On collaboration

I’m a big fan of collaboration. These are some of my favorites.

There was the SAPPORO X ROYCE’ collaboration some years ago. The idea was brilliant. Two of my favorite brands. Collaborating. On a chocolate beer! I bought one at Sapporo Station and drank it on the train to Niseko.

This was a collaboration I’d like to see again someday. I would like more chocolate, and more bitter. Every time I go to Hokkaido I check the shelves carefully for collaborations like this one.

Now for one of my greatest regrets. By the time one gets to be my age, there are reflections about mistakes, and missed opportunities, and chances one should have taken. How did I not get involved with the Mizuno X Lamborghini collaboration? What was I thinking?

 Maybe I thought there would be more of these. Maybe I wasn’t thinking at all. Maybe I didn’t have space in my luggage. But seeing these, imagining how speedy I would have been in them, it still haunts me. I left that collaboration on the shelves of the Mizuno store in Ochanomizu.

One of the more recent collaborations I’ve been involved with is ANTLERS X SUNTORY.

Can’t really go wrong with this one. Sport and spirits. The top football team and the beverage giant. I’ve enjoyed this collaboration a few times, and I understand it is still happening, which I intend to study soon on my next visit to Kashima.

And now for the most recent brands I’ve been collaborating with. Mizuno again, this time in a MIZUNO X MICHELIN collaboration.

This isn’t so much about the speed, but about slippery trails. “Footwear equipped with MICHELIN technical soles put world-leading traction technology on your feet.” Here’s to this collaboration working well when I’m running on the trails in Chiang Rai next month.