Vans teams up with UBIQ to design a special holiday capsule that hits stores this November. The collaboration features two timeless silhouettes from the Vault by Vans collection; the Sk8-Hi LX and Era LX. For this two-piece drop, UBIQ went to Osaka, Japan where they met renowned artist, Hiroshi Hirakawa and his Three Tides Tattoo shop. Before he became a tattoo artist, Hiroshi Hirakawa was first known as an ukiyo-e painter. His illustrations of the mysterious yet deliciously exotic world of geishas in nature scenes or samurai fighting dragons, added to a long line of classic Japanese art.
Hiroshi incorporates the techniques and extends the themes of ukiyo-e into his tattoo art as well, making frequent allusions to mortality that gives his work a vividly contemporary twist. UBIQ is honored to have Hiroshi Hirakawa’s work featured on Vans’ definitive line. Each style features a depiction of a samurai carrying Vans cargo battling a mountain dragon looming in the sky. On the Sk8-Hi LX you’ll find the artwork on a canvas mid-panel fixed between black suede panels, while the full scenery can be viewed in the allover print of the low-top canvas upper of the Era LX. The packaging of the footwear is also fully covered in Hiroshi’s artwork to complete this collectors pack.
