Audio Japan 〜Learning Japan with You〜
This podcast is to dive into Japanese culture, trends, and so on.
Through Audio Japan, I aim to make you like Japan more,
help you chat with people in your day-to-day life, have business meetings,
and communicate with people from different countries.
If you wanna listen to the episode in Japanese, go to the podcast
Audio Japan 〜Learning Japan with You〜
The audio is available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast, and so on.
My name is Taiki Arai, and I am an educational designer.
As you are listening to this, have you ever heard of the shoes with a thick-soled controversy?
You have definitely never heard of it.
What do you mean by a platform shoes controversy?
Arguing over hate? You might have thought so.
Actually, in the long-distance community,
shoes with a thick sole have been the norm in Ekiden and marathons for about 5 years now.
So again, the content of my talks this time is about the Hakone Ekiden.
You may think, how much? Can you talk about just the Hakone Ekiden?
But the Hakone Ekiden is a great content.
It has been held for 100 years, and I think I have to use that merit to the fullest.
In the first half, I will talk about the shoes with a thick-soled controversy,
and in the second half, I will talk about that thing on the uniforms of each university.
Let's get started.
The first content is the shoes with a thick-soled controversy.
Thick-soled shoes became known in Japan as far back as the Boston Marathon in April 2017.
At that time, Suguru Osaka, running his first marathon, placed third in the Boston Marathon.
As a side note, Osaka achieved a 6th place finish at the Tokyo Olympics,
and I have the impression that he has been on his own path since his high school and college days in the track and field community.
In fact, those who enter universities in the Kanto region spend 4 years with the Hakone Ekiden as one of their goals.
But at that time, Osaka spent his days at Western University aiming for the world in track events such as the 5,000m and 10,000m.
By the way, his wife is from Fukui Prefecture, just like me.
Back to the Boston Marathon, it had been 30 years since Toshihiko Seko won the Boston Marathon,
and Osaka was wearing thick-soled Nike shoes.
At that time, when I saw the shoes, I thought,
Wow, Osaka is wearing Nike shoes.
I still have an impression of Osaka because he had been wearing Mizuno shoes until then.
The following year, in 2018, Toyo University actively wore thick-soled shoes and achieved good results in the Ekiden,
and gradually the university long-distance and industry athletes switched to Nike thick-soled shoes from ASICS and Mizuno,
which dominated the market share at the time.
In fact, Nike's share in the 2017 Hakone Ekiden was only 17.1%,
but since the introduction of thick-soled shoes, Nike's share has increased year by year,
and I noticed that 95% of the runners in the 2021 Hakone Ekiden were wearing Nike thick-soled shoes.
Since 21 teams participate in the Hakone Ekiden every year, with 10 runners from each university,
this means that more than 200 runners wore Nike shoes.
Wow, that is really amazing.
If I were in charge of shoe manufacturers other than Nike, I would have been drenched in cold sweat.
If they could not introduce their shoes at the Hakone Ekiden, the biggest PR event for shoe manufacturers,
they would not be known to junior high school and high school students, or even citizen runners.
It would be like throwing away billions of yen in advertising.
On the other hand, three years later, Nike unexpectedly lost its majority in this year's Hakone Ekiden,
while ASICS and Adidas recovered.
Nike had 98 runners for 42.6%,
ASICS had 57 runners for 24.8%,
and Adidas had 42 runners for 18.3%.
These three companies accounted for about 85% of the total.
After Puma came in 4th with 20 runners for 8.7%,
Mizuno came in 5th with 3,
On with 3,
Hoka with 2,
and New Balance,
Under Armour,
and Brooks with 1 runner.
While it was surprising to see Nike fall below the majority,
I have the impression that ASICS has recovered considerably.
ASICS released six-solid shoes in March 2021 in response to Nike's six-solid shoes.
Specifically, the company offers two types of shoes,
the Metaspeed Sky, which is designed for stride-type runners,
and the Metaspeed Edge, which is designed for pitch-type runners.
The widespread use of six-solid shoes has also changed the areas where injuries occur.
While six-solid shoes, which had been the mainstream until then,
caused many people to suffer from shin sprains,
acute tendons, and knee injuries.
Six-solid shoes cause hip and buttock injuries,
as well as fatigue fractures.
The shoes can affect the way you run and the parts of your body where you train your muscles.
Since all manufacturers released six-solid shoes,
I thought that if I compare them only in terms of function,
they may not be that different.
Since the competition for the running shoe power can change quickly in a few years,
when I thought about what kind of strategies each company will develop for PR and marketing in the future,
I wondered if it might be in the uniforms and university partnership
that I deal with in the latter part of the market.
Then, while six-solid shoes are generally introduced,
a closer look at the uniforms of each university shows the logos of sports manufacturers and sponsors.
First, let me talk about the former.
Looking at the logos of the schools participating in this year's Hakone Ekiden,
you can see that Mizuno, six schools,
Ose University, Soka University, Nihon Taiku Daigaku University,
Nichida University, Kanagawa University, and Kokushikan University
are six, four schools,
Waseda University, Teikyo University, Chuo Gakuin University, and Yamanashi Gakuin University.
Like five schools,
Kamazai University, Chuo University, Toyo University, Meiji University, and Tokai University.
Adidas, four schools,
Aoyama Gakuin University, Kokugakuin University, Daito University, and Tokyo Nogyo University.
Fuma, two schools,
Josei University and Bikkyo University.
New Balance, one school,
Juntendo Gakuin University,
On, one school,
Tsuruga Daidai University.
The manufacturers listed in the uniforms provide shoes and clothing to the runners,
and I have the impression that sports manufacturers have been cooperating with runner training in recent years.
For example,
Fuma has concluded partnership agreements with two schools,
Bikkyo University and Josei University,
and invites them to join the Fuma elite running team in the U.S. to gain valuable experience.
Nike has also arranged to overseas races and training camps,
including inviting Toyo University, its U.S. headquarters, to experience local road races.
Adidas also sends athletes from Kokugakuin and Aoyama Gakuin Universities to ultra-high-level races
sponsored by the company,
providing opportunities to run with world-class athletes.
This is my personal prediction,
but I have a feeling that about three of the universities currently under contract with Japanese makers
will change to some foreign manufacturers in a few years.
For the players and directors,
universities that have a large budget or offer overseas placement opportunities
are more likely to provide opportunities for growth.
Next, I'd like to talk about sponsored logos.
If you look closely at the uniforms of various universities,
you will see that some universities have sponsored logos on the right chest area.
Originally, the rules prohibited sponsored logos on uniforms,
but following the revision of advertising regulations
by the World Association of Athletic Federations,
the Japan Association of Athletic Federations adopted a new rule.
The same sponsored name was allowed to be placed in one place on the shirt
and one place on the pants,
with a logo within 40 square centimeters and 5 centimeters in height.
This one was lifted by Aoyama Gakuin University director, Mr. Hara.
Believe it or not,
this has an effect of several billion yen in terms of advertising costs.
Among the offers from various companies,
Aoyama Gakuin chose the government rather than a private company as Myoko City.
The reason for this is that since 2004,
when Mr. Hara took office,
he has visited the city every year at a training camp.
Myoko City is a perfect place for skiing,
with easy access from Tokyo and hot spring resorts in winter.
I hope I can help boost the city,said Mr. Hara.
Toyo University has the logo of Itoen's healthy mineral mugicha,
and Meiji University has Sato Foods' Sato no Gohan on its right breast,
on its right chest.
今年の最も興味深い発表の一つは、
箱根機電のキヌタデンタルクリニックでした。
デンタルクリニックは八王子市に位置しています。