Tokyo is a special city. Exhausted from our whirlwind week in Kobe, I slept most of the 3-hour train ride. When our train arrived at Shibuya station, overwhelmed by bright lights and loud sounds, I felt like I had awoken on an alien planet.

Shibuya Station

Emerging from my red-eyed, sleep-deprived, zombie-like state in the back of a cab I began to see the correlations between Tokyo and New York. Based on my first impressions, I would describe Tokyo as the more humble, more considered wing of the same bird as my adoptive hometown. Where Kobe was very metropolitan and very international, there was still a sense of quaintness exuded by the people; they were sometimes too considerate, too helpful and too nice to be believable as urban dwellers. Tokyo, like New York, seemed to race at the speed of light, and despite the time we arrived it seemed like life was in full swing on the still crowded streets.

I briefly stopped by my hotel in Aoyama, which I later found out was known as the “Beverly Hills” of Tokyo (the hotel I stayed in still hasn’t found out), before leaving to explore Shibuya more thoroughly.

As bright as Times Square but as rebellious as Camden, Shibuya on a Saturday Night was definitely a visual experience, with Goths, Punks, Hip-Hop heads and of course the world-famous “Shibuya Girls” milling from club to club. One thing that surprised me right off the bat was the number of foreigners on the streets of Tokyo: not just the expected tourists, but also Nigerian club promoters, Russian ballet dancers and no shortage of white guys dressed like Japanese cartoon characters.

The next day, I tried to take advantage of the Summer Sale season and visit the extensive list of stores that I got from Kwon (the guy that brought you this, this, and these amongst others.) In addition to the usual suspects like Alife, Supreme and UNDFTD, the deep, deep itinerary he gave me included a lot of homegrown stores like Okura, Silas&Maria and the flagships for Japanese brands like Visvim and White Mountaineering. Each neighbourhood had a very distinct character that was reflected in the character and curation of its stores: Harajuku is all flash, and focused on the new, Daikanyama’s boutiques communicate class and subtlety, and Ueno’s “stores” –like the legendary Mita Sneakers–feel more like stands in a Third World flea market.

I can’t talk about Tokyo without talking about the great people that I got a chance to hang out with who all helped make the experience as comfortable as possible for me.
Thank you to:
My new homegirl Aya for showing me the sites and putting up with me while I played The Ultimate Tourist.

My best friend‘s father, the great Philip Woo for inviting me to the New York Bar of Lost in Translation fame to see you play, then taking me out for sashimi.

The view from New York Bar

Thanks to my friend Takayuki Akachi (also known as this guy), Akiko and the Tangram team, it was great to finally meet you all and I hope we get to work together soon.

Thanks to Takashi and the geniuses at Team-Lab for letting me see your mad scientist laboratory, firehouse burgers and taking me out on my last night.

And finally thanks to Ian, Toshiki, Chris and Micke from the AQ extended family for not only showing me a great time, but also helping make this project happen.

A wrap-up of the final interview to come.

After dealing with Inohara-san’s endless energy, our third day of shooting had a completely different feel and pace. My last interview subject in Kobe was one of Onitsuka Tiger’s most heralded athletes, Kenji Kimihara. Despite his many accomplishments, Kimihara-san was humble and quiet, he arrived with his son and grandson and he exuded a nervous energy that was striking considering that, as a Silver medalist and the winner of multiple marathons, I was sure he had done his share of press and interviews.

Through some bizarre twist of logic, this man was nervous to speak to me. An athlete of the highest order who, well into his 60′s still runs at least one marathon a year was nervous about being interviewed by a relative pup like me. Feeling that I should be more nervous than him, I suddenly found myself in a feedback loop of nervousness, his nerves amplifying mine. What resulted was a jittery, sweaty palmed performance of pleasantries on my part in our makeshift green room that did nothing to calm either one of us down.

I was honestly prepared for a horrendous day of shooting, until the cameras actually started rolling and we got into the flow of the interview. Once Kimihara-san was able to speak candidly about his experiences with Onitsuka Tiger leading up to his triumph at the 1968 games, his nervousness melted and gave way to a more easy going energy as he recounted the customisations he made to the shoes that he wore to a silver medal finish in Mexico City. Working hand-in-hand with our product team, Kimihara-san was the catalyst for many of the developments seen in the MAGIC RUNNER pictured above. The holes he cut in the shoes to prevent blisters would give birth to our first ventilation system for runners, where the removal of fabrics on the heel tab and ankle support led to a reduction in the weight and stiffness of the heel of the shoe that made it lighter and more form fitting.

Having already spoken to part of the development team that had worked on the MAGIC RUNNER and other shoes from that era, it was interesting to get the perspective of the athlete whose professional life literally hinged on the product’s ability to perform under duress. Looking at his heavily customised samples, it was clear that Kimihara-san shared Sakaguchi- and Inohara-sans’ view that the product could always be better, and by “better” I mean more efficient, and more practical.

One thing I started to take away from these meetings was Onitsuka Tiger’s early fixation with being The Best. I don’t speak Japanese but the word Ichiban (number one) came up over and over again in each interview. In the West, there is a tendency to paint Asian cultures as demure and humble, but the men I got to meet with in Kobe all seemed obsessed with being the best: the best athlete, the best product designer, the best brand, the best, number one, ichiban. Kimihara-san was a great example of the dichotomy at play in that fixation. On the one hand, he was quiet and nervous at the prospect of being interviewed about his achievements, on the other, his youth was spent in pursuit of the loftiest of goals, and he had no shame admitting he wanted nothing less than Gold.

Kimihara-san and the products he helped create were cited more than once as examples of the idea of Choujyu-saksusen literally “The Summit Tactic.” As one of the core principles of the brand, Choujyu-sakusen could most easily be definited as the idea that starting from the top will yield better results and deepr learning than starting from the bottom. By focusing on making the best product for the best athletes, the brand was able to grow quickly in terms of technology and reputation, much faster than they would have if they had focused on making products for the mass market with the goal of cashing out immediately.

After his gracious interview, we bid adieu to Kimihara-san and to Kobe, as I traveled with the crew to Tokyo for our last week of shooting and our final interview.

More to come.

Original OK Basketball Shoe from 1950

While I was in Kobe, I got the chance to check out the ASICS Sports Museum, these are some of the pieces on display there, but barely the tip of the iceberg.

Marathon Tabi from 1953

Delegation shoes for the Japanese athletes at the 1952 Melbourne Olympics

Kenji Kimihara's Silver-Medal-Winning Magic Runner from the 1968 Olympic Games

Sakaguchi-san's pride and joy: Nylon wrestling shoe from 1955

The LIMBER LEATHER, the first sneaker to feature the now-famous Tiger Strike

Shoes worn by Yukio Kasaya on his Gold medal ski jump at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, combination leather/rubber sole

Legendary Finnish runner Lasse Viren's Gold Medal winning RUNSPARKS from the 1976 Olympics

GEHRIG Baseball Spikes from 1974

Astronaut Training shoes inspired by traditional Japanese Tabi

I’m definitely not the biggest runner at ASICS, but when I do get out there and hit the pavement, I’m doing it in these joints. The flagship of our running fleet if you will, the Gel Kinsei 4 is the most technologically advanced running shoe on earth at the moment with a completely adaptive cushioning system that allows runners of any pronation to wear it effectively and comfortably.
Considering the amount of research packed into this shoe, I almost feel guilty wearing it.

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

As part of our Made of Japan campaign, Onitsuka Tiger is working with Japanese-influenced creatives from around the world who embody the idea of East Meets West. Our Ryoshis, as we are calling them come from a diverse spread of personal and artistic backgrounds that all reflect a sense of artistic purity and focus on craft that is at the core of Japanese creative culture. Throughout the year we’ll be bringing you content from our Ryoshis as they give us their interpretations of our history, products and values.
When it was time to begin work on the campaign, the first person I wanted to reach out to was my friend Emeric “Takeshi” Trahand. Having worked with him during my agency days, I knew not only how talented he was but also how important Japan was to his artistic process. I’ve always considered what Emeric does a certain type of magic, when you view his pieces, you’re almost immediately overwhelmed by the vivid colours and the surreal combination of divergent elements he puts together. Once the “whoa” factor goes away, your eyes begin to explore the intricacies of each piece, putting together the visual story, seeing that every element is perfectly placed in a way that illuminates the meaning of the whole, which always contains a greater narrative meaning.

For Onitsuka Tiger, I wanted Emeric to take one of our more overlooked silhouettes and create something stunning that expressed an important part of our brand history. We talked about a few different subjects related to the LimberUp, which was created as a warm-up shoe for the Japanese Olympic team that was supposed to compete at the 1980 Olympic games. I found it interesting that we created a shoe for a team that never reached the Olympics due to the US-led Boycott of the games. Which led to a discussion on the boycott and the controversy around it.
I think that focusing on the boycott would have been taking the easy way out, since that is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Moscow Olympics. We decided to look at that time in sporting history in a less obvious way and ended up finding out that one of the biggest stories at the Games that year was the emergence of female athletes at the Olympics.

In many ways the 1980 Olympics were a turning point for women in sports: 21% of the Athletes at the Games were female, which at the time was the largest representation of women in the history of the Olympics, three of the world records that were set at the 1980 Olympic games still stand today and all three of them were set by women, and individuals like Ines Diers, Caren Metschuck, and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci all received multiple medal honours.

With that in mind, Emeric came up with what you see here, a dedication to the female athletes of the 1980 Summer Olympics, that incorporates the silhouette of the sneaker and Japanese-style ikebana flower arrangements. The bursting flourishes of the flowers mirror the burst of feminine talent and energy at the Games, while the shoe anchors the arrangement to that time period. Of course the presence of the Ikebana arrangement is Emeric’s dedication to Japan and its influence on his art.

Family and Friends by Yoske Nishiumi from Onitsuka Tiger on Vimeo.

A wrap-up of our Family and Friends exhibit in Berlin last week, Koi Klub Founder/Curator/Onitsuka Tiger Collaborator Yoske Nishiumi talks us through the concept, how it came together and of course, having fun. Very inspiring.

See you Wednesday January 19th, in Berlin

Australian sneaker magazine and ASICS Collaborator Sneaker Freaker just launched their newest online project, The Sneaker Museum. Trying to bring together the collections of sneakerheads worldwide in one place, the site currently boasts profiles on 7000 different sneakers, with the hopes of cataloging ever colourway of ever model ever released by your favourite sneaker brands.

Take a look and contribute here

German Blog Art School Vets chose to feature our Sr. Manager of Product Marketing for Lifestyle in their Faces and Spaces feature series. Think MTV Cribs for cool people, with really dope photography instead of sped-up hallway sequences.
For those of you that don’t know who Kwon is, he’s one of the most important pieces in the ASICS/Onitsuka Tiger puzzle and has been behind some of the craziest sneakers of the last 10 years from the Adidas A-Z series and the recent drops we did with Slam Jam and Sneaker Freaker to the upcoming pieces we have with H**, P**** and H****.
See the whole thing here