median and lateral side of the shoe; while the Kith logo is prominently debossed on the tongue.
The orange and off-white models will be available via Kith’s website at 2am local time (11am EST, 7 November), whereas the blue-accented white – projected to be the most popular of the bunch, owing to its conspicuous use of all three Knickerbocker colours – is slated for a surprise launch at a later date. To learn more, you can sign up for updates via the Kith app.
