Asics’ Bootcamp Proves: Steve Aoki Doesn’t Know How to Sit Still

DJ a Michael Jackson tribute party at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Snap a pic with Zendaya. Get on a G4. Take a nap on your private plane (it has a bed, after all). Hop on a helicopter. Watch the sunrise over Manhattan. Rush to your car. Rush to your hotel. Rush to get changed. Jump into an 8 a.m. bootcamp with pro boxer Alicia “The Empress” Napoleon.

Phew. Sounds exhausting doesn’t it? Not for Steve Aoki. “This is my life, I love this,” the 41-year-old DJ told me after our early morning exercise. “Moving is who I am. I live off that, and I find energy in that.”

Before getting our butts whipped in boxing, we kicked off the Asics bootcamp with a dance class from America’s Best Dance Crew runner-ups, The Kinjaz. Then, we transitioned into downward dogs with Y7, the OG hip-hop yoga studio. From the Shmoney-ing to the child’s pose to the hitting, the room was sweaty, the beats were bumping, and everyone was trying really hard to impress our special guest. (Spot me to the right of his left butt cheek. I’m the only one throwing a punch, and I look like I’m about to fall over.)

Steve Aoki’s only feedback post-workout: “I wish it was longer.” Given that I felt sore, sticky, and completely drained, I couldn’t help but ask Steve where he got all his energy. Whatever he’s drinking, I needed some.

“I can’t sit still. I can’t sit in one place,” Aoki explained. “You get inspired by the energy around you. People always ask me about the shows: ‘How do you do so many shows?’ I look at the people. You have to look at the details, because otherwise it can all feel the same. It can all feel homogenous. But if you look at the details, then you know that everything is unique; that everything is different. And that experience that you are sharing, that connectivity that you are sharing with certain people, that is going to be unique and something that you remember. So it’s not like some passing train that you forget.”

Aoki’s on-the-move mentality makes him the perfect spokesperson for Asics new campaign, “I Move Me.” But it isn’t just his jet-setting lifestyle that makes him a fit for the brand: Aoki is athletic, he’s a sneaker-head and, like Asics, is of Japanese decent.

“There aren’t many Japanese brands that went global, and that also represent the same things that I represent,” Aoki said. “It was great to be able to work with them on so many capacities. From the heritage to them saying, ‘Hey Steve, we want to hear your input. We don’t want to just make you the face of the brand.’ I have a lot to say, I’ve been doing fashion for a while, and I want to apply that to the brand.”

Already we’re seeing an Aoki influence at Asics. With their “I Move Me” campaign, Asics is evolving their brand story: they aren’t just a cult shoemaker for professional runners, they’re a culture brand. (And a cool one, at that.) I can’t take you inside #IMoveMe’s crazy cool jump room party in New York, but I can show you the Asics x Steve Aoki campaign video. That should be proof enough.

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