ASICS and Griff rework GEL-CUMULUS 16 with ballet details
ASICS and Griff turned the GEL-CUMULUS 16 into a blacked-out ballet runner, with ribbon lacing and a Hackney pop-up on June 12.
ASICS SportStyle and Griff pushed the GEL-CUMULUS 16 into stranger, better territory on June 12, 2026, with a Black/White pair built around ribbon lacing, layered textures and a monochrome finish. The sneaker, tagged 1203B038-001, arrived with a three-day pop-up at 1-3 Yorkton Street in Hackney, London, making the launch feel closer to a cultural install than a standard product drop.
That matters because the GEL-CUMULUS 16 did not start life as a fashion object. ASICS first launched the model in 2014, when its pitch was straightforward performance: soft cushioning for longer-distance running. Years later, the shoe has been pulled into ASICS SportStyle’s lifestyle lane, and Griff gives it a much sharper point of view than the usual retro-runner repaint. This is her first sneaker collaboration with ASICS, and the choice to use a performance shoe instead of a familiar archive icon gives the project more bite.
The design is where it lands. The ribbon lacing immediately changes the read of the upper, softening the runner into something closer to dancewear without tipping into costume. The blacked-out execution keeps the silhouette tight and wearable, while the layered construction gives the shoe depth when a lot of collaborations flatten out into logo swaps and safe color blocking. It has that ballet cue without becoming literal, which is exactly why it works. You can see the runway influence, but the shoe still moves like a runner.
The Hackney pop-up, designed by architect and creative Kat Milne, backed up that idea with an experience built around the release rather than a simple shelf display. ASICS SportStyle framed the project around music, movement and personal expression, and Griff’s visual language fit that brief cleanly. The result feels like a stronger lifestyle play for ASICS than another predictable nostalgia hit from the retro-runner boom. Instead of just mining old performance models for easy resale heat, ASICS used Griff to make the GEL-CUMULUS 16 look newly strange, which is harder to pull off and much more interesting to wear.
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