The new ASICS TOKYO Collection is not just a line of shoes and apparel, but the story of a unique city—Tokyo—translated into colors, details, and technology to celebrate the Japanese capital which, from September 13 to 21, hosts the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
- The collection draws on Tokyo’s duality: the union of its ancient soul and its modern energy.
- The two lead colors are Wisteria Purple (Murasaki) and Dawn Red.
- Purple symbolizes welcome, tradition, and the nobility of Japanese culture.
- Red stands for energy, new beginnings, and the vitality of contemporary Tokyo.
- A key cue is the speckling on the midsole and some uppers, inspired by the seats of the Japan National Stadium, site of the Championships.
Running Inside an Idea
There are cities that run over you and cities where running is the best way to understand them. Tokyo belongs to the second group. In fact, it’s the ultimate expression. It’s a place that defies definitions, a complex system pulsing to a double rhythm: on one side the hush of temples, the almost sacred respect for tradition (Shizen, harmony with nature); on the other, Shibuya’s ordered chaos, neon lights that never seem to sleep—an energy that keeps nudging you forward.
It’s no coincidence that ASICS, a brand with deep roots in Japanese culture, chose precisely this duality as the soul of its new TOKYO Collection. It’s not just about celebrating the city that will host the World Athletics Championships from September 13 to 21, 2025. It’s about distilling the essence of a metropolis into an object that, for us runners, is anything but simple: a shoe.
It’s a process grounded above all in philosophy. It’s taking a concept—the balance between past and future—and turning it into something you can wear. Something that stays with you while you look for your own balance, one step at a time.
A Story Told in Two Colors
To tell a story this layered, words alone won’t cut it—you need color. And the ones chosen for the TOKYO Collection make for a powerful visual narrative.
The first is Wisteria Purple (Murasaki). In Japan, wisteria is more than a flower—it’s a symbol. It stands for hospitality, generosity, welcome. It’s the color of nobility and refinement, but also longevity. It’s the ancient soul of Tokyo, the one that greets you with quiet, deep warmth, like a respectful bow. When you run wrapped in this shade, you carry centuries of history and grace with you.
The other hue is Dawn Red. It’s the exact counterpoint, the other half of the sky. Pure energy—the electric jolt of a city that never stops. It’s the color of the rising sun on Japan’s flag, a symbol of good fortune and a fresh start. It’s the promise every runner makes when they wake before the world to claim the road. It’s modern, frenetic Tokyo pushing you to be faster, stronger.
Bringing them together on a shoe creates a harmonic tension: on one side the calm of tradition that supports you, on the other the energy of the future that propels you.
Design Lives in the Details
But for an idea to become real, it needs substance. That’s where details step in. If you look at the midsole on models like the NOVABLAST 5, the GEL-NIMBUS 27, or the GEL-KAYANO 32 in the collection, you’ll spot an almost random stippling. It’s not an aesthetic quirk. It’s an homage.
Those bursts of color are inspired by the multicolored seating of the Japan National Stadium, Kengo Kuma’s architectural masterwork that will host the Championships. It’s a way of saying that a piece of that stadium—the beating heart of world athletics—runs with you. It bridges the celebration of champions’ achievements and the small, big milestones each of us reaches every day.
In the end, that’s what it comes down to. A collection like this reminds us that running is never just running. It’s a way to connect with a place, with an idea. It’s wearing a philosophy—Kaizen, continuous improvement—that is ASICS’s very soul. It’s lacing up a piece of Tokyo, with its millennia-old history and its inexhaustible drive toward what’s next. To feel, even for an hour, part of something bigger.