How to snag Custom Embroidered Onitsuka Tigers

Looking for a unique souvenir on your Tokyo trip? Consider custom-embroidered Onitsuka Tigers! Only one pop-up location provides this free service, so here's what to expect. 

The Onitsuka Tiger store that offers custom embroidery is located in Ginza (address: Seisyokan building, 4 Chome-5-1 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo, Japan). It's a pop-up to commemorate 75 years of the Onitsuka Tiger brand. To set it apart, the store is red rather than the usual yellow. It has a cute cafe inside to get coffee or tea. 

The closest train station to this pop-up store is Ginza station, and the store itself is right around the corner from the flagship Muji store, Uniqlo, and tons of other shops, so stopping by this area would make for an excellent shopping day. 

Thanks to Instagram and social media in general, the custom embroidery service offered at this Onitsuka Tiger location is in SUPER high demand. I arrived at 11AM (when the store opens) and ended up waiting an hour in line to make it downstairs to the Mexico 66 shoe and embroidery area. 

Warning: It will be packed.

When I visited the Onitsuka Tiger pop up in November, the store was only offering embroidery services from 11AM to 2PM (because it's in such high demand), so you will have to go earlier in the day due to lines.

Here are my tips for those who want to snag a pair of embroidered shoes: 

• Research styles beforehand to decide what you want. Have backups. 
• My first choice was sold out in my size, but I had a second option that looked super similar. 
• Arrive before opening. 
• Waiting an hour wasn't too bad for arriving right at opening, but if you want a better spot, consider lining up 30 mins to an hour before the store opens at 11AM. 
• As soon as you get downstairs, get your shoes from an associate. 
• Knowing what size and style you want cuts down on time, so you can ask an associate for the shoes and immediately get into the embroidery line. 

Surprise, there's another line for embroidery and check out. The upside of this is while you're waiting, you can watch the embroidery machine work its magic. 

Once you get to the counter, an associate will show you embroidery examples to choose from. Much to my surprise, they don't offer kanji, katakana or hiragana to be embroidered. You can select from letters (capitalized or lowercase), numbers, and a handful of emojis (heart, star, tiger). You can select 4 letters/numbers (emojis count as 2 spaces). 

After paying and filling out the embroidery order form, you'll receive your receipt with a pick-up time in a little red envelope. My pickup time was 6pm the NEXT day, so keep that in mind for your planning! As in, don't try to do this if you're flying out the following day. 

The next day, I went back to the Onitsuka Tiger pop-up store to pick up my shoes. I was a little early (around 5:30pm) since we were in the area for dinner, but my shoes were ready with no problems. Be sure to have your receipt on hand for pickup. 

My embroidered shoes

Much to my surprise, there was still a line to get downstairs to the shoe area, despite embroidery not being offered (since the window closes earlier in the afternoon). Thankfully, the store employee saw I was there for pickup and sent me downstairs. 

I ended up going with Mexico 66 SD's with my initials embroidered in a silvery thread. It's subtle, but uniquely mine!