Onitsuka Tiger Mexico ‘66 Trainers

For a long time I’ve been interested in garnering myself a pair of Onitsuka Tiger trainers. In the recent January sales I managed to score myself a pair of classic Mexico ‘66 Onitsuka Trainers for the absolute bargain price of only £30.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a review on Good Clobber, so it’s high time we revisited this feature. So here it is, my review of the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico ‘66 shoes.

First up, let’s have a very quick look at the history of Onitsuka Shoes: The company, founded in 1949 by former military officer Kihachiro Onitsuka is one of the oldest shoe companies in Japan. Onitsuka made history by introducing a basketball shoe with suction cups on the sole to improve grip; a feature which apparently found it’s genesis when Onitsuka was trying to prise a piece of squid tentacle from the bottom of a bowl.

In 1977 the company was having great success and merged with two other sports apparel manufacturers to become the ASICS Corporation. Despite the name change, the range vintage of shoes are still sold under the name Onitsuka Tiger. This particular style of shoe was originally called the ‘Limber Leather’ but is now called ‘Mexico 66’, a homage to the Japanese pre-olympic trials for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.

So let’s take a look at the shoe. It’s easy to see why they’re popular; they have a sleek and subtle style, they’re not obviously ‘shouty’ and yet they are easily recognisable, mainly because of the classic ASICS stripes on the side. This shape a style has been copied many times but never bettered.

Lightweight and well cushioned, these trainers are comfortable. The leather and suede upper is very flexible and so far they have held a good shape. I wouldn’t recommend them for anything more than everyday use; these aren’t shoes that were made for athletics or outdoor sport. I take a UK size 8 shoe and they fit fine, although I did add an innersole to this pair - just to make them a nice snug fit.

They tend to make your socks ride up around the heel. It’s a strange thing and I’ve never experienced this before in a pair of trainers. I think it may be something to do with the suede tab at the back - or it could just be the socks that I wear. Strange.

Also, be warned; the toes and some of the upper of these shoes are partly made of suede, a material that can look a little worse for wear if it gets wet or dirty. I’d recommend purchasing a suede spray and a good suede brush to keep them looking as new as possible.

This particular pair of shoes are in a grey / red colour way, which is why I think they were on sale - however there are many, many variations available and I don’t think this colour combination are the most popular. I picked up my pair in the sale at the UK high street shop Republic but you can find them in loads of shoe retailers.

I’d recommend these shoes. They look great, they’re comfy and so far they’ve held up well. I dare say I’ll be picking up another pair later in the year - keep your eyes open for sale prices.

Check out the official Onitsuka Tiger website here.

Pointer AFD Shoes

Time for another review from our friends over a Stand-Out.net - this time a pair of casual canvas shoes from Pointer Footwear.

First impressions of the shoe are good - a clean and simple design, bright colours, a shape and style reminiscent of classic boat shoes; perfect for summer and for wearing with shorts. Pointer call this colour scheme ‘Peacoat’ which makes me think they are referencing boat shoes: a Pea Coat is a classic naval coat worn by sailors. Pointer refer to them as “Classic Pointer: lo-fi formal and plimsolls for playtime” and they’re part of the Tabernacle Spring/Summer 2012 mens collection.

As with most Good Clobber reviews, I specifically picked out these shoes from Stand-Out.net and they were sent to me gratis: It’s best to be clear on this so that you can make your own judgement of the item with this information. Almost every single post on this blog leans in a positive direction because I feel this is the best attitude to have. Also, I have genuinely worn these shoes to thoroughly test them out. Every effort has been made to give an honest view in this review.

But what about the brand? Pointer Footwear are small-scale compared to the footwear giants of Nike, Puma or Vans, but I think they’re worth paying attention to. Based in London and established eight years ago, “Pointer was created with the aim of making simple, well-designed casual shoes in response to a market then saturated with increasingly technical trainers and hyped-up limited edition sneakers”. I remember seeing a video online a while back from the people at Pointer explaining their reasons for moving their manufacturing operations from the UK to Portugal you can see it here. Nonetheless, Pointer originated in London and we applaud home-grown talent.

There are a lot of affordable plimsoll shoes available on the UK high street and a lot of these are flimsy and uncomfortable. This pair of Pointer shoes do not fall into this category; they are of sturdy construction, snug fitting and comfortable. Note the innersole here on the inside - extra padding has been added in key areas to cushion your foot. Little features like this can make a great deal of difference.

I wore these shoes on the Queen’s Jubilee weekend. Central London was closed down to traffic so pretty much everyone attending was on foot. After a good few hours of tramping around in the rain, the shoes didn’t rub and my feet were comfortable, they were also dry in the inclement weather that plagued London on this very wet Sunday. I think it unlikely that the shoes are totally waterproof - but they certainly didn’t leak in my experience.

I think I’m right in saying that one of Pointer’s key brand features is the broad white outsole that runs all the way round these shoes. Many of Pointer shoes have this style. As a matter of taste, I’m not mad keen on this feature: The outsole is very, very white and eye catching - there’s nothing to break it up. I felt like I needed to dirty it up a bit.

As you can see from these images, there are areas of the shoe that are suede. There is a tab on the tongue and stripe down the heel of the shoe. Suede really doesn’t fair well in wet conditions. It soon becomes dirty and hairy, so I generally try to avoid suede shoes. There is a version of the AFD shoes that are all black - the suede areas are replaced with black leather, which would be preferable.

All round, these are a good pair of shoes. They aren’t going to set the world alight with a new design direction and although there are plenty of similar styles available on the market, few will be as well crafted. At £44.00 they are reasonably priced. As so aptly pointed out by Stand-Out.net, this is no-messing, quality footwear.

You can find these shoes for sale right here.

Thanks to Stand-Out.net