Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66

About

The Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 was first released in 1966, making it the first shoe in the Onitsuka Tiger line to feature the trademark Tiger Stripes design — two vertical lines intersecting lines emanating from the heel. The stripe pattern was originally called the Mexico Line during development. The shoe was developed two years before the 1968 Summer Olympics specifically to build buzz among athletes and establish Onitsuka Tiger as a competitor to Adidas and Puma. It was successfully adopted by the Japanese national team and competing athletes during those Olympics. Onitsuka Tiger was founded by Kihachiro Onitsuka in 1949 and merged into Asics Corporation in 1977. Asics relaunched the brand in 2002. The shoe gained significant popular culture visibility when Uma Thurman wore gold Onitsuka Tiger sneakers with black stripes in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) as a Bruce Lee homage, substantially boosting brand recognition. It experienced a major resurgence in the early 2020s and in 2025 Onitsuka Tiger opened a flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.