Kiko Kostadinov x ASICS Gel Sokat Infinity 'Dark Grey'
Colorway: Dark Grey/Dark Grey · Style code: 1023A003-020 · Release date: April 8, 2019 · Price: $330 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Kiko Kostadinov x ASICS Gel Sokat Infinity 'Pepper Mint' (1023A003-300) · Kiko Kostadinov x ASICS Gel Sokat Infinity 'Lavender Grey' (1023A003-500) · ASICS Kiko Kostadinov x ASICS Ilargi FF 'Carbon' (1203A982-001) · ASICS GelStyrax Kiko Kostadinov Sneakers (1203A500-001) · ASICS GelDelva 1 Kiko Kostadinov Sneakers (1013A041-200)
Kiko Kostadinov's Asics work is unusual among designer collaborations in that it mines the company's own archive rather than restyling its best-known models. The Sokat takes its name from the Basque word for tug of war, and its ankle shape is drawn from a competition shoe Asics made for that sport, a silhouette almost nobody outside Japan had seen. The Infinity version, from the designer's Spring/Summer 2019 collection, was the first in the partnership to sit on a full Gel midsole, using the Gel-Quantum Infinity tooling with the brand's spiral marking visible in the sidewall. The result is a mid-2000s running proportion carrying a modern cushioning unit, cut here in flat dark grey so the layered panels register as shapes rather than as colours. A second version followed later the same year, borrowing a webbed heel counter from a wrestling shoe. The stretch from 2016 to 2019 is generally read as the high point of the collaboration, when Kostadinov had open access to the catalogue and used it to pull obscure models back into circulation instead of redrawing famous ones.