The ASICS stripe was first introduced in 1966 during the pre-Olympic trials for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. LIMBER was the first model to feature ASICS stripes on the side of the upper section. These lines were the famous design icon on another Onitsuka tiger shoe, the LIMBER leather, now called MEXICO 66.
The sneakers are a special edition of the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico66 model, which our director Kelley Cheng designed for the brand in 2016. This model was released to commemorate the 50 years since the sneaker’s debut at the Olympics Pre-trial in Mexico, whereby Onitsuka sponsored all the Japanese athlete's shoes. The collage of red words are the names of the 11 Japanese athletes who won gold medals at the Olympics in 1968. The use of red against the white background was naturally chosen as an allusion to the Japanese flag. Introducing green as the third colour recalls the colours of the Mexican flag—a tribute to Mexico as the country of "birth" for the sneakers.