Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife, Hide Your Air Max 95s: Air Max-Gari in Japan
Back in the 90s, thanks to names like Hiroshi Fujiwara, the street wear scene in Japan had fully exploded and was gaining popularity by the day.
Air Jordans, adidas Superstars, Converse Chucks, sneakers of all shapes and colors could be seen stomping the asphalt streets of Harajuku. During this golden age of sneakers, the Air Max 95 was released on October 12th of 1995.
Although Sneaker culture was gaining popularity in Japan, the number of Air Max 95s that were imported during its initial release was very small. This was due to the shoe’s caterpillar-like aesthetic and high price point at 15,000 yen, which was quite high for a running sneaker during that time. Despite these concerns, the sneaker sold out on its release date in many stores mostly due to the popularity within the people in the Urahara community. This was a surprise for many stores and even Nike as well.
Japanese Celebrities like Ryoko Hirosue and Takuya Kimura [who were almost worshipped by fans] would wear the Air Max 95 in adverts and magazine covers, which would further increase the hype and resell value of the shoe in Japan. This would eventually lead to people stealing the sneaker from lockers and shoe boxes at restaurants, and even assaulting & robbing people who had the shoe. These incidents would ultimately get the name “Air Max-Gari” which translates to “Air Max Hunting”.
These incidents were so common, at one point they were featured in Manga such as Yu-Gi-Oh and KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops. Some TV shows also covered it, like when one sent a celebrity only in underwear & a pair of AirMax 95s in a park to see if he would be robbed. The results were obvious: he ended up getting assaulted and his shoes jacked.
Through events like these, Air Max-Gari had gotten so large to the point where even people that weren’t interested in sneakers were aware of what the Air Max 95 looked like and was worth. This led to having a large influence over the resale culture of sneakers in Japan that would ensue in the years to come.
