Asicstiger opens in SoHo

Asicstiger, the Japanese lifestyle brand and division of athletic wear brand Asics, has officially opened their first store outside of Asia in New York's SoHo neighborhood. On Thursday, the company celebrated the store opening and debuted their exclusive collaboration with Tokyo-based artist Sneakerwolf. Located at 276 Lafayette Street, the store is poised to attract SoHo's prime retail traffic.

In honor of the store opening, Asicstiger hosted a party attended by Ty Dolla $ign, Bali Baby, Matthew Mazur, Harif Guzman, Moti Ankari, Christian Bendek, Maria Buccellati, Ralph Souffrant, Keisuk Asano, Mona Matsuoka, Dallas Sessoms, Sharena Chindavong, Jed Root, Samia Hampstead and Alton Mason.

For Asicstiger, this store has been a longtime coming. "To be right in the heart of SoHo next to Supreme means the stars couldn't have aligned more perfectly for us," said Colin Brickley, direct of demand creation at Asics U.S.A. "This is an amazing opportunity to educate New York consumers about Asics as a brand. New York is a very untapped market for us, and this store presents us with a lot of opportunity."

Asics furthers global expansion with Asicstiger SoHo location

New York City is quickly becoming Asics crown jewel for growth. In December, they plan on opening a Fifth Avenue store that will feature both Asicstiger and Asics performance wear to further their marketshare in New York. "We have pretty high expectations for the new SoHo location budget wise," Brickley said. "We aren't looking to get rich off of the store by any means, but use it as a marketing vehicle to get consumers who are younger and more diverse."

Sneakerwolf, who was present at the store opening party, said he considered it a great opportunity to collaborate with Asics again. Last year, he did another collaboration with Asicstiger and a sneaker retail shop in Japan. This is the first year that Sneakerwolf has officially begun calling himself an artist, and he's all about the wearable art.

"Usually, when you think about art, you think about installations at a museum," Sneakerwolf said. "My art is all about people. I want to see people wearing my art as merchandise. I'm trying to change the game of art installations and make it something you see in daily wear and street wear."

Ryoji Shoda, senior general manager of global lifestyle division at Asics Corporation, believes that street wear and sneaker culture will help propel this store and Asics U.S. presence forward

"Japanese people are very detail oriented," Shoda said. "Americans are appreciating the fact that our products are so high quality. Millennial's love for streetwear and street style will help this store fit very well into our bigger plan for things."

The sales space will feature the latest Asicstiger shoes and apparel collections plus exclusive limited releases. Various pieces of art will be on display in collaboration with globally-active Japanese artist Carl Rauschenbach. Rauschenbach is an up and coming mural artist and painter known for his use of block print copy motifs in graffiti.

In-store events with themes of fashion, lifestyle, health and music will be held during the opening weeks.

photo:courtesy of Asicstiger