Los hypebeasts y fanáticos del reconocido artista japonés Takashi Murakami recordarán con impaciencia que el año pasado anunció que estaría involucrándose por primera vez en el mundo del diseño de moda con unas zapatillas deportivas, llamadas oficialmente TZ BS-06. En ese entonces, Murakami dijo que la idea nació después de visitar la ComplexCon en 2016, donde se inspiró en la pasión de los asistentes por coleccionar el calzado deportivo, y después de sentirse sorprendido por la cálida bienvenida que recibió de los sneakerheads, Murakami decidió que era el momento de hacer su propio zapato.

En ese entonces comenzó a buscar fabricantes y pronto consiguió la inspiración para el diseño, el traje militar Zuku de la serie animé de los 80, Mobile Suit Gundam. Sin embargo, no se supo nada del proyecto desde entonces, por lo que muchos pensaron que Murakami había desistido de la idea; pero ahora, sin embargo, hay noticias de que las tan esperadas zapatillas llegarán a la tienda online de Murakami, Tonari no Zingaro, así como a tiendas selectas, el próximo viernes 30 de agosto.

El propio artista anunció el lanzamiento a través de su cuenta de Instagram: “Por primera vez en mi vida, hice un par de zapatillas desde cero”, escribió. “Desde la concepción, pasando por los bocetos de los dibujos, hasta la selección de mis colaboradores y el fabricante, he manejado todo, de principio a fin, en cada paso del camino. Al ver el primer par terminado, me sentí profundamente emocionado. Estoy muy contento de haberlo hecho.”

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For the first time in my life, I made a pair of sneakers from scratch! From conception to drawing sketches to selecting the collaborator and manufacturer, I’ve handled everything, start to finish, every step of the way. Seeing the finished pair, I felt deeply emotional. I’m truly glad I did it. In the past I have collaborated with brands such as Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton, and Vans at their requests and designed the surface patterns, packages, and wrappings, but I was never really involved in developing any products. This time, I truly got do everything from scratch and feel that this was exactly what I had wanted to do. I’m doing a fist pump in my mind! My urge to create a pair myself directly resulted from my participation in the first ComplexCon @complexcon in Long Beach, CA in 2016. The encounter with so-called Sneakerheads at the event has become the sole motivation for this project. I wish I could give back to them in some way for the confidence they gave me! To give you some background on how I ended up getting involved in ComplexCon: Around 2015 I used to enjoy reading and watching Kanye West gossips posted almost daily on Complex Media @complex and loved their site. One day, they requested an interview with me so I visited their headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The interview went swiftly but afterwards I heard their founder was asking to meet me, so I went directly to see him. This, of course, was Marc Eckō, @beingmarcecko and our fateful meeting was what led me to ComplexCon. At this first meeting Marc asked me to participate in ComplexCon. He explained the event to me in detail but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Yet I readily agreed because I loved Complex. I started working on various design elements including the ComplexCon logo, still without any grasp of what the event was all about. I was supposedly a Host Committee Member or some such, along with Pharrell @pharrell , which made me feel quite presumptuous. ?PART2 translation: @tabi_the_fat

Una publicación compartida por Takashi Murakami (@takashipom) el 23 de Ago de 2019 a las 8:48 PDT

En el post, mencionó su larga serie de colaboraciones con otras marcas de calzado como Vans, Issey Miyake, y quizás la más famosa, Louis Vuitton. “Pero esta vez realmente conseguí hacer todo desde cero y siento que esto era exactamente lo que quería hacer. ¡Estoy haciendo un puño al aire en mi mente!”

Con la idea de usar nylon de las chaquetas de pilotos ya zumbando en su cabeza, la oportunidad cayó en el regazo de Murakami cuando la compañía japonesa de bolsos Porter se acercó a él para trabajar en una colaboración. Después de trabajar en la bolsa Tanker de Porter, Murakami y la marca acordaron trabajar en las zapatillas TZ BS-06. Los zapatos con un perfil de color verde bosque, naranja, menta y blanco, están adornados con bolsas desmontables de Porter en ambos lados y en el talón. Un total de ocho bolsas diferentes son empacadas con las zapatillas, junto con un surtido de opciones de trenzas.

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? When I arrived on site on the first day of the event, I heard people had waited in line overnight to get in. And on the event floor, people recognized me, saying “OMG, it’s Takashi!” “That’s the real guy!” and “Shake hands with me!” They all seemed to know me and surrounded me excitedly. I was completely taken by surprise, as I had no idea how they’d even heard of me. I learned that these participants were referred to as Sneakerheads after the event. I still don’t exactly know why they came to know of me, whether it was through my collaborations with Kanye West, Louis Vuitton, or VANS, or else through the merchandise I produce. Whatever the case, it turned out I was somehow popular among Sneakerheads! And so it seemed imperative that I made sneakers myself. Around 2017 I asked Yuichi Wakatsuki @wakamoon , with whom I was working on producing bags, whether he thought it was possible for us to make sneakers, and he gave me a positive answer saying it should be if we asked around for manufacturers in Vietnam or elsewhere. Excited, I decided to go ahead with it. When I was exploring possible concepts, I noted that Balenciaga had come out with enormously bulky sneakers in 2016, and I considered them in the context of supercars and anime robots; that was actually an area I was well-versed in. I contemplated what distinctively Japanese sneakers might look like, and it hit me that it should resemble something like Mobile Suit Gundam’s Zaku. I decided that the ‘90s military-themed Zaku, which looked like a tank with its many pockets and bags, might especially be suitable. For military aesthetic I thought the fabric for flight jackets might work, and by association I thought of working with Porter @yoshidakaban.official , when by chance Porter reached out to me asking if we could collaborate on their Tanker Helmet Bags’ 30th anniversary. We decided to first collaborated on their Tanker bag, and then on the sneakers. Everything just happened to align, the timing worked out, and the project came to fruition. ? PART3

Una publicación compartida por Takashi Murakami (@takashipom) el 23 de Ago de 2019 a las 9:14 PDT

Después de ver las zapatillas, Murakami tiene toda razón de estar emocionado, pues estos zapatos deportivos serán realmente deseables, y con un precio de USD $611 en edición limitada, esto significa que el mercado secundario estará lleno de estos pares con montos exorbitantes. Así que programa tu reloj si quieres adquirir uno de estos.

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? The last thing we had to decide on was the package design. JNTHED, the otaku illustrator who designs mechas for my animation series 6HP @studio_poncotan and CGI/live-action sci-fi film Jellyfish Eyes, did the illustration. The concept for the box art is an homage to Ko Yokoyama #sf3d , the author/creator of SF3D, the shining star of the ’90s plastic model industry (we got his blessings). The project therefore aims to present a pair of sneakers that resulted from the marriage of the ‘90s Japanese otaku taste and the sneaker context to Sneakerheads, the fans of ComplexCon. This weekend we are finally releasing them at Tonarino Zingaro. I’m thrilled to the core. ?‍♂️

Una publicación compartida por Takashi Murakami (@takashipom) el 23 de Ago de 2019 a las 9:23 PDT

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