Kiks Tyo is a Japanese fashion brand founded by DJ, designer, photographer and streetwear/sneaker culture personality hobby:tech (Shinichi Izaki) in 2006.[1][2]
Kiks Tyo specializes in men's lifestyle and streetwear, as well as accessories and footwear, operating via the brand's Kiks Tyo Head Shop store in Shibuya, Tokyo.[3][4]
Kiks Tyo was launched in 2006 by hobby:tech. Prior to starting Kiks Tyo, hobby:tech was a partner in the Japanese creative collective and streetwear brand known as BROWNRATS (El. brown).[8] In early 2006 he exited BROWNRATS to launch a clothing line of his own. The line would be based on one of his primary passions: sneakers.[9][10]
By 2007 Kiks Tyo had opened its boutique store, the Kiks Tyo Head Shop, near Cat Street, the pedestrian strip that connects Tokyo's two youth fashion centers: Shibuya and Harajuku. The store initially offered Kiks Tyo's original clothing and accessories, Casio's line of G-Shock watches[4] and a curation of collectable vintage sportswear, snapback caps and sneakers from brands like Nike, Air Jordan, Fila, Chalk Line, Cazal and Spike Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule - much of which was hard to find elsewhere in Japan at the time.[11] At the same time Kiks Tyo opened its second retail store, html (hobby tasteful merchandise laboratory), in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Kiks Tyo launched its first collection at these standalone stores in Tokyo and eventually via over 40 domestic boutique and specialty retailers throughout Japan and around the world.[4][11]
Design
Kiks Tyo gained popularity[12] and recognition[13] in streetwear and fashion circles, and with both sneaker heads[14] and hypebeasts[15] for producing apparel that fuses a love for sneakers, Japanese bikini idols, hip-hop and street culture into one unified and unique design aesthetic. hobby:tech explained this Kiks Tyo design ethos, joining [different] worlds that have never been fused with creative intent,[16] as a metaphorical "okosama lunch",[9] the Japanese term used for special kid's meals served at family-friendly restaurants in Japan. The dishes, akin to McDonald's Happy Meals,[17] famously include all of the different food Japanese kids love, served together on one tempting and exciting plate.[18][19]
Kiks Tyo is known primarily for its "Sneakers and Girls"[1] aka Kiks Girls photo T-shirts,[20] which pair the eroticism of bikini clad Japanese models and gravure idols with coveted, rare and collectable sneakers or elements of sneaker culture.[20] Design elements of the sneakers, their lore, nostalgia, color schemes or branding are expressed graphically, thematically, or via the model's styling and poses.[20][21][22] The brand's initial 2006–2008 run of Kiks Girls tees featured Japanese sex symbolAki Hoshino and sparked a global streetwear and sneaker culture trend movement rarely seen at the time.[15][20] The "Kiks Tyo x Aki Hoshino Tee" is considered by GQ as one of the classic items in the history of East Asian trends.[23]
Kiks Tyo has often used the slogan "Community of the Sneaker Nuts, By Sneaker Nuts, For Sneaker Nuts” in the brand's design, graphics and marketing.[24] The main inspirations behind Kiks Tyo designs come from sneakers and sneaker culture, and its graphics, textiles, colorways,[25] construction and packaging are made to complement,[26] match or coordinate with them.[11][9]
In 2012 Sega featured Kiks Tyo and its Kiks Tyo Head Shop in the PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game Kurohyō 2: Ryū ga Gotoku Ashura hen (Japanese: クロヒョウ2 龍が如く 阿修羅編, lit. "Black Panther 2: Like a Dragon Ashura Chapter"), a spin off of its action-adventure Yakuza video game franchise. The game introduced the ability to buy and change clothes freely according to a desired look. A streetwear outfit consisting of a Kiks Tyo branded t-shirt, logo hoodie, denim jeans and Air Force 1 style sneakers can be purchased and changed into. The clothing is visible on the protagonist, Tatsuya, when in story mode, on adventures, walking around town and in battle.[46]
"Sneaker Lover" photobook and DVD
On January 31, 2008, Kiks Tyo announced the release of "Sneaker Lover" a photo-book and gravure DVD project featuring popular Japanese bikini idol, model and actress Aki Hoshino and photographed/filmed by former Egg Magazine creative director,[47] artist and celebrated Tokyo-based photographer, Yasumasa Yonehara.[48] The photobooks were distributed to book stores,[49] news stands and conbinis throughout Japan, and internationally via Kiks Tyo's international online store.
"Sneaker Lover," a project conceived and directed by hobby:tech, and published by Goma Books, would go on to become an infamous part of sneaker folklore[12] and regarded as one of street fashion's strongest triple-name collaborations.[20] It marked the first time its subject, Hoshino and its photographer, Yonehara would work together professionally.[48] The result was 100+ full-color pages of erotic images and film footage, set in Hong Kong and Macau, and snapped in Yonehara's trademark lo-fi[50] style.
In addition to the photobook and DVD, Kiks Tyo, Aki Hoshino and Yonehara collaborated on series of six limited edition "Sneaker Lover" photo print T-shirts[51] and a Taiwan photo exhibition that displayed enlarged prints of photos from the book, Yonehara's Instax Cheki photos, sneakers and props used during the project's creation.[52] The large-scale collaboration project climaxed with the opening of Kiks Tyo's own "Sneaker Lover" pop-up store at Tokyo's street fashion culture mecca, Laforet.[5]
^Ducreay, Safra (Sep 23, 2007). "KIKS TYO – Extra, Extra". FORMAT MAGAZINE. Archived from the original on December 15, 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2023. we're joining two different worlds that have never been fused with creative intent.
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