Onitsuka Tiger’s distinctive interlocking swoosh has become a defining feature of the brand. Images courtesy of Onitsuka Tiger. Back in February of this year, Onitsuka Tiger presented its autumn 2024 collection at Milan Fashion Week. Soundtracked by the Grammy-winning pianist Yuja Wang and attended by celebrity guests including Conan Gray and Gulf Kanawut, the distinctly urban show and collection were the fanfare for the brand’s entrance into a new era.
While by no means the first runway show Onitsuka has put on, the autumn 2024 presentation perfectly bookended a 12-month period spent bleeding into the very fabric of fashion. Throughout 2023, the company enjoyed a stratospheric rise from an if-you-know-you-know brand to the maker of one of the most covetable shoe styles in the world. The moment marked a pivot seven decades in the making.
Onitsuka Tiger (originally Onitsuka Co) was founded as a sportswear company by Kihachiro Onitsuka in Kobe, Japan, in 1949, the initial motivation being to promote youth health following World War II. However, it didn’t take long for Onitsuka to carve out a name for himself on a bigger block. The inspiration for his first-ever breakthrough shoe came from an octopus whose tentacle had got stuck inside a bowl given to the then-32-year-old entrepreneur. The animal sparked the idea for the suction-cup sole on the 1950 OK Basketball shoe, which helped players to make the fast breaks and quick stops required of them. Within the decade, Onitsuka’s attention would turn to running shoes, with the Magic Runner (1960) and Runspark (1964) designs preceding the birth of an icon. In 1966, the company unveiled the low-cut, slim-silhouetted Mexico 66 shoe, which was later worn by the Japanese Olympic team at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. It doesn’t get much sportier than that. However, this was, unbeknown to Onitsuka at the time, the shoe that would redefine the brand.
The Mexico 66 managed to nab a guest appearance on the feet of Jim Kelly in 1973’s hit movie “Enter the Dragon” as well as in Bruce Lee’s 1978 film “Game of Death”. The latter came only a year after Onitsuka had merged with GTO Co and Jelenk Co to form ASICS. For the next several years, it would remain largely out of the Zeitgeist, while ASICS gradually shifted from strictly athletic wear to a broader fashion focus throughout the latter part of the 20th century. Onitsuka was revived by ASICS as a heritage brand in 2002, and the timing could not have been better. A year on, the brand enjoyed another film appearance. You can probably picture the mustard yellow and black Tai Chi LEs — the pair worn by The Bride, played by Uma Thurman, in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 cult classic, “Kill Bill Volume 1”. A cultural and fashion moment rolled into one mustard yellow package, the Tarantino endorsement would cement Onitsuka Tiger’s position in the pop culture canon.
It was arguably this moment that primed it for a complete explosion in popularity in the 2020s. The cyclical nature of fashion, a product of the nostalgic leanings of youth, saw the Mexico 66 take off again in late 2022. With endorsements from Bella Hadid, Kaia Gerber, Kendall Jenner and more, the shoe is set to be one of the defining pieces of the decade. The design’s prevalence has introduced a new generation to Onitsuka Tiger, and underscored a new era for the brand. Now with A-list ambassadors, regular fashion week appearances and on-trend ready-to-wear collections under its remit, Onitsuka Tiger has left its sports association as a point of pride in its heritage and set to work reinventing itself as a fashion label. And it’s working.
This year, with another of its Milan Fashion Week presentations fast approaching, Onitsuka Tiger is celebrating 75 years of shifting evolution. The brand observed the milestone with two global events this year: one in Tokyo and the other Paris, ahead of the opening of its Champs-Élysées flagship store next year. The French event, Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger, was staged across the street from the future boutique and served as a hub for creative luminaries to convene. In the spirit of creativity, five special shoes have been designed for the 75th anniversary, including the Ohbori50, a stylish remake of the 1974 Ohbori style.
As Onitsuka Tiger celebrates three quarters of a century, its reimagining of heritage styles is an apt reflection of its growth from a postwar sportswear pioneer to a fashion powerhouse. This milestone year, underscored by high-profile endorsements and global events, marks a bold new chapter for the brand, in which it’s not just looking back on its rich history, but forging ahead with renewed vigour and vision. Even while busy with another runway show this month and a rollout of anniversary pieces in the works, Onitsuka Tiger is already looking to its centenary.
