LIMBER UP MOSCOW of Onitsuka Tiger  is the historic shoe that bursts in to bloom after thirty-one years thanks to the French born Graphic designer, Art director and Illustrator Emeric Takeshi Trahand. Takeshi is a NY based art director and artist from Saint Etienne, France whose illustrative work is renowned for its surreal feel, the quality of its photomontages as well as the light treatments and colourful compositions.  Recently, Takeshi teamed up with Onitsuka Tiger and created three illustrations, which pay tribute to the female talent and energy present at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The top quality-training shoe LIMBER UP MOSCOW see its long history revived! It was designed as a training shoe for Japanese athletes at the 1980 Moscow Olympics but never served in this capacity because Japan joined at the time the US-led Boycott against the games, and refused to send athletes to the Soviet Union.

The three illustrations made by Takeshi, reintroduce the shoe to the public and at the same time bring Japanese culture to the world by merging art and Japanese tradition in a beautiful surreal way. LIMBER UP MOSCOW comes in three different editions, black with the characteristic white stripes of Onitsuka Tiger , red with blue stripes and turquoise with yellow stripes.

The project is inspired by Japanese Ikebana flower arrangements, which honor feminine achievements at the Olympic Games of 1980. Women at the time were given the chance of higher representation than in any previous Olympic Games accomplishing in this way several world records. A training shoe could never have been more inspiring and more historically significant! Controversy and politics gave way to the success of outstanding female athletes who managed to thrive.