FT HTSI: Kiko Kostadinov x Asics
How Kiko Kostadinov’s kooky designs for Asics changed the sneaker game
by Jack Johnstone
It’s a cool Friday evening in November, and fashion designer Kiko Kostadinov, 35, is welcoming guests to his brand’s first London store with an intimate fashion show. The founder of the namesake label, he designs the brand alongside twin sisters Laura and Deanna Fanning (he is married to Deanna). The clothes, like the store itself, are a reflection of Kostadinov’s surrealist-futurist aesthetic, this time applied to British country dressing. Inspired by sci-fi, Japanese workwear and the rich history of his native Bulgaria, Kostadinov has built a cult, independent-run business since he launched it in 2016, with 60 stockists in 18 countries and a fan base that includes Timothée Chalamet and A$AP Rocky, who are drawn to his experimental, awkward-cool clothes.
Among the guests is Takayuki Ueda, general manager of design at Asics Sportstyle, the division of the Japanese sports giant that Kostadinov has worked with since 2017. He has flown in especially from Kobe for the event. “Watching this felt thrilling,” says the 45-year-old. “I strongly sensed the brand’s expanding possibilities, and found myself even more interested in the new world they have created.”
A few days later, the pair are reunited at the store. Ueda, with his shock of red hair, is dressed in a black hoodie, while the bearded Kostadinov is in a knitwear sweater and trousers of his own design. Kostadinov has always loved collaborations – he worked with Stüssy to produce a capsule collection while still studying for an MA in menswear at Central Saint Martins. He’s since worked with Mackintosh, Fox Racing and Camper, and his latest collection features a capsule collection made with Levi’s and shoes by Dr Martens. But no collaboration has been more long-lasting than the one with Asics. “It was a no-brainer when we got approached,” says Kostadinov, “because I was already wearing them in my daily life.”
Kostadinov’s first shoe for Asics, the Gel-Burz 1, was released in the spring of 2018. It sold out straight away. “Immediately Kiko understood the spirit of the brand,” says Ueda, who joined Asics in 2003; he now oversees SportStyle’s creative direction, as well as the brand’s designer collaborations. Even before the relationship was formalised, Ueda would sneak Kostadinov and his team into the archives in Kobe to unearth forgotten prototypes.
The results are strangely thrilling. “We’re not footwear designers, so the [design] process is quite instinctive,” Kostadinov explains. The 2019 Gel-Nepxa, for example, merged the high-top, ankle-strapped look of wrestling footwear with that of neoprene surfer shoes; the Gel-Sokat Infinity 1 was inspired by an obscure shoe once used for tug-of-war. Some of the experiments are even more uncompromising: a 2021 collaboration that debuted 170 pairs of mismatched Gel-Fratellis, made with the fashion collective Brain Dead, was described by one magazine as “The Wackiest Collab in Recent Sneaker History”.
“His ideas are always out there,” says Ueda. “However, that’s exactly what we expect and need from him.” When Asics first started working with Kostadinov, “his approach of going back through the archive was refreshing and disruptive and something we hadn’t thought about. Watching which models ignite his imagination is one of the most exciting parts of the collaboration.”
Asics was founded in 1949 as Onitsuka Co by Kihachiro Onitsuka – widely acknowledged as the father of the Japanese sneaker. He launched the company with early iterations of marathon running and basketball shoes, eventually expanding to a wide range of sporting activities by 1977, when the brand changed its name to Asics Corporation. Decades later, Asics is still gaining ground – aided by buzzy collaborations such as those with Kostadinov (who has in turn brought in other brands such as Hysteric Glamour and Heaven by Marc Jacobs). In its latest earnings report for the nine months ending September 2025, Asics Corporation announced net sales surpassing ¥600bn (about £2.9bn); Ueda’s Sportstyle division has shown remarkable performance, with net sales growth of nearly 50 per cent.
Under Ueda’s direction, Asics has consolidated the partnership with Kostadinov, launching multiple ongoing projects, from shoes to Asics Novalis, a line of unisex apparel and footwear. Kostadinov makes frequent trips to Kobe to work on product development. “As a Japanese brand, we deeply value long-term relationships and loyalty,” says Ueda. “It’s rare to find someone with a fashion background who can bring that sensibility into sneakers while still respecting Acics’s heritage.”
Such collaborations between big mainstream brands and edgier independent designers are now standard, but this one has set the blueprint, says Tony Wang of consulting firm and think tank Office of Applied Strategy. “They’ve built an entirely new paradigm for how larger, more commercial brands can tap emerging, younger designers beyond just one-off collaborations. Kiko and Asics really pioneered this model and pushed it further than other brands in the sneaker universe.”
“What I love about Kiko’s work with Asics is the uncompromising function,” adds Steff Yotka, the global editorial director of i-D. “There are a lot of fashion sneakers that are totally useless – no sense of practical design, use or new innovations in sneaker technologies. The Kiko Asics have a futurism to them because they are the product of a new shared design language.”
For Kostadinov, inspiration can come from everywhere: his collections have referenced everything from the work of Russian painter Kon Trubkovich to his own honeymoon in Okinawa, Japan, last year. But much of his design aesthetic is rooted in Bulgaria, which he left aged 16 for London. “When I first started the brand, I never really mentioned it,” says the designer. “But as you get older, you grow more proud and you feel naturally connected to where you come from.” Kostadinov’s clothes often mix in Bulgarian cultural motifs as well as spotlighting traditional artisanal craftsmanship from the area. “There’s this process of looking back and reconnecting.”
The next collaboration with Asics will be a high-tech reimagining of a split-toe Tabi sneaker, a marathon running shoe originally released in 1953. Meanwhile, Kostadinov is focused on growing womenswear, which he first launched with the Fannings in 2018, and of which they are the creative directors. But first he needs a rest: in addition to all the work, he and Deanna welcomed a first child – a daughter – born just before the opening of the store.
“We’ve had to learn how to be strategic and when to switch off,” says the designer, smiling. “I remember being so tired a few weeks ago. But I feel so lucky we have the shops, this partnership and the team.”
