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Event Announcement: FTN Sessions02 "Looking Back at the Street Culture of the 90s"

2024.03.08

The 90s was a time when street culture saw an explosive boom in various fields such as fashion, music, and art, and it still influences the current trends significantly.

Hence, we are organizing a co-sponsored event by Fashion Tech News and TMIP, centering around 'Boon', which was immensely popular back in the 90s alongside the street culture. The theme of this event is "Looking back at the street culture of the 90s."

In this event, we invite Koichi Tadano, an advisor at Shodensha Publishing and former editor-in-chief of Boon, Shigeyuki Kunii, Creative Director of Mita Sneakers, Tajimax, a Heisei culture collector and writer, and as a guest, we have an MMA fighter, Kaoru Uno.

In the presentations by each speaker, former editor-in-chief of Boon, Tadano, will first delve into the untold stories of the birth of the 90s sneaker boom and the Air Max. Then, Kunii will explain how the culture of collaborations in sneakers, unique to Japan, started. Further, Tajimax will trace the street culture from the past to the present, with special focus on the birth story of the Y2K fashion trend that has made a comeback. In the final group session, Uno will also join in exploring the appeal of the street culture and Boon during that time.

Not only those who were readers of Boon at the time, but anyone interested in the fashion culture of the 90s is more than welcome to participate.

Event Overview

FTN sessions02 "Looking back at the street culture of the 90s"
Date and Time: March 27, 2024 (Wednesday), 18:30~20:30
Location
Offline: EGG (1 minute walk from JR Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Exit)
Online: YouTube (to be announced later)
Capacity: 80 people

Admission: Free (Ticket application is required for offline participation)
URL for ticket application: https://tmipguest240327.peatix.com
Application deadline: March 26 (Tuesday), 12:00 noon
Organized by: Fashion Tech News, TMIP (Tokyo Marunouchi Innovation Platform)

Guests & Speakers

PROFILE

Caol Uno

MMA fighter / Head trainer at UNO DOJO

Legend of the MMA world, celebrating 25th anniversary of his debut in 2021. He has been thrilling fans by continuously challenging fights with top fighters in various rings such as Shooto, UFC, HERO'S, DREAM, and VTJ. Currently, he is still active and expanding his field of activity by participating in Shooto, VTJ, jiu-jitsu tournaments, and grappling matches. He hosts MMA, JIU-JITSU, and NO-GI classes at 'UNO DOJO' in Gold's Gym Harajuku and Omori.

PROFILE

Koichi Tadano

Advisor at Shodensha Publishing. Former editor-in-chief of Boon

Born in 1958 in Miyagi Prefecture. Joined Shodensha Publishing in 1983, and after working on '2001' and 'Smile', he was assigned to 'Boon'. After becoming the editor-in-chief in 1996, he witnessed the arrival of the Air Max boom. Keen on collecting, he has a particular interest in the first issues of magazines, Calbee's professional baseball cards, and differently colored Pokemon.

PROFILE

Shigeyuki Kunii

Creative Director at mita sneakers

Proposes a unique sneaker style from Ueno, downtown Tokyo, to the world as the Creative Director of Mita Sneakers. Known for his excellent collaborations and special models with numerous brands, especially his work related to New Balance. As a key figure in the sneaker industry, he's involved in various sneaker projects, from worldwide projects to local inline directions.

PROFILE

Tajimax

Writer & Collector

From 2018, he has been introducing Heisei girls' culture from the 90s to 00s primarily through social media. Since then, he has been involved in interviews, writing, and contributions related to Heisei culture in outlets like 'Oricon News', 'Modern Business', 'WWD.JAPAN', 'Business Journal', 'Quick Japan', 'Urban Life Metro', and 'Toyo Keizai Online' among others. He owns a huge collection of items related to Heisei girls' culture, mainly old magazines.

Agenda

18:30 - 18:40
Welcome & Introduction of TMIP, Explanation of Event Purpose, Introduction of Companies

18:40 - 19:25
Program by each speaker (*Please be advised that the program and lecture content are subject to change without notice.)

■Tadano
Theme: How the 90's sneaker boom was created

Tadano, former editor-in-chief of BOON, will talk about the dawning of the enthusiastic sneaker era from the arrival of MTV in Japan and how NBA star players built up basketball shoe popularity to the emergence of 'Boon', a media outlet focusing on basketball shoe popularity. Don't miss the inside story of the Air Max boom that you can't hear at other events.

■Kunii
Theme: How did collaboration on unique Japanese culture begin?

From the perspective of Kunii, the creative director of Mita Sneakers, he will explain how sneaker collaboration, a unique Japanese culture, began. We'll delve into the history of collaboration with 'Nike' that began with 'City Attack', and the honeymoon relationship that began with 'New Balance' from legendary collaboration.

■Tajimax
Theme: What has become of the 90's street culture in the present day?

We'll trace the past to the present of street fashion culture from the perspective of Tajimax, who was a reader at the time. What's behind the background of various fashions and cultures built up in the 90s being taken up in the media as a 'trend comeback' from the end of the Heisei era? Furthermore, we'll follow the trajectory of how it became established as a culture from a temporary boom, and why it came to be called 'Y2K' fashion.

19:35 - 20:15
Group Section
Themes:
① The sneaker boom from the 1990s to the 2000s
② How the street culture of the time was hyped up?
③ The collaboration boom of then and now
④ The excitement and appeal of Boon at that time

20:15 - 20:30
Question and Answer

20:30-20:40
Closure

Access

EGG f.k.a. EGG JAPAN
〒100-6510
Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-5-1 New Marunouchi Building 10F (Reception)・9F
(1-minute walk from JR Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Exit)

About TMIP (Tokyo Marunouchi Innovation Platform)

TMIP (Tokyo Marunouchi Innovation Platform) is a platform that supports the creation of innovation for global markets by collaborating with large corporations, start-ups, government, and academia, aiming to form an innovation ecosystem in the Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho (Otemaru Area). Through this, we aim to solve societal challenges.

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