Kith Launches New X

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Marvel’s X-Men, Kith and Marvel are collaborating to create an extensive collection of elevated apparel, accessories, and collectibles—reimagining iconic X-Men artwork through the Kith lens. Ahead of the collection’s global launch on July 28th, Kith and Marvel will host a special pop-up at San Diego Comic-Con from July 19th to 23rd where attendees will have an early opportunity to shop the newest collection.

The inspiration for this commemorative collaboration stems from Kith founder Ronnie Fieg’s history of collecting Uncanny X-Men trading cards from a young age. Ronnie’s early memories shaped many of the concepts seen throughout this collection, including the artwork applied to the apparel and the packaging design for the footwear. In addition to Kith and Marvel’s collaboration, the duo worked with a select group of brands to create holistic lifestyle offerings, including: ASICS, Upper Deck and Professional Sports Authenticator, Modernica and Arcade1Up.

Sixty years ago, the X-Men made their first comic book appearance as a new type of team: five mutant outsiders under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier, driven by their dream of equality and peace in a world that feared and misunderstood mutantkind. The X-Men grew to become some of Marvel’s most influential and popular characters, resonating with fans for its imaginative and personal stories while reflecting real-world social issues that remain relevant to this day. Since their introduction, generations of fans have followed the X-Men’s adventures through comics, animated series, games, films and beyond, cementing the X-Men’s place in pop culture forever.

Kith reinterpreted archival X-Men illustrations, graphics, and logos to create elevated apparel styles, as well as accessories and collectibles. The apparel range features tapestry coaches jackets, wool varsity jackets, satin bombers, as well as intarsia knitwear and vintage tees. Accessories’ styles include headwear, skate decks, keychains, and pin sets.

Kith also worked with Marvel to develop a special edition X-Men comic book with an original storyline and custom illustrations. The story follows the X-Men on their “day off” in New York City, which sees the Super Heroes attend a New York Knicks game, shop at a Kith store, and defeat multiple villains on a subway train. This comic also includes Ronnie Fieg as a character, as well as his friends Greg Yuna, Nigel Sylvester and Motofumi “Poggy” Kogi. This comic book will be available for purchase early at San Diego Comic-Con. It will then be available for purchase in-store at Kith shops and as a gift-with-purchase with Kith.com orders during the full global launch.

The footwear component of the collection was created in partnership with ASICS. Fieg designed seven custom versions of the Remastered GEL-LYTE III, each inspired by X-Men characters, including: Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine in two variations. Each colorway has its own unique color-blocking and material execution, which is listed below:

The concept behind these styles is derived from collecting trading cards and the excitement of not knowing which cards may be inside the sealed pack. Therefore, every pair arrives in a collectible sealed box designed to resemble the Uncanny X-Men trading card packaging. The box also features a perforated artwork design to transform into a display box, resembling how trading card boxes are created. Customers will not know which colorway they will receive upon purchase and must remove the tearaway seal on the box to discover what is inside. Inside the box is a heat-sealed mylar bag containing the footwear, as well as a newly created encased Marvel | Kith & Upper Deck trading card featuring the character that matches the model’s colorway (more on this in next category).

As a nod to the original Uncanny X-Men trading cards, the Wolverine 1975 colorway is exceptionally rare. Hologram cards used to be limited to 1 in every 36 cards during the Uncanny X-Men’s original run in 1992. Similarly, the Wolverine 1975 colorway is limited to 1 in every 36 pairs of shoes.

Kith and Marvel partnered with Upper Deck to recreate original renditions of the Uncanny X-Men trading cards from 1992. These cards are only available with a purchase of the ASICS and arrive packaged inside the sealed footwear box. Marvel and Kith chose new artwork for each character, while the overarching designs are completely referenced from the original card run. Each model of the GEL-LYTE III arrives with a card featuring the character that inspired its specific colorway. These cards also feature Marvel and Kith co-branding as well as foil application, denoting its incredibly rare and custom quality.

Each character card has eight color variations which have been randomly distributed among the units of footwear, thus adding rarity levels within each pair. The rarity of these cards vary, including 1-of-1’s, 1-of-10’s, and more in increasing numbers. Each card is encased, as three come in one-touch cases while the other five arrive in very special PSA graded slabs. Kith worked with PSA to create a special co-branded casing for five of the eight card colors, which marks the first time in PSA’s history that another brand’s logo will appear on the grading tab.

As part of the collection, Kith and Marvel worked with luxury home brand Modernica to craft two custom versions of the Fiberglass Shell Chair. Both chairs feature wraparound archival X-Men artwork, with one using a vintage comic panel design and the other an illustrated battle against Magneto. The bottom of both styles also includes a custom Kith Home plaque.

Marvel | Kith & Arcade1UpKith and Marvel also created a completely custom retro arcade game with Arcade1Up. This game stands at 60.7” tall by 19.75” wide and bears co-branded Marvel | Kith for X-Men artwork. When powering up the console, users will also see a custom gameplay animation that features X-Men characters and a Kith logo.

While retaining a retro design, this arcade game has been modernized through various features. The console features the option to play one of eight different games, including: Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men: Children of the ATOM, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems. It also features WiFi capability for live online play, a light-up marquee, a headphone jack, and more.

Ahead of the collection’s global launch, Kith and Marvel will host a special pop-up at San Diego Comic-Con from July 19th to 23rd where attendees will have an early opportunity to shop the assortment. The pop-up will be located inside the Marvel booth and will include the full assortment of products.

Kith will also host a special tournament using their collaborative Arcade1Up games from July 20th to 23rd at their pop-up inside SDCC. The tournament will give players an opportunity to battle head-to-head on X-Men: Children of the ATOM. The winner of this tournament will be gifted one of the limited Marvel | Kith & Arcade1Up game consoles. Contestants can sign-up at the pop-up to be notified if they’ve qualified.

Looking for more Marvel at SDCC 2023? Fans can stop by the Marvel booth (#2329) for the livestream broadcast, giveaways, signings, grab convention-exclusive merchandise at The Official Marvel Store (#2519), Marvel Unlimited subscription offers, and so much more! Find all of Marvel's panels for 2023 here!

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