I blame it on my limited exposure to shoe brands, when I was growing up in India, that I had never tried a pair ASICS shoes, till about five years ago. Reebok, adidas and Nike, were the only brands that I knew and trusted, hence rotated my shoe-purchasing, only between these three.
You can imagine my surprise … and delight, when I tried on my first pair of ASICS, which also happened to be from the GEL Kayano 5 series. With great excitement, I look forward to the ASICS SportStyle GEL Kayano 5, which is an update for 2020, sporting a contemporary hiking design.
The Bold Technical Update
The GEL Kayano 5 is a great pair of running shoe, and has its roots tied to an era where style adheres to the classic 90’s trends. What I really like about the shoes, is the lacing system, which adds to the overall design of the footwear. In many ways the reworked tongue, hiking design cues and the heavy use of suede, fade away into the background.
For those who don’t know it, it was the GEL Kayano 5 brings out the GEL technology and prioritizes these pair as the must-have running shoes. Retaining its classic silhouette, which focused upon built long distance running, the shoes build-up on the signature Kayano GEL tech and Duomax anti-pronation technology.
A Notable SportStyle
The new GEL Kayano 5 is loaded with suede, which is used throughout the shoe’s lower-mid sections and rear. To their credit, the designers bring out the background white effectively, thanks to the use of colors like green, yellow, red and blue.
While keeping the overall vibe in white, the design showcases the underlay of black leather around the rear-quarter and the middle. However, we see the crisp white leather forming the shoe’s toe box.
Like I mentioned earlier, I am totally for the hiking-inspired rope lacing system, which looks very appealing with the blue looped eyelets.
The shoe also comes with DUOMAX sole unit with colored GEL inserts. The ASICS SportStyle GEL-KAYANO 5 OG ‘White-Multi’ will be available for $155.