The Sneaker That Started Kith is Coming Back & It’s Better Than the Original

On September 30, 2011, Kith opened its first store in Brooklyn with one shoe: the Ronnie Fieg for ASICS GEL-LYTE III “Salmon Toe.” Fifteen years later, that colorway is back — and it drops on September 28th, two days before the anniversary, giving the people who have followed Kith from the beginning the chance to own the shoe that made the brand real.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kith

The Salmon Toe is not just a nostalgic reference in the Kith archive. It was the first collaborative footwear release the brand ever produced, and its colorblocking became one of Fieg’s most recognized design signatures. Fieg and ASICS have revisited it at every major milestone — a navy-midsole version for the fifth anniversary, a GEL-LYTE V rendition for the tenth — but the original 2011 colorblocking has never returned until now. For the fifteenth, it comes back on the GEL-LYTE III Remastered silhouette: the same DNA, reinterpreted with the craft and material access Fieg has built over a decade and a half of working at this level.

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The execution is premium throughout. A pigskin nubuck upper with perforations across the vamp and quarter panels gives the silhouette a texture the original did not have. The split tongues carry asymmetrical ASICS and FIEG branding. Heel tabs are co-branded. The footbeds are printed with ASICS and Kith 15th Anniversary artwork. The custom shoebox features all-over wood grain artwork — a direct reference to Kith’s first Brooklyn store — and co-branding that closes the loop on the whole story. It is a commemorative sneaker that actually commemorates something.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kith

The Ronnie Fieg for ASICS GEL-LYTE III Remastered “Salmon Toe” releases Monday, September 28th, globally at all Kith stores and at 11 AM EST.

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