ASICS has brought together seven of the world's top sneaker retailers to combine their talents for a first-of-its-kind collaborative project: the ASICS "TOMO" GEL-CUMULUS 16. ASICS’ top retailer partners are known within the brand as TOMO accounts, a Japanese phrase for the term friend. These TOMO accounts: Extra Butter, Sneaker Politics, Concepts, Feature, Somewhere, The Whitaker Group and Lapstone & Hammer, joined together like another Japanese icon, Voltron, to pour their collective talents into a design that represents the cooperation and spirit of goodwill that characterized the entire project.
This marks the first time ASICS has gathered more than two partners for a collaboration on a unique silhouette, bringing together seven culturally influential brands to co-create, build and influence the tooling and design. Designed at the company's East Coast headquarters in downtown Boston, a city known for its global sneaker presence, the shoe features reflective mesh underlay, mood ring gradient lace with metal aglets and Kanji character on tongue in honor of the TOMO program. The “MOOD” became the central theme, as friends typically have a contagious positive energy among each other when hanging out. "The Mood Ring became our muse through this process," said Lapstone founder Brian Nadav.
"We are excited to finally unveil the "TOMO" GEL-CUMULUS 16 silhouette, a project that has been in development for over a year and a half." said Kelly Fatouretchi Senior Director of Merchandising. "Each of our partners featured in the collaboration played a pivotal role in the design process and in bringing this unique shoe to life"
The “TOMO” GEL-CUMULUS 16 will be released on Saturday, September 27th, @ 10:00am in-store & 11:00am online at lapstoneandhammer.com.
Further, the shoe will be available exclusively at each of the seven retailers: Lapstone, Extra Butter, Sneaker Politics, Concepts, Feature, Somewhere, and The Whitaker Group.
