Posts archived in Onitsuka Tiger

August 5, 2011

Japan: Sakaguchi-san

Original sketches

Shortly after Uetsuki-san left, we continued our first day of shooting with Sakaguchi-san. Sakaguchi-san started with Onitsuka Tiger in 1954, so he has some deep insight into the earliest days of our company as one of its first full-time employees. Working with Mr. Onitsuka until 2002, Sakaguchi-san had a hand in the design and development of the vast majority of shoes that bear the Onitsuka Tiger name.

Original OK Basketball shoe circa 1950's

Where Uetsuki-san was very gregarious and affable, I think the best way to describe Sakaguchi-san would be “thorough.” As soon as he arrived, he displayed a particularly endearing type of charisma that comes with the right combination of seniority and accomplishment. Arriving in a black suit that he wore just for his flight, his presence and self-assured manner commanded such respect and reverence that we were all inspired to collect and carry his materials—I was charged with carrying his suitcase—while he inspected the camera and light set-up. A photographer himself, Sakaguchi-san inquisitively took in the entire set-up, asking our team a series of questions on the particulars of the equipment, before disappearing downstairs to change into his interview outfit and going through hair and make-up. I got the sense he relished the chance to be on camera despite his stubborn outward appearance, as he enthusiastically told me about his many post-retirement projects, including an award winning rose garden. Using the same attention to detail and focus that gave birth to countless footwear styles, he now occupies his time trying to breed the “perfect rose,” with the hopes that he will be able to work for the rest of his life because he believes activity will keep him young.

When the time came for us to do the interview for tape, he was extremely open about the development of our earliest pieces, going into great detail about the development of the different technologies and craft techniques employed in the 1950′s and 60′s. What struck me the most about the process he described was the amount of influence that everyday life had on the development of those early shoes. For example, the “Caterpillar” sole was inspired by deep-treaded tires that Sakaguchi-san saw at a car show, while the cup sole on the OK Basketball shoe was famously inspired by an octopus sucker stuck to the bottom of a bowl of soup.

Original design options for the Tiger Stripe

Everything about Sakaguchi-san communicated focus and a detailed-oriented care for completion, and I quickly came to admire his concern for all facets of his projects. The pride that he took in his work was endearing and showed a different dimension of Onitsuka Tiger’s legacy that I hope will be highlighted in the final project. The collection of catalogues and notes he brought to the interview included a stack of post cards from around the world sent to him by Japanese athletes. Each one was a handwritten thank you note, thanking him for his hands-on nature and role in their performances. It was refreshing to see that as a craftsman, he took pride not only in the execution and creation of his products, but also in their usefulness and application in the careers and lives of the athletes he worked with.

Our conversation also gave me a lot of insight into the character of Onitsuka-san. From the first two interviews, I got the sense that he was an austere and direct man who held the entire staff to a high standard, but never truly separated himself from the team when it came to work. My favourite story I heard on the first day would have to be Sakaguchi-san’s re-telling of the development of the North Pole Boot, which was created to be worn by a Japanese expedition to the Arctic Circle in the 1960′s. In order to test the shoes, the team created a cold facility to simulate Arctic conditions. In order to test the product, the development team would enter the -40° facility to see how long they could withstand the temperature in the test boots. Sakaguchi-san told me that after 15 seconds in the cold room, the moisture on their eyebrows and beards would freeze and leave their faces covered in icicles. Where most modern CEO’s would have left this type of work to their employees, however, Onitsuka-san was on hand for all of these tests, entering the cold room with the team during every test phase, even going so far as to test the boots without socks to see how their insulation held-up.

Assertive, thoughtful and comprehensive in his comments, Sakaguchi-san’s interview provided an incredible amount of depth on the history of the brand, and honestly I think we could have shot the entire documentary by filming him telling me stories as he got his make-up removed. After an incredible Day One, I felt like I learned more about Onitsuka Tiger, what it means and where it’s coming from in four hours than I had the previous 14 months that I had worked for the brand.

More to come.

Post Cards written by athletes thanking Sakaguchi-san for his shoes

August 1, 2011

Japan: Uetsuki-san

Two pairs of OK Basketball shoes from the 1950's

So the project has officially started, after a day of planning and finally being introduced to our crew, lead by Art Director/Professor/Modern Renaissance Man Ian Lynam, I felt enthusiastic but increasingly nervous. Things got very real when our “props” arrived; original, well preserved sneakers from the 1950′s and 60′s. As a student of history and a sneaker head, I was familiar with almost all of these pieces via our catalogues, but seeing them in the flesh (canvas?) really established the gravity of our undertaking.

A Legend Arrives

“Gravity” became “immense and suffocating pressure and anxiety” the moment our first interview subject arrived at head quarters. Japanese culture is extremely reverential to the elderly, so as soon as our first subject arrived, my teammates from the home office descended on him with a hero’s greeting. From my perch above the main entrance, I was suddenly self-conscious and afraid that one of my mannerisms or gestures would offend our esteemed guest, Uetsuki-san.

As head of Marketing and Promotions during our brand’s earliest years, Uetsuki-san was one of the most influential figures in the development of Onitsuka Tiger’s identity. In addition to creating our logo and several other brandmarks, Uetsuki-san also traveled extensively for the company, representing Onitsuka Tiger at athletic events around the world. The bag of artifacts he brought to the office included a tangle of id’s, a stack of passports and books of original notes and sketches from the 1950′s and 60′s. On top of all this, he arrived at the office with 30 pages of handwritten notes that he prepared for our interview. I felt humbled and grateful to see that he didn’t view our project as a chore or obligation, but instead as an opportunity to pass his knowledge and experience to younger generations. His gregarious nature, enthusiasm and humility along with the professionalism of our crew quickly put me at ease and our first interview went extremely well.

Speaking to Uetsuki-san, I was taken not only by his accomplishments, but also by his humility and energy. He seemed to genuinely see the importance of keeping the philosophies and values at the heart of our company alive, which was evident in his explanation of our founder’s ideals and vision. As a relative newbie, it was easy for me to see how these ideas still permeated our company culture and business practices, but also surprising to see how as our brand has grown and become more international, certain facets of that initial vision have been altered, distorted and, in some cases, lost. The sense of duty with which he shared his insights into where we come from as a company, and where he believes we should go added a sense of gravitas to the interview that would colour my interactions with the other legends I would interview in the coming days.

See more photos below, and look forward to more on the making of this documentary.

Logo sketches for the Tokyo Olympics

One of Uetsuki-san's many filled up passports

The travelling man

July 23, 2011

Japan: First Impressions

First day

Needless to say, this week has been a whirlwind. Since our extremely bumpy flight touched down in Osaka, I’ve been just left of overwhelmed by everything about Kobe; the culture, pace, food, language, people, and shopping are all much farther removed from my expectations than I could have imagined. As I said in an earlier post, my first exposure to Japan was less than sophisticated. As I got older, Japanese streetwear crossed over into hip-hop and I got another impression of the island, painted in equally broad strokes, but at least it was rooted in a modern reality.

This is what happens when you sleep through dinner. Cup of Noodles at 30,000ft

Since joining ASICS in the spring of 2010, my appreciation and respect for Japan slowly grew into a curious admiration, based mainly on the stories and experiences of my coworkers. Leading up to my trip I was given many pieces of, often conflicting, advice about social norms in Japan (“Don’t touch the taxi doors!”) that I suspect now might have been constructed to scare me a little bit. Since I arrived, I’ve experienced many of the gaijin cultural shocks, but I have been treated kindly and respectfully by everyone I’ve interacted with and have been made to feel well received by everyone I’ve dealt with.

If I could point out the one thing that has impressed me the most about Japan thus far, it would be the incredible sense of focus expressed in every facet of life. A great example of this is Kobe’s “Junk” district, a strip of stores that begins directly under the Portliner train tracks before spreading into a small enclave. Each store has a rough theme; The Real McCoys features pricey, high quality re-creations of American military and work wear where Bingo! specialises in well preserved pieces from obscure brands like Hang Ten and “The Kenny Rogers Collection” by Karman. None of these stores have the “Bargain Bin” feel of a lot of vintage stores in the west, they are all exquisitely curated and organised, with each piece of the collection presented in a context that speaks to the era it was created in as seen from a Japanese perspective. Talking to some of the store owners, each one has a story of trips and expeditions to acquire holy grail finds to bring back to the store. This type of attention to detail and passion for mining the depth of their passions permeates everything here.

Of course, they didn’t send me here to shop and sightsee, and my second day in Kobe was marked by my first visit to ASICS headquarters to plan out the interviews I would be conducting for the documentary. This week, I will be speaking with four legends of the brand here in Kobe; Uetsuki-san, who worked marketing and promotions for the brand in the early days, Sakaguchi-san, a product developer who worked on the brand’s first products, Inohara-san who has worked for the brand in some capacity since 1966 and continues to consult our product team, and Kimihara-san a Japanese long distance runner who won a Silver Medal in the 1968 olympics.

All of these men have unique perspectives on what it is that makes Onitsuka Tiger special, and the focus, craftsmanship and ambition present in those early years continues to inform how we carry ourselves as a brand today. While we hold tight to our Japanese heritage and take pride in our brand’s history of entrepreneurship and innovation, large strokes of our history have been lost over time. While we certainly strive to show the world who we are and where we come from with this project, I’ll truly feel like I’ve accomplished something if we can walk away from this with a project that helps us deepen our understanding of ourselves as Onitsuka Tiger, a brand, a team, an idea and an ideal.

More to come.

"Fortune comes through prayer" - Kihachiro Onitsuka

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 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 11, 2011

My First Memory of Japan

For those that don’t know, my full-time job is working on the Digital Communication team at ASICS Europe. Specifically, I work on digital strategy, production, and content distribution for Onitsuka Tiger, our lifestlye brand. Read the rest of this entry »

May 4, 2011

New York: April 2011

Pictures from my trip home for my baby’s birthday.


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April 18, 2011

Salone Del Mobile 2011

Photos from my trip to Salone Del Mobile in Milan this Saturday. My first trip to Italy, and my first visit to the world famous design festival. I was actually in town to research the festival’s affect on the city and its commercial culture, so I didn’t get to visit the tradeshow itself, but I was still able to take in some great exhibits around the Duomo area. Baccarat, Armani Casa, the Res Sapiens Project, Daniela Gerini, and Droog were the biggest highlights.

See more images below:

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