Onitsuka Tiger will release 43 items, including shoes in collaboration with Astro Boy, at limited-edition Onitsuka Tiger stores in Japan on December 16. Prior to this, the brand will conduct pre-sales at the Ginza POP-UP STORE, which opens on December 12, and at its online store for the domestic market. Overseas sales will begin in January 2024.
The Ginza POP-UP STORE was opened to the press on January 11. Located at 4-5-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, the pop-up store in collaboration with Astro Boy will be open until January 31, 2024.
Kazunori Onuma, Country Director of ASICS Japan Onitsuka Tiger Japan, said, “Onitsuka Tiger will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2024. The company’s founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, saw young people becoming delinquent and lacking hope for the future in the immediate postwar period, and he wanted to do something that would contribute to the sound upbringing of young people and help them achieve their dreams, hopes, and futures,” he explained. The collaboration with Astro Boy is the first step of this anniversary year.
The first floor of the store is a collaboration zone with Astro Boy, with collaboration items lined up in a red-painted room. A café stand is located by the entrance, where visitors can enjoy coffee in cups with Astro Boy on them.
On the first basement floor, successive generations of the brand’s iconic “MEXICO 66” model up to its birth are on display, and more than 100 current MEXICO 66 models are available for purchase. Purchasers will be offered free embroidery of up to four alphanumeric characters or symbols.
Staff from Sagawa Kogei, which handles the finishing of the shoes, also came to the event. They showed how they apply silver foil to the shoes.
The brand’s first café “TORA CAFÉ 75” opened on the second floor, offering five kinds of original shaved ice in collaboration with Nara’s famous shaved ice store “Hoseibako” until the end of January.
According to Mr. Onuma, the café will continue to operate after the collaboration with Hoseki Bako will end at the end of January, but will continue to operate after that with changes to the menu of offerings.
© Source travel watch