Asics Gel Kayano 25 OBI 'White Carbon'
Colorway: White/Carbon · Style code: 1021A026-100 · Release date: June 2018 · Price: $2832 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Asics Gel Kayano 25 'Lemon Spark' (1011A019401) · Asics Gel Kayano 25 'Cherry Tomato' (1011A019801) · Asics Gel Kayano 25 'Mid Grey' (1011A019022) · Asics Wmns Gel Kayano 25 'Lemon Shark' (1012A026101) · Asics Gel Kayano 25 'Black' (1011A019-002)
Asics built the OBI as a lifestyle-facing version of its long-running stability runner, and the name states the reference: the obi is the wide sash that fastens a kimono, and the knit upper is patterned after the way that band wraps and holds. An internal elastic sleeve does the same job structurally, closing around the foot like a sock so the shoe needs less pressure through the laces to stay put. Underneath, the platform is the twenty-fifth Gel-Kayano (the FlyteFoam midsole the line had moved to, with Gel units front and back), which means the shoe keeps the running specification while dropping the layered plastic overlays that make the standard model look technical. In white with carbon grey the knit is the only surface detail, and the pattern reads as texture rather than as branding. The Kayano dates to 1993 and is named for the engineer who designed it, making it one of very few running models to run continuously for a quarter of a century; the OBI arrived in 2018 as the anniversary year's most stripped-back reading of it.