MILAN — Onitsuka Tiger’s celebrations for its 75th anniversary are going on across two continents with activations lined up for Paris and Tokyo, its hometown.
On the French capital’s Champs-Élysées thoroughfare, which has undergone a wide-ranging makeover for the Olympic Games, the sneaker and sportswear brand has opened the doors this month to the Hotel Onitsuka Tiger, conceived as a multipurpose space hosting cultural, lifestyle and fashion-leaning activations until Aug. 17.
Housed inside an 18th-century stately palazzo traditionally closed to the public, the space has been decked in Onitsuka Tiger’s signature bright yellow taking over the facade’s windows and furnishing and knickknacks inside.
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The venue, a gilded, frescoed and stuccoed space exuding French opulence, was designed to resemble a hotel, with a reception space, rooms complete with Onitsuka Tiger-branded pillows, bath products and stationery, although the location won’t offer accommodation, but serves instead as a space for exhibitions and lifestyle activities.
The brand said the location will be home to a new Onitsuka Tiger flagship in the city, bowing in 2025.
“We are extremely proud to be celebrating Onitsuka Tiger’s 75th anniversary, a milestone that reflects our constant commitment to innovation and quality. For the past seven decades we have worked to combine tradition and modernity, offering our clients products that embody our vision hinged on comfort and innovative design while respecting our artisanal heritage,” said Ryoji Shoda, chief executive officer of Onitsuka Tiger.
“Looking ahead we are committed to keep launching new projects with passion and ambition to inspire present and future generations, in sync with our founder’s visions and principles that inspired him to establish Onitsuka Tiger 75 years ago,” he added.
A lineup of artists and performers was invited for residencies to animate the hotel space. They include pianist and Grammy Award-winner Yuja Wang; Milan-based Michelin-starred chef Yoji Tokuyoshi; Tokyo-born and Paris-raised singer, songwriter and flautist Maïa Barouh, as well as Yutaro Inagaki, a London-based young artist and painter.
Throughout its opening the hotel hosts an exhibition on archival shoe designs, as well as a photographic showcase retracing Onitsuka Tiger’s evolution over the past 75 years flanked by an installation dedicated to its founder Kihachiro Onitsuka housed inside the so-called “heritage room” displaying some of his key designs including the Mexico 66 trainers.
A Yellow Tiger Cafè mounted on the hotel’s terrace allows visitors to indulge in a Japanese culinary experience.
Honoring the brand’s ties with its hometown, a second celebratory activation is scheduled for Aug. 9 to 25 in Tokyo, where the brand is mounting a photographic exhibition of 75 archival footwear styles, as well as a showcase of artworks inspired by the brand’s DNA.
Marking the anniversary the Tokyo event will also coincide with the debut of an exclusive capsule collection comprising five reinterpreted shoe designs drawn from the archives, each nodding to a specific turning point in the brand’s history.
After working as a salaryman, or white-collar worker, for three years post-World War II, founder Onitsuka established the brand in 1949 moving from the belief that sports could foster body and mind and fuel growth and progression for Japanese youth. Onitsuka Tiger’s first footwear design was a basketball sneaker with enhanced grip, with which a Japanese high school team won a local championship.
The brand kicked off celebrations with the release, earlier this year, of an anniversary collaboration with Astro Boy, the first anime TV series in Japan, comprising ready to wear and footwear, in addition to opening a pop-up store in Tokyo’s Ginza.
In February, the shoemaker also took over Rinascente with window displays, shop-in-shop pop-ups and a temporary café to coincide with Milan Fashion Week, where the brand has regularly unveiled its runway collections under the creative direction of Andrea Pompilio.
Onitsuka Tiger is part of Japanese sportswear company Asics Corporation, a name established in 1977 to replace the former moniker Onitsuka Co. Ltd.
