Onitsuka Tiger opens its largest store before the split

Two openings in five weeks

On 7 August 2026 Onitsuka Tiger opens a flagship store on two floors at 4-8-18 Meieki in Nakamura-ku, a short walk from Nagoya station. ASICS describes it as the second largest Onitsuka Tiger store in Japan by floor area and positions it to serve Aichi together with the Tokai and Chubu regions.¹

It follows the largest one. On 10 July 2026 the brand opened 1,837 square metres across four floors and a mezzanine at 11-26 Shinjuku 3-chome in Tokyo, the biggest Onitsuka Tiger store anywhere.² Two flagships open in Japan within five weeks, both carrying the brand's full range.

A yellow monolith and an Italian architect

The Shinjuku facade is cast in Tiger Yellow concrete, which ASICS describes as a monolith standing in a modern city. Inside, the company calls the layout a vertical narrative that blends Japanese and Italian design cultures. The ground floor sets black flooring against Giallo Siena marble. The first floor uses black terrazzo with a grainy texture and yellow accents, with furniture drawn from 1970s Italy in the NIPPON MADE section. The second floor moves to Rosso Lepanto marble, satin brass and fine brushed stainless steel, with displays arranged like a gallery. The mezzanine holds the brand's first amusement area, run with GENDA GiGO Entertainment.²

Nagoya works with the same material vocabulary across two floors. The ground floor is an open, fluid space in terrazzo and steel, with suspended luminous boxes that ASICS says are inspired by the traditional Japanese andon lantern. The upper floor again uses Rosso Lepanto, this time as surfaces that act as both display and sculpture.¹

Both stores are designed by Studio Dini Cataldi, the Milan practice founded by Filippo Dini and Gianluca Cataldi.^1,2 The same practice is credited with the Yellow Concept store the brand opened on the Champs-Elysees in Paris in July 2025.³ A Japanese brand is building its Japanese flagships through a Milanese office, which is consistent with where the rest of the brand now sits.

Three portfolios in one building

The more significant detail is what the stores carry. Both Shinjuku and Nagoya stock all three of the brand's portfolios: Heritage, which reinterprets the archive, Contemporary, which is the collection shown at Milan Fashion Week, and Formality, the formal footwear sold as THE ONITSUKA. ASICS states that Shinjuku is the first time the three sit under one roof.²

The three portfolios are not explained in a campaign. They are placed in sequence on a staircase, so a customer who comes for a sneaker passes a runway collection and a dress shoe on the way to it.

On Nagoya, ASICS says in its own words that the brand "positions Nagoya as a new key location in the Tokai and Chubu regions, and will develop the store as a place where visitors can experience not only its products, but also the craftsmanship and aesthetic sensibility behind the brand".¹ Neither release carries a quotation from a named executive.

What the stores are being paid for

The expansion rests on an unusually profitable business. For the financial year ended 31 December 2025 Onitsuka Tiger reported net sales of 136.5 billion yen, up 43.0 per cent, at a category operating margin of 37.7 per cent, against group net sales of 810.9 billion yen and group growth of 19.5 per cent.⁴ The brand supplies roughly a sixth of ASICS revenue at a margin closer to a luxury house than to a sporting goods company, and ASICS attributed much of the year's growth to flagship openings in Barcelona, London and Paris.⁵

The momentum has continued into the current year. Onitsuka Tiger reported sales of 37.8 billion yen in the first quarter of 2026, up 34 per cent, at a profit margin of around 38 per cent, the highest of the five categories ASICS reports, and the company has named Milan, Seoul and Los Angeles as the next flagship cities within twelve months.⁶ The programme therefore runs past the date on which the brand changes hands inside the group.

Six months before it leaves

The timing matters. On 10 June 2026 the ASICS board approved transferring the Onitsuka Tiger business into a wholly owned subsidiary, OT GROUP Corporation, by an absorption-type company split, effective 1 January 2027.⁷ Shinjuku opened three weeks after that decision and Nagoya seven weeks after it.

A brand about to be separated from its parent spends its last two quarters inside the group opening its two largest stores in Japan, the market where the parent is headquartered. What OT GROUP Corporation inherits on 1 January is a store network the group paid for.