ASICS links up with HSDT to introduce the GEL-NYC™ 2.0 SSHS, a new Signature Series project rooted in place, pace and everyday reality. Originally designed by Angelo Baque of Awake NY, the GEL-NYC™ was conceived as a love letter to New York City, blending ASICS’ performance running DNA with the layered textures, movement and attitude of the city’s streets. Built on that foundation, this updated silhouette sharpens the proportions, refines the comfort and leans deeper into a visual language pulled straight from NYC’s everyday uniform.
Titled The Architecture of Everyday Life, the project looks past the postcard moments and focuses on the infrastructure that quietly holds the city together. Scaffolding wrapped around ageing buildings. Steel beams, stairwells and cracked sidewalks. Mesh fences, utility grates and oxidised metal surfaces worn down by time and traffic. These details are not ornamental, they are functional. The HSDT x ASICS GEL-NYC™ 2.0 SSHS translates this industrial code into a sneaker designed for real movement, built to be worn, lived in and layered with the memory of its environment.
Shot entirely on location in New York, the campaign places the shoe on the feet of real New Yorkers moving through the city at its natural rhythm. Anchoring the story are hip-hop icons Nas and Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, with each colourway drawing inspiration from their respective landmark debut albums. Illmatic and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) were more than just records. They were documents of place, time and perspective, capturing the raw textures and energy of the city that shaped them.
Those same references flow through the GEL-NYC™ 2.0 SSHS. The tonal palettes reflect the physical environments those albums came from, grounding the shoe in authenticity rather than nostalgia. This is not a throwback for the sake of it. It’s a modern expression of New York’s everyday architecture, filtered through ASICS’ performance heritage and HSDT’s design lens.
The GEL-NYC™ 2.0 SSHS stands as a reminder that the most meaningful design often comes from what we pass by every day, unnoticed but essential.
The HSDT x ASICS GEL-NYC™ 2.0 SSHS shoe will be available globally from January 16, 2026, in unisex sizing through selected ASICS stores, ASICS.com/au, hsdt.net and select retail partners for $280 AUD (Item Code: 1203A896.750. Colourway: Sulphur/Black, 1203A896.200. Colourway: Mahogany/Black).
Sign up to our newsletter for the latest updates and exclusive drops. For other SNEAKER features, click here.
