Karimoku New Standard and ASICS Turn Crushed Trainers Into Seating

By Tom Whitfield

Karimoku New Standard has launched the KNS x ASICS Collaboration globally, a furniture line that uses foam salvaged from unused ASICS trainers as cushioning in two seating designs: the Castor Lobby Sofa and the Polar Lounge Chair.

The Japanese furniture brand, a sub-brand of manufacturer Karimoku, sources deadstock and sample footwear from ASICS that would otherwise have been discarded. The collaboration debuted in Japan earlier this year before the recent worldwide release.

The project began modestly. Karimoku New Standard was designing seating for the meeting spaces in ASICS' Tokyo office, and the material experiment grew from there.

How do crushed trainers become furniture?

The process follows the same technique ASICS already uses for its upcycled Neocurve trainers. Workers dismantle the footwear, sort the components and crush them to extract Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) foam — the flexible, lightweight material found in midsoles, outsoles and footbeds.

According to Karimoku New Standard, the extracted foam is then blended with cotton and paired with a three-millimetre condensed foam sheet to form a hybrid structure. That structure serves as the cushioning inside the two chairs, each marked with an embroidered tag signalling the collaboration.

The brand described the development as anything but straightforward. "Through rigorous sessions with ASICS – leveraging their expertise in sports science – and a meticulous adjustment process for real-world office use, Karimoku repeatedly prototyped to transform an unfamiliar material like shoe waste into true furniture comfort," Karimoku New Standard said.

"This uncompromising, hands-on exploration led to the creation of the innovative hybrid structure," the brand continued. "Beyond merely reusing materials from a sustainability standpoint, it turns them into a functional added value."

What does this change for the industry?

The claim of "functional added value" is the one worth watching. Upcycled furniture often markets virtue; here the manufacturer argues the waste foam performs, not just signals. The proof will be durability and comfort over years of use — and neither brand has published test data to that effect.

Neither company has disclosed volumes either: how many pairs of deadstock trainers feed the production run, or what share of the cushioning is recycled EVA versus virgin cotton and foam. Those numbers would tell us whether this is a genuine waste stream at scale or a limited edition in sustainability packaging.

The pedigree, at least, is established. Karimoku has previously collaborated with Zaha Hadid Design. ASICS, for its part, has an active design sideline: it recently released the "minimalist" Hyper Taping trainers with Issey Miyake and designed pastel-coloured trainers with Danish brand Hay.

The KNS x ASICS pieces now enter the global market with a material technique already proven in footwear — the open question is whether it survives translation into furniture built to last decades rather than seasons.

Images courtesy of Karimoku New Standard.