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Welcome to the Scoop: a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.
This week’s guest is Anissa Jaffery, the PR and brand collaborations lead for EMEA at Asics SportStyle. Anissa is one of those people whose age doesn’t seem to reflect their experience — in just a little over a decade, she’s held roles at Karla Otto, Purple PR, Net-a-Porter, Topshop, Calvin Klein, and even an e-bike company called VanMoof.
Anissa joined Asics’s SportStyle division in 2024. Two years in, the company is turning up at Milan Design Week, which kicks off on Monday. I called her up to get more details on that.
Hi, Anissa. What’s the scoop?
Asics SportStyle will be hosting a three-day pop-up at Garage 21 during Milan Design Week to introduce our new shoe, the Gel Kinetic 2.0. This is the first time we’ll be at the Milan fair, but it’s also our first major cultural activation in Italy, which has always been a really important market for SportStyle. As of this year, it’s become a key focus market for us from a marketing perspective, too. We felt it was important to lead with an in-line product as opposed to a collaboration.
What is the activation?
It’s essentially a trial experience that we called the Kinetic Playscape. We’ve designed it in partnership with an LA-based design studio called Nuova Group. Visitors will enter this retro-futuristic immersive world, physically try on the shoe, and feel the benefits of the technology whilst moving through the space. Ultimately, we hope people put the shoe on and feel energized to move, bounce, and jump around the space.
Will you be able to buy the shoe at the pop-up?
No, there’s no purchase at the end, actually. We wanted to focus on the experience. But we work really closely in partnership with a lot of stores close by, like [Milan clothing store] Slam Jam, where you can then purchase the shoes if you wish to.
This is a possibly silly question, but the Gel Kinetic is a new product. Why does it look familiar?
One thing that is really nice about Asics is that we rarely launch a brand new silhouette. It’s a Japanese term we use internally called Kaizen, which means continuous improvement. So every shoe you will see, especially in the SportStyle range, is either a bringback or a more modern adaptation of the archive. The kinetic range was first introduced with Kiko Kostadinov back in 2021. And then we brought it in line in 2022, and we have been building on the model since. This is the latest iteration of that silhouette.
You’ve had a varied career in PR and brand communications. What are some lessons you’ve learned when it comes to building a brand?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned, which applies to all the jobs I’ve had so far, is to always stay focused on the consumer. It’s easy in our industry to get caught up in what you personally find exciting and maybe want to apply to your own experience. But the real question should always be: “Does this resonate with the audience that we’re trying to reach?” Building an emotional connection drives much stronger and longer-lasting loyalty. Also, collaboration is key: the best ideas rarely happen in isolation.
What’s the first thing you do when you take on a new product or, in the past, a new client?
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