EASY TIGER. THIS IS THE GREAT EIGHTIES SNEAKER REFERENCE WE NEVER EVEN KNEW EXISTED. MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONITSUKA TIGER ASICS SHOES IN ONE BUTTERCUP YELLOW BOOK. IT PUTS THE SUNSHINE IN THE SUMMER.

Hold this very yellow superbook under your chin to find out if you like vintage Asics trainers. Our guess is you do. 

Because they are so wonderful in their 80s simplicity and colour ways. 

Colourful enough? These track shoes have an option for multicolour studs! 
 

Onitsuka Tiger was the most Japanese of sport shoe companies. As evidenced here not just by the Japanese text that fills this 250+ page mega reference, but by the use of miniature Godzilla (and elsewhere King Kong) toys to demonstrate sizing. 

There are a lot of trainers as you would expect, hundreds of styles, but there are also pages of real sports shoe exotica. These are from the gymnastics pages. The ballet shoe style middle right are for the long beam. 

Rock climbing on the right and on the left... new to us... but gateball. Which, it turns out, is a variation on croquet and about as big a pastime for older generations in Japan as sitting on the sofa looking at your phone is for the rest of the world. We are not even sure you would need specialist shoes for gateball but we want some! 

Also incredible. Special work boots for... it would appear... any position that may come up in the north or south pole. 

Yes please to all the bags in the 1985 collection. This is just two of at least ten pages. The wallets and cards holders are especially welcome. Not shown in this newsletter are pages of shoe creams, athletic tape, protein drinks, water bottles, rugby socks in many colours, pens for scoring matches and writing your name on gym kits, gloves with and without fingers and more socks, with and without toes. 

You are going to need an Asics Member's Card. And also this book. We found two copies and no more. But two is a great start and for the fastest fingers of the button below... all yours.