A chunky leather pull tab hits the tongue, and the heel has been completely scooped out so you can pop in and out with ease. A hype mule, if you will. All of this rests on top of a hefty midsole that’s been swiped straight off of the prior Novalis Gel-Teremoa. It’s fitted with a beefy Gel unit around the heel for extra bounce, and it’s finished off with a blobby rubber outsole.
Kostadinov and Asics have been working together since 2018, and over the past six years, they’ve dropped some huge sneakers. In 2020, the Bulgarian designer announced that he was ending the partnership. Everyone was sad and confused. But later that same year, he revealed that he was in fact deepening his relationship with the Japanese sportswear brand via a new sub-label called Novalis. Major sighs of relief were exhaled throughout the sneaker world.
The Kiko Kostadinov x Asics Novalis Gel-Styrax Mule will release later this month via Asics and select retailers globally for $250.
This story originally appeared on British GQ with the title ‘Kiko Kostadinov’s Asics Novalis Gel-Styrax Mule is the designer’s maddest collab to date’
