New book, after two years of numerous trips to LA, Boston, London, Hong Kong and Australia, here we go, finally! A new book on Japan's sneaker culture.
It is very different to Kicks Japan, it is more design and product based, with over 300 photos of sneakers, including mita sneaker's entire portfolio.
Another reason it is different to my previous book, is that it is a publication which was produced in conjunction with the Japanese American Museum in LA.
We went back and forth many times to have meetings and to interview people, and it is more like a catalog (more on that later). The book was completed with a considerable amount of direction by Koji Sakai (former VP of programs at JANM). It was an honor to work with him.
The sneaker guys were great as usual, there is
a lot of content; from Japanese themed sneakers, Japanese designed kicks, Japan-manufactured items and historic, rare, limited and vintage sneakers. There are lots of interviewees, and as always, model shoots, with a bunch of new faces (lots of hapa and Hawaiian- J girls). There is
really a lot of photos, it is much more comprehensive than Kicks Japan, and will come in a nice thick hardcover, with fresh design by design wizard Christopher Salyer over in New York.
I'll miss the LA meetings, eating obscenely delicious Mexican (don't bother trying to get this food group in Japan), visiting K town (and their spas, fresh off the plane), dossing around downtown, stacking up on books at Kinokuniya and zipping around in an Uber visiting designers, skaters, sneaker heads and so on.
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