© New Balance / Photography: Kohei Omachi

As talked about in a previous post, sneaker brand New Balance raised its profile in the Japanese capital last August with T-HOUSE New Balance, an immersive retail space which should also be seen as an extension of sorts of the brand’s Tokyo-based design studio a.k.a. Tokyo Design Studio. As such, the venue is also a showcase which propagates the brand values and all things inspiring, and that’s why the premises hosts a rotation of installations. The inaugural installation, officially entitled Yoshihisa Tanaka × Tokyo Design Studio cooperative research vol .01, sees a collaboration between the New Balance design studio with Yoshihisa Tanaka, a graphic designer and part of artist duo Nerhol. The installation creates added value to scraps and waste materials discharged during the production and sale of products, and has resulted in some pretty bold upcycling. So, new paper – as a material, that is – has been created and used for new products, and in fact, a joint research has kicked off to explore long-term possibilities to the fullest. Next to the display of the first material samples and creations, an exhibition of photographs of the aforementioned can be seen, all taken by Japanese photographer Gottingham (on through Dec 15).

T-House New Balance
3-9-2 Nihonbashi Hama-cho
Tokyo 103-0007
Telephone: +81 3 62311991
Mon-Tue 11-2 and 3-7
Fri-Sun 11-7

© Gottingham and New Balance