Somebody shoot me now!!! The ugly shoes are making their way into mainstream Japanese culture! I don’t care how comfortable these shoes are. Crocs are hideous. It’s ok for kids to wear these, I guess, but I saw a guy in a suit wearing them. I’m mean, c’mon people!! Now they have a very well designed shop in Venusfort in Odaiba and I’m afraid there were lots of people buying them. Anyways, it got me thinking about what the next footwear trend could be and decided that the common “uwabaki” 上履き could be exported overseas and become the NEXT BIG THING.
Uwabaki have already been immortalized in The Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift. When that American guy arrives for his first day at a Japanese high school the teacher is yelling at him to wear his uwabaki.
They are basically cloth shoes with a rubber sole that students have to wear in school. When you arrive at school you take off your outside shoes and slip on some uwabaki. Not sure if the teachers have to wear them though. I’m never been inside a Japanese high school to find out. Can anyone tell me?
So which would you prefer? Crocs or Uwabaki? Both are ugly but uwabaki have that whole school-girl-in-sailor-uniform fetish thing attached to it so it scores more points with me.
I guess uwabaki since they don’t look as bad as the crocs. We have crocs knockoffs here in the state now, so the darn things are everywhere. Crocs are very popular in the medical profession. Mostly see nurses, dental hygienist and such wearing them. I wonder if it’s the same elsewhere?
You mean people actually wear these out.. in public? I thought they were for gardening, either that or toilet slippers. Personally, I’ve never noticed anyone wearing them in the street around here but have seen them in shops.
Do those holes go all the way through to the inside? I guess they wouldn’t be very good on a rainy day then. But perhaps because they are made of rubber then they don’t breathe at all, and without the airflow you’d end up with a bad case of 水虫！
I was referring to Crocs in my post above. But also I did notice that those Uwabaki remind me a bit of Dunlop Volleys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunlop_Volley
I think the Uwabaki look better designed and more functional than those clunky Crocs.
A few of the teachers here are sporting crocs. I have no idea why because actually indoor shoes aren’t required in my highschool. I guess they use them for comfort. Same reason why they wear sports jerseys and trainers when they don’t even teach PE. The only place indoor shoes are required here are in the gym. So in my school nobody even wears uwabaki.
Teachers dont wear the horrible little things. They have their own pair of school only clean shoes/trainers that they change into.
I have a pair of yellow Crocs
I wear them to go surfing in Shonan, take out the trash and when I go for combini runs
Did you know Crocs were originally Canadian? The owners sold the rights to some worldwide manufacturer and now they’re EVERYWHERE.
I’m in 100% agreement that they are the biggest footwear abomination of the last five years. Here in Toronto there’s a huge Crocs backlash — don’t wear ‘em south of Bloor or you’ll be in trouble :->
Looks like they might make good balcony shoes for my new place. Where can you get them in Tokyo, preferably in or near Ikebukuro?
I went out shopping with some high school girls the other day (please don’t ask for details) and we saw some of these in a store in Ikebukuro Sunshine city. (Obviously the Crocs and not the uwabaki) All the girls seemed to think that they were horribly uncool. Although I could imagine that yankees who never wear anything other than matching mickey and minnie mouse sweatsuits might be into them. A lot of the customers were looking at them, but I didn’t see anyone buy any.
Anyway, at my school we don’t wear uwabaki per se, but we have to change shoes a lot. There’s separate shoes for inside the classroom, in the gym, and for the field outside, in addition to your regular life shoes from outside. But I think that uwabaki are cooler actually, at least for kids. At my previous schools, everyone used to draw all over theirs with magic markers, and it became one of the few ways the kids could express any individuality.
So basically uwabaki are not pervasive in all Japanese schools..
AC, I’m ashamed to be Canadian.. :-(
Luis, they sell the fake ones all over the place but you may be able to get the real ones in Tokyu Hands.
donkeymon, very interesting about how student customize their uwabaki!!
Thanks! Got a pair at Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro, 2nd floor. Fakes for about the same price, but lesser quality, were on sale on the 7th floor. Pricey sunzaguns, but they’re very comfy and will make nice balcony shoes.
Crocks are the most uncool shoes in the world. I would sooner step into the carcasses of two rotting dead dogs.
hehe, your comment made me laugh.
Too funny. I found your blog LOOKING FOR UWABAKI onlilne!! So, I suppose you dont know any importers YET!?! LOL