ASICS AND MICHIGAN AREBUILDING NEXT-GEN PRODUCTTHROUGH RESEARCH

In 1935, Ann Arbor was where Jesse Owens laced up his track spikes and broke three world records in track and field. In 2007, former Wolverine Alan Webb set the American record in the mile, shortly after his tenure as a runner for Big Blue. If ASICS and Michigan have their way, they’ll add their own chapters to the history books, and it all starts on campus once again.

Given their Japanese roots, it’s no shock that ASICS’ technological advancements have largely come out of Kobe for nearly half a century, anchored by the Institute of Sport Science, which has been in operation since 1985. But, as with all things, footwear is an increasingly global field. While the products developed on the island nation helped establish ASICS as a worldwide force, Japan is no longer its only market. On earnings calls, the brand’s leadership has identified North America as a major growth opportunity, something you’ve surely noticed if you’ve spotted the indomitable GEL-Kayano 14 or GEL-1130 on resale shop shelves or on the feet of younger consumers.

Building on that newfound cachet, ASICS has laid out a plan to strengthen its foothold in Europe and North America, not just in terms of shelf space, but also by shaping how its future flagship products are developed in the first place. That expansion comes as the company ramps up its broader investment in forward-thinking product development. The ISS America, ISS Europe, and ASICS Technical Lab, a hub for rapid prototyping and support for elite athletes, are all opening within a calendar year of one another.

All of that comes together at the ASICS Michigan Sport Innovation Center. A joint venture between the University of Michigan, long recognized as a bastion of American research, and ASICS, a company that places its “Sound Mind and Body” ethos at the center of its corporate identity, the facility opened its doors to Sneaker News to walk through the work already taking place in Ann Arbor.

While many of the projects described below are in their infancy, ASICS confirms that their next super shoe will be one of the first tangible products to come out of this venture. Beyond our walkthrough of the facility itself, we also spoke to Dr. Ken Kozloff and Norihiko Tanaguchi, co-directors of the ISS, on what the future holds in Ann Arbor.

Pinnacle performance running is the obvious starting point when discussing the future of footwear, and ASICS is certainly looking to support marathon record-holders through this initiative. But that’s not the only North Star guiding the endeavor. Our tour followed the six-department structure of the ASICS Institute of Sport Science, offering a look at the cross-disciplinary approach both partners want to put at the center of their work.

For the sneaker obsessive, materials are probably the first thing that comes to mind when considering what next-generation footwear might look like. Every performance brand is working to reduce the weight of its next-generation running shoes, shaving off mere grams in pursuit of faster times and world records. Of course, the Instiute of Sports Science America (ISS) is contributing to that pursuit. Since around 2020, Dr. Sean Alquist’s research has explored knitting processes, with particular interest in tailoring fabrics to better serve neurodivergent communities, for whom sensory input can be a major pain point or point of comfort.

ASICS identified Alquist’s research as a frontier where the company’s interests aligned with his work. Existing research had already explored the possibilities of different knit compositions, uncovering novel bladder systems and seeking to improve the sensory experience between wearers and their equipment. Looking ahead, the potential applications could influence what ASICS footwear looks like in 2028 and beyond. Beyond upper construction, Alquist’s previous work with companies such as General Motors provides a foundation for exploring haptic feedback and closure systems, opening up additional possibilities for footwear hardware.

In a clear example of how ASICS’ Japanese roots inform the work at ISS America, Dr. Max Shtein oversees “Kirigami-Based Designs for Novel Shoe Structures.” Shtein and his team are tackling a problem with wearable sensors and other technology: These systems are often constrained by the need for flat, rigid components that can restrict the mobility athletes require. By applying the principles of kirigami, the traditional art of creating three-dimensional forms from paper through cuts and folds, the team is exploring how these structures can be adapted into flexible forms. Spinning forward, the approach could make embedded sensors more practical for everyday use. More excitingly for footwear enthusiasts, the research is already informing an ASICS sneaker prototype in development.

The university has a long tradition of robotics as well, with companies such as May Mobility, SkySpecs, and Standard Bots emerging from work initially conducted on campus in Ann Arbor. By tapping Ram Vasudevan to lead the Biomechanics for Real-World Measurement team, ASICS is looking to build on the university’s strengths in approximating and replicating human mobility in laboratory settings while making those findings more accessible beyond the lab. In practical terms, the team aims to take standard video footage, process it through computational and AI models, and generate estimates of the forces runners produce during their workouts.

Although technology already exists to capture precise measurements, doing so can be a lengthy, involved process. Athletes must run under controlled conditions while hooked up to an array of sensors and interfacing with complex force-plate systems. If Vasudevan and his team succeed, that testing could become far more accessible, potentially democratizing the process.

Beyond reducing the resources required to collect data on runners, the technology could provide more representative measurements by capturing movement in real-world environments. One can imagine footage collected during mile 25 of a marathon offering a more realistic picture than a three-mile run in a lab. Looking further ahead, the team envisions everyday runners uploading footage of themselves to receive similar insights, potentially including tailored recommendations for ASICS products that could help address issues they encounter on their daily runs.

Continuing the focus on performance, ISS America brought in Elliott Rouse for the “Elastic Energy Loop for Efficient Running” project. Drawing on a varied background in automotive engineering and prosthetics, Rouse has developed a prototype of an “exoskeleton” VSO system. In layman’s terms, a spring-loaded aluminum cuff attaches to the wearer, essentially functioning as a “virtual calf muscle” that provides additional propulsion to supplement the force generated by the body. In a world where running brands are constantly navigating the boundaries of race-legal technology, it’s unlikely we’ll see this system on the course at Boston or London anytime soon.

However, researchers identified aging athletes and older adults more broadly as potential beneficiaries, with the system offering a way to enhance range of motion and overall mobility as the body naturally loses some of its capacity. Injured runners also came up in the discussion, with the technology potentially helping them get back up to speed. While other companies have developed systems in this category, Rouse noted that ASICS’ approach stands out for its light weight, eschewing a motorized design to reduce the load on the wearer.

Perhaps the most abstract of the showcases, but also the most intriguing to this writer, was the work of Talia Moore, Ph.D., who leads a team seeking inspiration from the natural world to solve problems in footwear. A trip to Australia to study the thorny devil provided the initial spark. The reptile has microscopic channels between its scales and skin that draw moisture across its body through capillary action. With that in mind, Dr. Moore and her team identified a potential connection to sweat-wicking technology that ASICS could use in weather-ready footwear.

Other student-led projects examined alpine ibex goats, which can scale nearly sheer surfaces thanks to soft interior footpads and extremely hard exterior hooves. The researchers hypothesized that these adaptations could inspire hiking footwear. The boxfish also caught their attention: Its hexagonal shell structure helps protect it against impacts, offering a possible model for application in the world of soccer cleats designed to reduce injuries caused when an opposing player’s studs strike the top of the foot. The team’s current focus is on addressing the additional force required to run on sand, a challenge frequently encountered by ultramarathoners.

Of course, while all this research is valuable for exploring what ASICS footwear could become, consumer preferences ultimately help determine what makes it to market. To that end, Dr. Rich Gonzalez of the Institute for Social Research and his team developed a mapping technique that plots wearer preferences to create a multidimensional view of what a piece of footwear brings to the table. Researchers described the technology as a form of identification software. Using this model, ASICS could match individual consumer profiles with products in its current catalog while also identifying potential areas where the brand’s existing models fall short of consumer preferences.

As both Dr. Ken Kozloff and Norihiko Taniguchi emphasized time and time again, each of these departments holds a ton of intrinsic value in their focuses, but the real magic happens as these teams’ intersect, either sharing findings across their disciplines or working together to tackle problems that they’ve each encountered individually. Ideally, it won’t just be academic problem-solving that comes out of the ISS as the partnership moves forward; whether it’s helping to shave minutes of your mile, assisting in getting you back on the track quicker, or completely rethinking what performance looks like in the first place.

Dr. Ken Kozloff has held a number of roles within the University of Michigan, including directing the Michigan Performance Research Laboratory, tooled to utilize biomechanics research and testing to help athletes optimize performance. In various keynote speeches throughout the week, Kozloff acted as an ambassador for the research team at ISS, understandable given his new role as co-director. We spoke to Dr. Kozloff about what to expect from Michigan’s side of the equation as the ISS moves further ahead with their work.