Stray Kids kicked off their fourth world tour, <RUN IT>, in Seoul at the end of July. A new tour comes with a new setlist, but unlike their previous world tour <dominATE>, “RUN IT” sees the group returning to old songs in the midst of an industry-wide nostalgia trend – and towards the end of Stray Kids’ pre-military chapter.

The first five shows of the <RUN IT> World Tour took place at the KSPO Dome, running from July 25 through August 2, 2026. The Seoul run was announced on June 23, followed by a further 13 shows across Asia scheduled from September 2026 to March 2027: Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore.

Each of the Seoul concerts consisted of 32 songs. These included famous title tracks like “God’s Menu,” “MANIAC,” “Chk Chk Boom” and “S-Class” as expected, as well as popular B-sides like “Hall of Fame,” “DIVINE” and “BLIND SPOT” to name just a few. The live performance of Stray Kids’ latest single, the pre-release “RUN IT,” was unveiled in accordance with the tour’s name, and the group even revealed new B-sides “After You” and “I Do” from their since-released 10th mini album THIS & THAT.

The most notable inclusion gaining online traction during and after each show, has been several songs from the beginning of Stray Kids’ career. Immediately after the “Hall of Fame” opening performance, the group launched into a sequence consisting of full versions of “Hellevator,” “District 9,” “Side Effects” and “Double Knot” and a medley combining “MIROH,” “Levanter” and “I am YOU.”

“Hellevator,” Stray Kids’ pre-debut song from 2017, and “District 9,” their official debut title track from 2018, both found themselves on the setlist for the <dominATE> World Tour which concluded last year. The rest, however, were in no way typical inclusions for the group and had only been seen in snippets at festivals or fanmeetings in recent years. This has led to fans dubbing the new Stray Kids tour as their own“Eras Tour.”

“The Eras Tour” references Taylor Swift’s global, record-breaking tour of 2023-2024. The American singer crafted a setlist that included each “era” of her music across the 17 years of her career, which are determined by each studio album release and their varying tones and narratives. The tour was enormously successful even in comparison to Swift’s own previous ventures, becoming the highest-grossing tour of all time, and a large portion of that is due to the concept; it allowed for fans both old and new to enjoy their favourite songs and encouraged all to attend. Fans reinforced the impact of the setlist structure online, curating outfits and hoping for encore songs based on different eras. Overall, the tour highlighted the popularity and potential of setlists structured around an artist’s journey.

Performing the occasional old song, especially if it is one of an artist’s major hits, is not uncommon. However, Taylor Swift intentionally branded this tour as a reflection of her career and used it to mark a new chapter following the reclaiming of her songs in new “(Taylor’s Version)” editions. By not only including an entire segment of various songs from early in their career, but also because of the current position Stray Kids are in at present, the tracklist of <RUN IT> Seoul bears a similar idea.

Across 2024 and 2025, Stray Kids held their third world tour <dominATE>. With 54 dates in cities across Asia, Australia, North America, Latin America, and Europe, it marked the group’s first stadium tour and their largest tour so far. It also saw Stray Kids break attendance and sales records within K-pop’s wider history, with <dominATE> becoming the bestselling concert tour by a K-pop act in North America, Latin America, and Europe, marking a significant moment in their career for a multitude of reasons. Now that one chapter is over, a new one must begin with <RUN IT>, and there is pressure to deliver on the same or on a greater scale without directly replicating past shows. Changing the setlist by including older songs that fans are unlikely to have witnessed live is a way to make that distinction.

Within their new music, Stray Kids again appear to be looking back to the past both in generic terms and lyrically. THIS & THAT, released on August 7, contains songs borrowing from early-2000s pop-rock and classic EDM styles instead of presenting majority experimental hip-hop as has been typical. This feeds into the current industry-wide nostalgia trend seen in songs like KiiiKiii’s “404 (New Era)” and Hearts2Hearts’ “RUDE!” and their early-2000s Western house influences. Groups like TOMORROW X TOGETHER and BOYNEXTDOOR are looking backwards towards the minor-key melodies typical of early-2000s K-pop, with “Stick With You” and “VIRAL” respectively – presenting a consistent shift even as different approaches are taken.

Expanding on the trend, several of the songs from THIS & THAT reflect on Stray Kids’ own musical journey as artists with lines like “from a small room where it all began sound leaking through my phones” and “this moment’s proof we made it” in “RUN IT.” Having “RUN IT,” containing this narrative, share a name with the new tour indicates that such reflection is part of its foundations.

An “Eras Tour” also becomes significant given that Stray Kids is steadily approaching a new chapter in regards to their mandatory military enlistment periods. Lee Know, the eldest eligible member of Stray Kids, recently spoke about his enlistment at the press conference for THIS & THAT. "One thing is certain: we will reunite,” he said. “Our STAY will be waiting for us, and after returning from the military, we want to repay their love. Please wait a little while. We will be back soon.”

While his words promise a return, they also act as the first acknowledgement from Stray Kids themselves that the group will have to go on hiatus within the next year or so. No enlistment dates have been announced, but many expect them to come in 2027. This makes <RUN IT> the group’s last world tour before that period of hiatus, and so a reflection upon their career so far using older songs from their discography is especially appropriate. It gives fans the opportunity to see the growth of Stray Kids through their different “eras” before a new, unprecedented era takes place.

<RUN IT> Seoul is only the start of the tour, with various dates across Asia already announced and plans for shows in North America and Europe in 2027 marked within publicly available JYP Entertainment reports. Two things are clear regardless: <RUN IT> will mark both a new chapter and the end of one by the time the group reaches its finale, and while reflection upon that truth may be bittersweet, it is not unwelcome.