Following collaborations with Berlin-based artist Denis Buck and outerwear provider KASSL Editions, ASICS continues its “Crafts for Mind” project series by enlisting London-based sneaker designer Helen Kirkum to give her take on the GEL-1090. Each installment in this limited sneaker collaboration series is created with proceeds donated to a charity of the collaborator’s choosing.
For this project, Helen Kirkum takes inspirations from the steps and patterns in her life — the schedule of every day, the routes she walks, and the routines that keep her on track. Kirkum expresses how humans find comfort in structure and procedures in daily life, but also deal with the vulnerabilities that come with it. ASICS project she takes the GEL-1090 model and completely deconstructs it to create a Frankenstein-like sneaker.
No two pairs in this 30-piece set are alike, each individually handmade from dead stock and post-consumer waste products. However, it all fits a design theme of frayed edges, cutouts, overlapping fabrics, and contrast stitching, imperative to many of Kirkum’s designs. Simulating the vulnerabilities of life, these art pieces have weakened medial panels, and because of their delicacy can get damaged more easily while wearing.
The Helen Kirkum x ASICS GEL-1090 “Routes” collection will release on February 25 exclusively on the Naked CPH website. Proceeds will be donated to Right to Play, a non-profit organization set to empower and educate the youth by “helping children rise above adversity using the power of play.”
Photos via NAKED CPH and Highsnobiety