The Japanese Grannies Making Boring Sneakers Beautiful, One Stitch at a Time
Sneakers are boring. Even the coolest-looking mass-produced shoe is not unique and thus is, to some degree, boring. Sashiko Gals didn't set out to make sneakers less boring but that's exactly what they ended up doing.
Frankfurt school philosopher Walter Benjamin once said, "In even the most perfect reproduction, one thing is lacking: the here and now of the work of art — its unique existence in a particular place."
The magic of Sashiko Gals is in how they transform ordinary sneakers into wearable art — a cliched turn of phrase if there ever was one, but entirely appropriate.
"I have a feeling that the traditional Japanese techniques look very cool to people around the world," says Arata Fujiwara, designer of craft-first Japanese label Kuon. "I think that the unique Japanese sense of beauty and the delicacy of the handiwork, especially in sashiko attracts people."
How could it not?
The Sashiko Gals hand-stitch many shades of thick threads across Vans skate shoes, New Balance runners, classic Nike silhouettes, and even oddities like hyper-technical Salomon trail sneakers, creating singularly bespoke footwear that is, as Benjamin would put it, singularly here and now.
The sumptuous juxtaposition between the Sashiko Gals' delicate stitchwork and the unassuming utility of their chosen medium — shoes — speaks for itself, partially because traditional Japanese crafts like sashiko and kintsugi are just so plainly gorgeous.
So plainly gorgeous, in fact, that the Sashiko Gals have attracted a near-obsessive digital fanbase since humbly launching their Instagram page earlier this year.
As images of their exquisite sneakers organically spread online, as so many visually stunning things tend to do, every new Sashiko Gals post showcasing a freshly handstitched Puma Suede or an Air Jordan laced with centuries-old boro fabric attracts dozens of comments desperate for a wider release.
That is not possible, of course, because each Sashiko Gals sneaker is the individual creation of a dedicated craftswoman.
Sashiko Gals comprises "15 women between the ages of 40 and 80," Kuon's Fujiwara explains. "The group was started by women who were affected by the [2011 Tōhoku] earthquake 13 years ago, with the goal of reconstruction."
Assembled under the direction of Kuon's parent company, MOONSHOT Co., Ltd., the Hida-Takayama-based Sashiko Gals originally worked within the fishing business or were wives of fishermen. They had little to no experience with sashiko stitching, the Japanese art of intricate, decorative running stitches, but honed their craft over the course of an entire decade.
Now, each Gal takes only around a week to transform a pair of sneakers from ordinary to obscenely beautiful.
"Their master is the best sashiko artisan in Japan, located in Hida Takayama," Fujiwara continued. "After 13 years of continuous work, they have grown to become one of the best sashiko groups in Japan."
They've been in high demand, too, creating limited runs of bespoke sneakers for boutiques in Kowloon, New York, and Anyang-si, hosting hands-on sashiko lessons, and working their way through a stacked waitlist of customization orders. The Sashiko Gals are also responsible for much of the exquisite patchwork creations in Kuon's seasonal collections.
Much like Proleta Re Art, another Japanese maker whose modest origins bely a tremendous gift for artisanal craft, the Sashiko Gals never intended to court international attention, but their sublime work was simply too good to be ignored. Not that they're paying much attention to social media.
"We were surprised when our grandchildren told us about the many foreign language comments on Instagram," says Osawa, one of the Gals, through a translator. "We didn't really know how famous we were."
