Original Onitsuka Tiger

ASICS' Onitsuka Tiger shoes fashioned with a Makumo print

Textile designer Miki Fukuyama and her husband chef Tomo Araki run the Makumo company from their home in Itoshima, Japan. Fukuyama creates the designs, that are then handprinted by Araki on Japanese loomed canvases from Kurashiki. Onitsuka Tiger has actually released a video—the first in a set about the collaboration—featuring the few taking care of the textile designs in their residence.

The very first shoe into the Onitsuka Tiger x Makumo pill collection, the “Natto, ” shows up in stores on Summer 13 and certainly will retail for $110. Each print has an account behind it and for the “Natto, ” the inspiration is a fermented bean, which “represents the idea the power of fermentation is inspiring and transformational.”

“We are particularly stoked up about our collaboration with Makumo, that will be a first for Onitsuka Tiger® brand name, ” said Mike Jensen, director of life style for ASICS America Corp., the Irvine, Calif.–based U.S. arm regarding the Japanese footwear athletic gear manufacturer. “Style and design are everything to our Onitsuka Tiger consumer and we know they are going to value Makumo's unique, beautifully handmade textiles. This Really Is a true representation of Japanese craftsmanship, and there's nothing else like it available.”

The next style to be introduced will be the “Tora, ” that has been hand imprinted at Bamba Dye House in Kyoto, Japan. “Tora” may be the Japanese term for “tiger.” The footwear is obtainable in July and can retail for $100. The structure for the third design, the "Karamari, ” resembles cells and membranes “to show an environment saturated in life and energy with unique figures all connected.” It will also bow in July and can retail for $110.

“I never ever imagined our textiles could be always build shoes, but when we presented all of them within my fingers I thought, 'Wow, it is amazing, '” Fukuyama said. "I was so impressed with all the ability of this Onitsuka Tiger designer to choose the perfect prints for the right silhouettes."