Kill Bill sneakers turn Japan soft power into hard profits
From Muji to Mario, Hello Kitty to Asics, brands that appeal to foreigners are enjoying record earnings
Add BT as a preferred source
THE unlikely must-have item for tourists in Japan is the footwear of choice of Kill Bill’s protagonist.
Onitsuka Tiger, the fashion brand reborn when Uma Thurman’s The Bride wore its sneakers in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 movie, is enjoying record sales. Asics discontinued the brand for decades until the early 2000s, but post-Covid visitors can’t get enough of the comfy, timeless trainers.
Revenue in Japan has doubled in a year, with tourists accounting for almost all the surge. Onitsuka is by far Asics’s highest-margin segment, with a new flagship store on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and plans for shops in the US. Shares are up eightfold in the past five years, helping its market capitalisation to recently pass US$20 billion.
TRENDING NOW
CSE Global independent director quits after clashes with chairman Eugene Lai over board refresh
What’s wrong with Orchard Road? Experts weigh in on the street’s cachet and its future
‘I felt like dying’: Thai Singha beer scion speaks up after disclosure of alleged sexual abuse
Rare brutalist Singapore house opens to the public before changing hands
