Posts archived in Onitsuka Tiger

July 17, 2011

And So it Starts…

Taken from my Instagram

I write this sitting at Schipol Airport, waiting for my flight to Osaka. I’m on my way to spend two weeks in Japan at Onitsuka Tiger’s global headquarters to produce a documentary on our company’s eponymous founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka. Throughout the history of the brand, Onitsuka-san’s philosophies on business and innovation have guided our business practices, culture and the image we choose to project to the word as a brand that balances tradition and innovation in a uniquely Japanese way.

To get to the root of the man, his character and his outlooks on life and business, I have the extreme honour of interviewing some of the oldest living former employees of what was then called Onitsuka Corp. Reverently referred to as our Legends by my Japanese colleagues, these men were the building blocks of what we call ASICS and Onitsuka Tiger today, and I feel humbled to be able to get a first hand account of their experiences.

I’m going to try my best to keep the updates coming from Japan, if you care to follow you can find me here, here, here and on instagram, username: mutaurwa.

July 13, 2011

Family and Friends Summer 2011

Nippon Sounds by Donnis by Nippon Sounds

Over 10 months of work came to a head last week at our Family and Friends event, where ASICS and Onitsuka Tiger debuted our new lifestyle collections as well as a handful of special collaborations at our temporary gallery space in Berlin. To close out the week, Donnis and DE DE MOUSE both took the stage at our closing party, providing what I’m told was one of the highlights of a week packed with events.

I feel like I walked through a whirlwind, but I have to extend my thanks to Dan Solomito and Yuu Kobayashi for being patient and gracious throughout the process, Elisabeth Ouni for joining us for the ride, Karl, the Illustrious One for helping us with the tapes and some word of mouth promotions, Yoske for bringing the venue to life, and of course to the whole ASICS/OT Family.

Pictures by Jack Morgan and Marco Dolo below:
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July 5, 2011

Introducing DE DE MOUSE

Introducing DE DE MOUSE from Onitsuka Tiger on Vimeo.

Check out a short interview with DJ/Producer/Performance Artist DE DE MOUSE, and then listen to one of his contributions to Nippon Sounds here.

DE DE MOUSE will be performing at our Family and Friends event. All the cool kids will be there, you should be there too.

June 28, 2011

Donnis – All I Need Freestyle (Baby’s Star Jam Remix)

Donnis – All I Need (Produced by DE DE MOUSE & Luke Walker) by Nippon Sounds

I’m extremely, extremely proud to present the first song from our upcoming Nippon Sounds project. From the first time the idea was put on the table, we were faced with a lot of challenges and considerable amount of controversy, the least of which was engineering a collaboration between two artists from opposite sides of the world who didn’t speak the same language. Read the rest of this entry »

June 22, 2011

Things by Ryu Itadani

Things by Ryu Itadani from Onitsuka Tiger on Vimeo.

And the campaign rolls on…
This was a very special piece for us, in addition to being very talented, Ryu is also extremely humble, and gracious, and I think this look into his artistic process shows that.
Creating art out of every day life, isn’t that what we all strive to do?

June 15, 2011

Family and Friends

ASICS/Onitsuka Tiger will be back in Berlin this summer for Fashion Week to show off our newest collections, highlighted as always by our collaboration projects. As you can see on the flyer, collabs with Hanon, Shoes-Up, Tillman Lauterbach and more will be present at this summer’s gallery.

I also PROMISE some surprises at our closing night party.
Big, BIG surprises

May 3, 2011

Midori by Team-Lab


⇒Check this work
from SKETCH PISTON PARK

My song from our Midori game created by TEAMLAB. TEAMLAB is a group of Ultra Technologists that have been active in Tokyo since 2001. The group consists of a wide diversity of specialists including; Programmers, Network Engineers, Designers, Robot Engineers, Architects, CG Animators, Mathematicians and more. TEAMLAB carries out activities across a range of media, from developing web and robot technology, to installation art, video art and spatial design, making the border between Technology, Art, and Design more ambiguous.

We did a little interview with their leader Toshiyuki Inoko to explain the project, see below:

What is your approach towards “interactive design”?

People often say that men who are good at listening are popular with women but people actually enjoy talking more than just listening “if they could speak well”. To take it one step further, people enjoy expressing something more than just viewing a representation produced by someone else “if they could express it well”.

In the era of the mass media, the job of a designer was to attain a form of expression that was perfect in its quality. That was because the only point of contact with consumers was through mass media channels. However, the advent of the Internet and the networked society is changing the role of the designer. Since consumers enjoy expressing something if they could do so well, I believe that design should be about creating tools that enable people who are not professional creators to create things that make them want to “share it with friends”. It should be about tools that make the process of expression itself, something that they once struggled with, into a process that’s fun and enjoyable. It should be about constructing an environment that allows users to share their creations with friends. That is what I think interactive design is.

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April 11, 2011

Many Steps by Takayuki Akachi #madeofjapan

MANY STEPS from Takayuki Akachi on Vimeo.

The latest story from our Made Of Japan initiative: Many Steps by Takayuki Akachi.
We asked Akachi-san to travel around the world and show us the many ways that steps, metaphorical and literal, unite us in a single, human experience. Akachi-san and his Mexicos went on several adventures that you can check out on his blog. The result of his worldwide journey was the film we’re proud to present you with today. “Many Steps” shows Akachi-san’s journey from beginning to end, in his unique “lone backpacker” style of film that features rhythmically edited visuals that show how humanity as a whole is united, not separated by our differences.
Without getting too meta, this was really a labour of love and a piece of work I’m extremely proud of, hopefully the passion and adventurousness of all involved shines through in the final product. Thanks again to Takayuki Akachi and his assistant Akiko in making this happen.

March 31, 2011

“Bolivian Strings” by Takayuki Akachi

Bolivian Strings from Takayuki Akachi on Vimeo.

A short piece of documentary filmaking from Akachi-san’s Onitsuka Tiger-sponsored world tour.
Follow him on twitter
and on his blog

The full film, “Many Steps” is coming very, very soon.

March 29, 2011

Who Wears Onitsuka Tiger? aka Harrassing Strangers in our Sneakers

Despite my one year anniversary at ASICS coming up soon, I still feel relatively new to the company, and I definitely feel new to Europe. Sometimes I feel myself relying on assumptions based on cultural archetypes in New York consumer culture, and in order to rectify that I decided today to begin getting to know who our customers. Like, really get to know them, by starting conversations with random people who are wearing Onitsuka Tiger or ASICS lifestyle sneakers and apparel.

Today’s subject was architect Maron Branderhorst, who told me he has a few pairs of Onitsuka Tiger kicks that he uses to “stay fresh for the summer time.” Coincidentally, Maron’s firm is working on the interior design of our new building, and he shared with me some interesting insights on the interior concept, and how his team tried to express the meaning of our two brands into the interior design.

So, who wears Onitsuka Tiger?
Cool, well-traveled, talented architects

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