JUNTAE KIM turns ASICS GEL-KINETIC FR into a dress sneaker

A June 21 teaser showed JUNTAE KIM’s first ASICS sneaker recast the GEL-KINETIC FR as a dress sneaker, complete with detachable flower hardware and a sharply hybrid profile. The collaboration is slated for the second half of 2026, and it lands right where sneaker design feels hottest now, in the lane between performance runner and something closer to a formal shoe with attitude.

That is the point of the pair. ASICS framed the silhouette around romantic and punk design codes, and the result looks less like a straight sportswear rollout than a deliberate test of how far the brand can push into fashion territory without losing the comfort-language that made the Kinetic family credible in the first place. The flower hardware gives the shoe a softer, almost ornamental finish, while the structure beneath it still reads like an ASICS build.

The GEL-KINETIC FLUENT, the related model that helps define this direction, draws inspiration from archived running shoes and from 2010s technical welding and eyelet details. ASICS pairs that archival upper language with modern tooling, including FF BLAST PLUS cushioning, Scutoid GEL technology and a TRUSSTIC support system. That combination matters because it shows how the brand is constructing a new hybrid vocabulary, one that can carry a designer collaboration without abandoning its performance roots.

ASICS has already used the Kinetic line as a revolving platform for fashion partnerships, including SHUSHU/TONG and emmi. Kiko Kostadinov Studio has also worked the GEL-KINETIC FLUENT through US6-S and US7-S iterations, which makes the JUNTAE KIM pair feel less like a one-off and more like the latest move in a long-running experiment. The brand, founded by Kihachiro Onitsuka in 1949, still ties itself to the founding philosophy behind its name, “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body,” but the Kinetic series is now doing something more pointed: it is giving ASICS a way to compete in the dress-sneaker battleground.

That is why this shoe matters beyond the usual collaboration churn. JUNTAE KIM’s version is clearly aimed at buyers who want a sneaker with polish, shape and a little theatricality, not just a runner with a new colorway. The formal cues and detachable blooms make it look ready for the wardrobe shift happening around the market now, where the smartest sneakers are starting to dress up.