One of the best fights in the entire history of cinema was given to us by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Volume 1where the protagonist Beatrix Kiddowrapped in a jump suite yellow fight katana clean up against 125 mafia thugs Yakuza.
During the bloody confrontation, the main character, starring Uma Thurman, dominates the fight by stepping safely through yellow tennis shoes called, neither more nor less than Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66.
World War II and the birth of Onitsuka sneakers
How is it possible that 20 years after it came out kill bill Has this information gone unnoticed even by the most staunch Mexican fans of Tarantino? Well, things like that happen all the time. But before continuing, we must say that this model changed the world of sneakers forever.
The history of the Onitsuka tiger Mexico 66starts after Second World War, in a time when Japan demoralized by the 214,000 deaths caused by the two atomic bombs, the effects of radiation, the US occupationa food shortage that forced the government to advise its citizens to eat rats and insects, etc.
In this context, a 32-year-old former Japanese soldier named Kihachiro Onitsukait occurred to him to create a Sports shoes thinking about the new obsession that Japanese youth had acquired for American sports such as basketball.
The first Onitsuka looked like sandals
His first tennis model was more like a sandal than a sports shoe, it was made of straw and had a slippery sole, more ad hoc to work in the field than for a field. A failure.
But Kihachiro continued on his mission to make a great pair of basketball shoes. Inspired by the octopusescreated a concave system sole to have more grip, it was the birth of the first Onitsuka Tiger, created to give grip to basketball players who run, stop dead or change direction continuously.
Soon they began to be used by players, but especially by Japanese students. In 1959 he added holes to his sneakers so that athletes’ feet could be ventilated and thus prevent blisters.
The world knows the Onitsuka
Although the big leap came in 1961, when the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila he won the Mainichi marathon in Osaka, his shoes? Onitsuka, the first sneakers he had ever worn in his life, he had always run barefoot. The world then knew the Japanese brand.
The 1964 Olympic Games were held in Japan. This was as a gift to Onitsukasince all the Japanese athletes competed with a pair of their creations.
The businessman had realized that the Olympic games would be part of his marketing strategy, so, knowing that the next games would be in Mexico, he went ahead by taking out the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66, for the pre-Olympics of that year in our country, being the first to bring the famous lines that would stay with the brand until today.
Then the seventh art did its thing. Bruce Lee appeared in his films wearing a yellow suit and Onitsuka Tiger México 66 sneakers. In 2000, when Quentin Tarantino prepared Kill Bill, dressed just like Uma Thurman. The Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 earned its title as a cult sneaker.
Mexico Unknown Get to know Mexico, its traditions and customs, magical towns, archaeological zones, beaches and even Mexican food.