TL;DR: Brooks and Cape Town-based running creator Alex Zono launched a colorful trail-running collab called “Ghost Trail” at EQL Grove in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong — and Korea got it days before the shoe’s global release. Free to browse, no reservation needed, and worth a stop if you’re already doing the Seongsu pop-up circuit. Two colorways are on display (209,000 KRW), plus a full apparel line of caps, tees, and socks.
EQL Seongsu, run by Korean fashion group Hanssem, doesn’t sell its own house brand — it pulls in a rotating lineup of pop-ups instead, and the brands it picks tend to be a cut above the usual Seongsu circuit. So when I heard Brooks and running creator Alex Zono had a collab launching there, I went to see it in person.
Where it is and the basics
Location: EQL Grove, 11 Yeonmujang 15-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul (Seongsu-dong)
Hours: Daily, 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Admission: Free — it’s a retail pop-up inside an existing store
Parking: Not available on-site; public transit recommended
The Brooks x Alex Zono branding is on the storefront window, so it’s easy to spot from the street. EQL runs as both a concept store and a rotating pop-up platform under one roof — a format that’s less common than you’d think, even in a neighborhood as pop-up-dense as Seongsu.
Why Brooks picked EQL — and Seoul
The banner is visible from across the street — a hand-drawn butterfly and a colorful “ALEX ZONO” wordmark set against Brooks’ more angular, sport-driven logo.
Brooks has built its reputation on performance running shoes. This collaboration leans somewhere else entirely — toward lifestyle. Alex Zono designs around the joy of running rather than shaving time off a split, so for Brooks, this reads as an attempt to layer some emotional texture onto a brand that’s mostly known for function. What stood out to me is that Brooks chose Korea — specifically EQL Seongsu — as the stage for that shift. It’s one more sign that Seongsu isn’t just a hub for local pop-ups anymore; global brands are choosing it as a launch venue for new product.
The concept: mountains, sky, butterflies, and clouds
There’s a dedicated installation built for this collab inside the store — a wood-framed booth with moss, dried flowers, and stones covering the floor, like a slice of trail brought indoors. An oversized graphic of the Ghost Trail’s outsole hangs from the ceiling above it.
According to the booth’s signage, the collab is built around a run Alex Zono did through Chamonix, near Mont Blanc — not chasing a personal best, but simply running freely through the landscape. That feeling is translated onto Brooks’ trail shoe through the colors of the mountains and sky, and the butterflies and clouds Zono noticed along the way. The stated theme is moving fluidly “between road and trail, city and nature” — leaning into the in-between rather than picking a side. It’s a shoe that doesn’t fully commit to being a road shoe or a trail shoe, and the collab turns that ambiguity into the whole point.
The shoe: two colorways
The first colorway runs ivory with red laces as the accent, thin pink-and-red stripes across the upper, and an outsole that mixes green, purple, and orange. There’s a lot of color packed into one shoe — it reads more like a running sneaker’s energy than a trail shoe’s usual ruggedness.
Even the lining gets a small butterfly print — a detail no one sees once the shoe’s on your foot, which says something about how far the collab pushed the concept.
The second colorway is a bigger departure — a brown upper paired with sky-blue and pink laces, and a lighter, near-ivory sole that creates real contrast top to bottom. It reads like a stand-in for the dirt trail and the sky above it.
The laces cross in a pattern closer to a hiking boot’s lacing than a typical running shoe’s. I didn’t get to try them on, but the design has a playfulness to it that fashion-forward runners would probably appreciate. At 209,000 KRW, it’s priced well above Brooks’ standard running line — clearly targeting people buying into the design collaboration, not just the function.
Beyond the shoes: a full apparel line
The collab doesn’t stop at footwear. Caps, t-shirts, and socks are all laid out on one table, and the copywriting on each piece has a dry sense of humor worth reading closely.
One cap comes in a leopard print with “DANCE LIKE A RUNNER” embroidered across it — a bold pattern choice for a running brand, leaning casual rather than sporty.
A yellow version of the same cap spells out “DANCE” in lettering where each letter gets its own color — a small detail, but it’s consistent with Alex Zono’s overall visual tone.
There’s also a graphic tee with “I ♥ RUNNING” designed like a heart-shaped badge, the word “RUNNING” set on a diagonal inside the heart — a simple line that ends up looking sharper in person than it sounds on paper.
The same graphic comes in sky blue, and just switching the color gives it a completely different mood — a sign of how deliberately this collab’s color palette was planned.
The sock tag reads: “Made in China. Yet worn by the cool kids in Cape Town.” — not hiding the manufacturing origin, but framing it with the same dry humor that runs through the whole brand.
Next to the collab table is a rack of Alex Zono’s own apparel line — running shorts with an oversized logo, and a striped long skirt that reads more street style than running gear.
The brand tag is a simple wordmark, but it’s distinctive enough that the identity comes through even without any other branding.
The color range across the rack tells you what the brand is going for — floral prints, stripes, and mesh fabric all sitting on one rack, and somehow none of the combinations clash.
I picked up one of the striped polos, and the fabric turned out to be performance running material — it looks like streetwear, but it’s built like activewear. That’s really the throughline of the whole collab: the look and the function aren’t fighting each other.
Tips if you’re going
- This is part of EQL’s rotating pop-up program, so if you’re reading this a while after publication, check EQL Seongsu’s own channels before making a special trip — the exact lineup changes.
- No reservation or entry fee — walk in any time during store hours.
- Combine it with a Seongsu pop-up crawl. EQL Grove sits well within the neighborhood’s usual pop-up walking route.
- The Ghost Trail released worldwide on September 10, 2026 — Seoul got early access days before that, so this is a genuine first-look opportunity if your trip lines up with the window.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to book ahead to see the Brooks x Alex Zono pop-up?
A: No — it’s a walk-in retail display inside EQL Grove, no reservation required.
Q: Can I buy the shoes here?
A: Yes, EQL Grove carries the Ghost Trail colorways shown in-store, priced at 209,000 KRW.
Q: Is EQL Grove only about this one pop-up?
A: No — EQL Seongsu continuously rotates in new pop-ups, so what’s on display can change between visits.
Q: How do I get to EQL Grove?
A: It’s in Seongsu-dong at 11 Yeonmujang 15-gil — there’s no dedicated parking, so public transit or a short walk from Seongsu Station is the easiest way in.
Bottom Line
If you’re already working through Seongsu’s pop-up scene, this is an easy add — a genuinely new product with a global-launch angle, wrapped in one of the more playful collab concepts to land in the neighborhood recently. Fashion-forward runners will get the most out of it; if you’re strictly function-over-form about your running shoes, this colorway might be more than you’re looking for.