Onitsuka Tiger Stores 2010-2014

It was early 2010 when we travelled to Tokyo to be briefed by retail design studio FORMATION on the ONITSUKA TIGER concept. The main foundation of that concept was to express the MADE OF JAPAN slogan by playing with the never-ending duality of old versus new, traditional vs innovative, light vs dark.

The first mono-brand european ONITSUKA store was built on a street corner on Fuencarral street (Madrid). It was a prototype, and all Japanese inspired furniture and decoration panels were built in Spain under the artistic supervision of GOTADIS and FORMATION.

The existing OT partner store on Rue des Halles in Paris was soon re-fitted to this concept, a complex operation since the building was concerned by heritage protection laws.

An opportunity immediately presented itself to open one ONITSUKA TIGER store in prestigious Westfield shopping mall, London. But the time available from brief to store opening was only a month and half! GOTADIS managed to open the store in time, after only three weeks of construction works. The shopfront included a four meter high tiger logo in cut-out white plexiglas.

In collaboration with WESTS in Manchester, GOTADIS then developed the Onitsuka Tiger OUTLET concept for first implementations in Las Rozas Village (Madrid) and La Roca Village (Barcelona). Moving away from literal references to ancient japanese formal traditions, the concept would insist instead on sustainability (use of reclaimed timber in the furniture) and craftsmanship: The TIGER logo was torch-burnt on a timber slat wall using a thick metal sheet as a stencil.

A new concept arrived in 2012 from WESTS design in Manchester to give shape to another mono-brand full price ONITSUKA TIGER store in Leidsestraat, Amsterdam, and yet another concept -coming from Japan- was implemented in COLOMBO shopping mall (Lisbon, Portugal).

In this latter store, shopfront and interior wall coverings were made using carefully applied cement dyed with Chinese ink, moulded with planks of real timber that had previously been flamed to enhance the texture of the grain. The quality of handmade finishes produced an enormous contrast with the neighbouring ASICS store and its high-tech laser engraved wall panelings.