What happened when Mitsuyuki Tominaga met celebrated designer Kiko Kostadinov. Follow our COO for more views from the ASICS boardroom.
I recently had the pleasure of welcoming Kiko Kostadinov to ASICS HQ in Japan to talk about the future of fashion. Kiko's collaborations with ASICS SportStyle have helped transform our image from an ordinary brand into something extraordinary. He’s one of the main reasons our shoes are now as recognizable on the fashion runway. Before our first collaboration with Kiko Kostadinov in 2018, ASICS was a typically prideful Japanese company, believing we could handle all of our design needs in-house. We couldn’t. Or more accurately, we didn’t realize what we were missing. From the start, this was no ordinary partnership. Kiko didn’t just reinvent our classics. He gave us new silhouettes that did impossible things with ASICS design elements. He also sparked a culture change. Our design team is now very collaborative and works across four cities: Kobe, Tokyo, Boston and Amsterdam. Kiko and I discussed those early days (coincidentally, we both started working with ASICS in 2018) and his latest apparel designs for ASICS NOVALIS, the brand we created with his studio. Another coincidence: he just opened his second flagship store not far from where I used to live in LA. We found plenty to talk about there too. Congratulations Kiko!
