TOKYO—Gerson Balza remembers Uma Thurman wearing yellow and black Onitsuka Tigers in the 2003 movie “Kill Bill: Volume 1,” her character carving a trail of bloody vengeance across Japan.
“It’s crazy. Tourists pack inside these temples of fashion to gaze at rows of sleek sneakers or show staff the pair they covet on their smartphones. Stores give those waiting in line outside a ticket so they can take their turn going in. Buyers have been spotted changing into their new shoes on street corners. A weak yen means visitors can splurge on this slice of Japanese luxury for less than they would at home. Fans rave about the shoes’ vintage looks and lighter feel compared with the thick-soled sneakers popularized by other brands. For the tourists shopping for Onitsuka Tigers in Japan, buying for friends and siblings back home is common. Onitsuka Tigers started out as a basketball shoe. The firm sold its first pair of Tigers a year later, and soon its shoes were being used by Japanese athletes at the Olympic Games.
He and his wife Lucy, a teacher, and twin daughters Isabella and Victoria, 23, bought four pairs on their trip to Japan. They spent $100 on each—about half of what they would expect to pay for Onitsuka Tigers back home in Oakland Township, Mich. Paweł Klimczuk, 22, bought a pair for himself and another for his 19-year-old brother, Michał, at an Onitsuka Tiger store in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighborhood. Kihachiro Onitsuka founded the brand and the company that would become Asics in 1949 after returning to his home in Kobe, Japan, following World War II.
These are old shoes!” he said. Younger generations’ recent enthusiasm for “Y2K” fashion has given Onitsuka Tigers a tailwind, said Sho Kawano, who heads research into retail and consumer industries at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. They heard about the brand from friends back home in Gdańsk, Poland, and said the two pairs they bought cost less than they would pay for a single pair of high-end sneakers in Poland.
