Onitsuka Tiger 70th Anniversary × 7 Designers

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year since its launch in 1949, Japanese fashion brand Onitsuka Tiger continues to present a contemporary collection that combines fashion with sports, and heritage with innovation.

On July 3, 2019, Onitsuka Tiger celebrated its 70th anniversary and announced a special collaboration with seven designers, popular in Japan and abroad. The seventh stage, to be launched on December 26th, as the finale of this celebration project, is a collaboration with Tomohisa Yamashita as a secret guest, a design project developed by the globally acclaimed artist Tomohisa Yamashita.

For the shoes, Tomohisa Yamashita updated the RINKAN BOOT shoes, which were inspired by archival field boots, for this collaboration project.

“You continue to travel, do not stop walking, coming across various new people and scenery, and then your previously colorless heart is tinged with an original color,” says Tomohisa Yamashita. “I incorporate my hope that you will experience such moments with these pure white Onitsuka Tiger shoes. I symphonize the attitude of Onitsuka Tiger whose footsteps have never ceased while updating its colors over and over again even after 70 years have passed. It is my great honor to collaborate with such a brand. Also, the spectacularly vivid red which I encountered during my journey and had never seen before—I engraved that moment into the shoebox. I hope that you will color these shoes with your own color at your own pace.”

While making the best use of features such as field boots of the base model which are not too rugged, the design was arranged into a high-cut boot silhouette with the height measuring higher than the original by about 3 cm (1.2 inch). Also, a rubber part is added to the area around the heel finishing the sole with a different taste to the original. The color is white inspired by his journey. In order to express that, soft and clean pig skin nubuck in white is employed. For the shoelace, three pairs of rope shoelaces with reflective materials are included. They shine under the light, the same as the solid white shoes. For the shoebox, during his stay in Spain when he designed the shoes, he was especially impressed by the scenery featuring vivid colors and the beauty of red flowers which bloomed all over the trees. He took pictures of these flowers and the trees of Delonix regia. A graphic based on these photographs is printed on the box. The contrast of the red of the flower and the white of the shoes represents an image of Japan.

“GFWD” is a coined word inspired by the designer’s favorite phrase, “Go Forward” which symbolically expresses the attitude of always looking forward. The GFWD graphics are printed on the insole and on the bottom surface of the clear rubber sole of the shoes.

From December 19, 2019, new images and videos created especially for this collaboration will be shown on the special website listed below, and also on social media. They are also scheduled to be featured in Causeway Bay flagship store from December 26th.