Basement Arcade

Asics flew me out to London last weekend for some anniversary thing—twenty-five years of the Gel-Lyte III, European launch of a new Tiger colorway. The event was at one of those deliberately secret locations, just an address texted when you arrived, which turned out to be a basement somewhere in the city with an arcade setup and proper Japanese food.

Plenty of Asahi Superdry on hand, which is always the right answer, and green tea for people thinking ahead. The arcade wasn’t novelty stuff—you could actually sink into the games. Some sneakers had this glow-in-the-dark thing that worked better than you’d expect, which is the only time I’ve seen that tech look genuinely cool on a shoe.

I spent most of the night with Leni from For The Story, Christiane from InTouch, and the turnschuh.tv crew. We exhausted the arcade, hit the sauna at the hotel when it seemed appropriate, then eventually ended up in the bar doing that thing where you’re the last people talking because nobody wants to be the first to leave. These nights are good because they don’t announce themselves—you just look back and realize you had one.