Asics Gel Kayano 27 Platinum 'Black Pure Silver'
Colorway: Black/Pure Silver · Style code: 1011B158-001 · Release date: February 11, 2021 · Price: $2682 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Asics Gel Kayano 27 'Tokyo' (1011B077-600) · ASICS Gel Kayano 27 'Black' (1011A767-002) · Asics Gel Kayano 27 'White Peacoat' (1011A767-100) · Asics Gel Kayano 27 'French Blue' (1011A767-401) · Asics Gel Kayano 27 'Triple White' (1011A767-101)
ASICS launched the Gel-Kayano in 1993 as a stability shoe named, unusually, after its own designer. Toshikazu Kayano had studied the stag beetle, whose hard shell protects it without slowing it down, and built a shoe around the same trade-off between structure and lightness. The brand put his name on it partly because the word travelled well in English, and he stayed with the project through its thirteenth version.
By the twenty-seventh generation the platform still worked the way it always had: a firmer wedge of foam along the medial side to slow inward roll, Gel units front and rear for impact, and a mesh upper refined rather than reinvented year on year. The reinventions came later, with the support system rebuilt twice in the three generations that followed.
Platinum releases sit above the standard line. They keep the same build and add premium finishing and reflective detail, usually issued as a seasonal pack rather than a permanent colorway. This one stays black across the mesh with pure silver on the logo stripes and heel, which is about as quiet as a shoe designed for early-morning roads can get. The silver does double duty as low-light visibility.