Tenkaippin, or Tenāichi as fans call it, is a ramen restaurant chain in Japan. Tenāichi has over 230 locations across the country, as well as one in Hawaii. And now, it also has collab sneakers.
Weāve seen collabs with Dragon Ball, Gundam, and Animal Crossing. Those kinds of collabs seem typical! I believe this is the first one Iāve seen with a noodle restaurant.
French sporting equipment brand Le Coq Sportif has joined forces with Japanese ramen Tenkaippin chain to make these officially branded sneakers.
The sneakers mark the 50th anniversary of the first Tenāichi, which was founded as a ramen stall by Tsutomu Kimura near the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto in 1971. Kimura opened his first bricks-and-mortar Tenāichi restaurant in August 1975, and then established the ramen restaurant chain in 1981. Itās become one of Japanās more ubiquitous noodle chainsāso much so that it now has its own limited edition shoes.
These sneakers, Le Coq Sportifās LCS R model, were designed with the restaurantās ramen in mind. For example, the beige color echoes Tenāichiās famous, thick soup broth. The green represents green onions, while the laces are supposed to look like ramen noodles, and the red accents represent ramen bowls. While Iām not sure if I actually like the shoes or not, thatās pretty cool.
Whatās more, Le Coq Sportifās logo is a rooster, and on the back heel tab itās depicted a chicken skeleton, making a further nod to ramen chicken bone broth.
Clever, no?
The shoes also come in a special box, and to be honest, for a walking Tenāichi advertisement, you have to admire all the thought that went into these shoes.
Priced at 14,300 yen ($126), the sneakers will go on sale November 10.
