A Surprise New Sneaker FromanIcon of Tailoring

For 25 years, the all-American designer Thom Browne resisted the temptation of a sneaker collaboration—until now.

- Samuel Hine

WHEN THOM BROWNE was developing his new running shoe with Asics, he started where he always does. “It needed to work perfectly with that gray suit,” Browne tells me.

The resulting trainer marks the designer’s very first sneaker collaboration. “I never really wanted to do it,” Browne says, matter-of-fact as ever. (He famously prefers a polished black wingtip.) In the 25 years since Browne, 60, recast American menswear with a radically shrunken version of the classic salaryman suit, the relevance of the luxury-sneaker collab has oscillated wildly, rising and falling along with practically every other trend under the sun. But the Thom Browne look—with its extreme yet exacting proportions—has remained singular and striking.