A mysterious plastic card was sent out to European retailers. By asking the recipients to bring their invitation card, everyone did his part to complete the masterpiece: Put together, all pieces created an overdimensional wire frame of the never seen before wonder-shoe. The wire frame’s completion marked the beginning of the show “The masterpiece is completed!” People walked through a marathon gate into the arena, to witness experts explaining the “masterpiece” and, finally, the masterpiece itself. Those three parts of presentation stressed ASICS’s claim for having set a new standard in running shoe technology.

With 35,000 immediate orders the demand exceeded the expectations five times. The shoe was sold out Europe-wide within two weeks. The launch of the GEL-KINSEI was the most successful trade product launch in the history of ASICS.