In the six years since Irish designer Robyn Lynch founded her namesake label, she has built a career reimagining her heritage through inventive and nostalgic gestures. This year, she adds GEOX to a growing list of collaborators that includes Colombia and the Guinness Storehouse.
Robyn Lynch is breathing new life into the shoe that breathes. Yes, GEOX. The performance footwear, beloved by dads everywhere, including Lynch’s father Mick, has finally received a fabulous update by the Irish designer this February. Standing in an airy showroom in Paris over the weekend, she guides me through the collaboration, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the ‘Speed’ style, and a tightly-edited autumn/winter 2026 collection. Following a landmark year that included designing and producing the uniforms for the Guinness Storehouse, Lynch embraced the shorter window to emphasise the core offering and the footwear partnership that includes a red suede and black leather iteration and black suede trainers with technical fabric cutouts and red stitching.
In the six years since the Irish designer founded her namesake label, she has built a career reimagining her heritage through inventive and nostalgic gestures like splicing together Aran knits with technical sportswear or abstracting photos of Dublin GAA jerseys. In parallel, Lynch designed collaborations with Colombia and the Guinness Storehouse and V&A East on official uniforms. She has foregone runway presentations since autumn/winter 2024, shifting to a direct-to-consumer model in favour of serving an ardent fanbase instead of suffering the financial perils of seeking fashion industry validation.
This season, graphic T-shirts are emblazoned with witty aphorisms like ‘Licence to Kildare’ and ‘Dublin Vision’ and an embroidery of the Emerald Isle. The outline of her homeland appears on the hardware of dark-wash denim, too. Her hometown is represented as always in GAA jerseys with distorted images of the Dublin colours. Though the new collection is more commercial than her runways of yore, the fashion with a capital F Lynch is still kicking, with a vintage CP Company-inspired parka, a light-grey wool zip-up (inspired by a piece from autumn/winter 2024, though the yarn density and wool gauge are increased), and enzyme-washed, garment-dyed t-shirts.
“It’s putting a twist on all these things I’m inspired by, from vintage CP Company and the technical elements of that, to what people are wearing today,” said the Irish designer.
What would you like us to know about your AW26 collection?
The inspiration came from the shoes. We started with the shoe project over a year ago and I wanted to dress [the collection] from the ground up. We have this amazing body of works, from design to colour, fabrications and development, so I wanted to think about the newness we could bring to enhance and complement the shoes without overpowering them. The palette is minimal, the collection is super edited and concise — we’re just doing ten looks to nail our core silhouettes and champion what’s really working for us at the minute. There are some similar silhouettes from autumn/winter 2022, 2023, and 2024, and we’re reworking them. We’re expanding on our entry-level price point while introducing some new silhouettes and having fun with the graphics.
How did the GEOX collaboration come to be?
Originally, I reached out to them to see if I could get their support on shoes and they invited me to collaborate on a collection. I brought my dad with me to the HQ and he actually designed a pair — the Mick Lynch special. He liked the combination between the leather and suede whereas my approach was more about mixing the technical fabric with leather to have some modernity and bring something new.
You recently collaborated with the Guinness Storehouse on their official uniforms. How was that experience?
That was a standout moment for us for the whole year. It’s why [autumn/winter] is so small. It was the most honouring experience of my life so far and the recognition was amazing. Both of my grandads worked for Guinness back in the day, driving the trucks, and to have my mom and dad see this was really amazing. As a business, it’s helped us with the stability of production and it’s been nice to have that consistency.
How have you responded to challenges like COVID-19 and the wider economic downturn?
COVID was actually good for us. We were the perfect size to handle that because we could be agile. We didn’t have huge overheads or expenses. I didn’t have a studio at that point. I was able to continue and grow but it’s taught me to stay small and focus on drops, pop-ups, physical activations, special projects, keeping the themes really concise. We’ve switched our model slightly. Working with Brown Thomas has been great because we worked with them on price-points and the sell-through has been incredible. The reception was very positive.
What’s next for the brand?
Our strategy has become much more focused and targeted. We’re looking to expand into the UK and Australia next. I want to try to focus on where the Irish community is. I’m looking at where the orders are being shipped to and I want to offer that person the opportunity to try things on. Other than that, we’re going to keep enjoying what we’re doing and seeing how it develops.
The first drop of Robyn Lynch x GEOX will be available on February 9 from GEOX.com. The second drop will be released in April 2026.
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