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Sneakers Special
5/SEP/2009 on air

CONVERSE is an American sneaker brand but these days they try to listen to the voices from Japanese streets. They ask girls walking down the streets in Harajuku to try their 6cm high-heeled sneakers on and tell them what they think. High-heeled sneakers are good for those who usually don’t wear sneakers. VANQUISH from Onii-kei brand and no name from girly brand stresses sneaker fashion.

When you choose what to wear, do you choose from clothes or shoes?
Girly dress and girly shoes are too normal and just girly. It’s cool if we combine girly dress with fashionable sneakers!

The star patterned sneakers of X-girl‘s collaboration with Vans were limited-line but they sold very fast.

Urahara is one of the best places in the world to shop fashionable sneakers. Many international celebrities pay an incognito visit to this area. Kenye West and Black Eyed Peas are not exceptional. The day of recording the episode, Tokyo Kawaii TV caught Keri Hilson’s shopping in Urahara. She visits CHAPTER and KICKS LAB.

3 men are collectors of vintage sneakers. Each of them bring 3 pairs of sneakers and Mr.Ikki and Beni-chan guess which one is most expensive or which one sold fastest. Vintage sneakers could be priced as much as 700,000yen (USD7000) at online auction today.

In 1995 it was NIKE that gave a new value to sports shoes. They suggested customised design sneakers using PC. The variation of design was as many as hundreds of millions patterns. ADIDAS also changed their image and started to target woman customers. Pumps shaped sneakers are fashionable as well as functional. They are popular among female office workers because they are so comfortable enough to wear for hours.

Imai-san is a designer of MADFOOT. 210,000 people in Japan wear the shoes he designed, which means he can find 4 people wearing his shoes within 1 hour in Harajuku. MADFOOT shoes are sold at 500 stores in Japan, and also in London and Taiwan. Their colorful sneakers are so popular. He chooses theme first, then color from 1000 colors.

Kirin’s opinion:
MADFOOT’s colorful sneakers are not my taste. When I first saw them I wondered how we were supposed to coordinate with these too many colors. I’d definitely choose simple colored base plus accent color if I choose sneakers for myself. I like pumps shaped sneakers, but when heels are too high, that makes me tired. I am also interested in sneaker boots. But this winter I didn’t have a chance to buy them.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog

Disclaimer: The map is originally from Tokyo Kanko Ryoko and red letters are marked by me for your better understandings.

If you have a chance to shop or browse in Harajuku area, I think most of you do not even step inside backstreets, because main streets are already full of shops, restaurants and cafes. But backstreets can be more unique, more interesting, and anyway they are sometimes something more than main streets.

Here are some related links for you to check out to imagine how the Urahara world would be.

-Harajuku Cat street website
-Tokyo Kanko Ryoko
-Harajuku Urahara Mitegoran Guide
-Urahara jp
-Urahara org

These sites are in Japanese, but I believe you can at least enjoy pictures there.

Have you been to Harajuku before? If yes, how did you like that? Which shop did you go and find what? When I was a teenager, my mom didn’t allow me to hang around Harajuku, because she said it’s a dangerous place for kids. Time has passed, and I’ve never had any dangerous happenings out there since my first Harajuku shopping in high school age. Now it’s a place too young for me to hang out but I still like to see people out there.