Last year Nanushka X ASICS, this September Camiel Fortgens X ASICS.
ASICS SportStyle’s Crafts for Mind non-profit programme gives smaller brands the opportunity to have an insight into the Japanese brand’s world, while bringing their own creative approach into it. The initiative supports mental wellbeing through creativity and craftsmanship, rooted in ASICS’ Sound Mind, Sound Body philosophy.
For its first-ever Crafts for Mind project, ASICS SportStyle teamed up with Amsterdam-based designer Camiel Fortgens, whose DIY approach and experimental way of working felt like a pretty natural fit.
Fortgens is all about fast-paced prototyping, trial and error, spontaneous ideas and material research. He studied at Design Academy Eindhoven rather than attending a traditional fashion school, and his practice has developed around an almost open-ended way of creating. Things are tested, changed, cut up and put together again.
So what happens when you give him a classic ASICS running shoe?
You get the GEL-CUMULUS 16, but not quite as you know it.
The familiar sporty shape is still there, but Fortgens has added a much more handmade layer to it. Leather patches, hand-cut overlays, irregular stitching and the recognisable ASICS stripes turn the running shoe into something much more playful.
There are two versions: Mary Jane and VELCRO.
The Mary Jane takes the technical running silhouette and adds a strap across the foot, while the VELCRO version gets rid of the usual laces altogether. Both have a slightly childlike quality to them, especially with the chunky proportions and leather details. They almost look like someone took a running shoe, a school shoe and a pair of everyday walking shoes and decided to see what would happen.
Fortgens explained the idea himself:
“ASICS shoes have been part of our runway shows and lookbooks for years, so the project felt like a natural fit. With this project, we wanted to work around the original shoe rather than completely change it — adding a rough, handmade layer while keeping the classic technical form instantly recognizable.”
And this is where the Crafts for Mind idea comes in. Rather than completely redesigning the GEL-CUMULUS 16, Fortgens worked around the original shoe, keeping its technical form while adding his own handmade details.
A portion of the proceeds will also be donated to FFort Foundation, which works to improve the mental wellbeing of young adults with and after cancer through art and storytelling.
For the campaign, filmmaker Patrick Louwerse follows the shoes through everyday Amsterdam life. Cycling, walking around the city, getting home and kicking your shoes off — nothing too complicated, just the kind of movement the shoe was originally designed for.
Photographer Pieter Numan keeps the same idea in the still images, focusing on repetition, rhythm and everyday movement.
The colour palette stays pretty grounded too, with green and brown versions keeping the attention on the construction and materials rather than making the shoes even louder.
The green pair launches September 25, 2026 at Tillatec Amsterdam. The brown version follows in October, available exclusively at Dover Street Market London and the Camiel Fortgens flagship in Amsterdam.
Both versions retail for €250 / £215.
From Nanushka to Camiel Fortgens, Crafts for Mind is giving ASICS SportStyle a chance to step outside its usual world of performance and let designers play with what the brand already does well.
And Fortgens clearly had some fun with it.
