If you travel south from the Japanese capital Tokyo to Hiroshima on the Shinkansen express train, you will pass through Kyōto, then Osaka and finally Kōbe. This is the journey I took when I was travelling through Japan over the past few weeks. One thing I didn’t know when I drove through the Japanese city of Kōbe (and only learned when researching this article): in 1949, Kihachiro Onitsuka founded the Japanese sports brand Onitsuka Tiger here, which was eventually renamed Asics in the 1970s and is now known worldwide by athletes and trainer enthusiasts alike.

Onitsuka Tiger is still marketed today as a sub-brand with a lifestyle focus – and one style in particular is more popular than ever: the Mexico 66. Part of the Olympic Line, the trainer features the iconic Tiger Stripe lines and was launched two years before the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. It celebrated its pop-cultural breakthrough in the early 2000s on the feet of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

This yellow model from Onitsuka Tiger became the ultimate shoe trend in the summer of 2023. As a passionate trainer fan, I couldn’t help but buy the slim retro sneakers in the unusual colour and wear them everywhere at the time.

Recently, however, the hype surrounding the shoes seemed to have died down. The competition from plain suede trainers and trendy “sneakerinas” was, it seems, too great. But during my aforementioned trip through Japan, the yellow trainers from Onitsuka Tiger landed back at the top of my trend radar. Because in Tokyo, Kyōto and other stops on my trip, I couldn’t help but spot numerous looks that included the yellow shoe trend.

Of course, this may also be due to the fact that the Japanese brand is much better known and more popular in its home country, where it also has a number of brick-and-mortar stores. But of course there are also visual reasons. The yellow trainers provide a welcome contrast to the minimalist aesthetic typically associated with Japanese style. The shoe trend looks great with simple black and white looks. The yellow of the trainers also goes fantastically well with classic autumn tones such as beige, brown or khaki – making the yellow Mexico 66 from Onitsuka Tiger the ideal autumn trainers trend for 2025.

Inspired by the fashionable impressions of my trip to Japan, I took the yellow trainers straight out of my shoe cupboard upon my return. On my first day back in the office, I paired them with black wide-leg trousers, a grey jumper, a short beige trench coat and a brown scarf – and that certainly won’t be the last time I’ll be styling this autumn trainers trend.

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Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

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A version of this article originally appeared on Vogue Germany.