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As the Adidas Samba enters its Anxiety Era, fashion defectors are fleeing the bandwagon in search of sneakers with less mainstream appeal. The Samba’s sudden ubiquity has helped bolster the profile of plenty of alternatives—the Asics Gel-Kayano 14, say, or Nike's Zoom Vomero—but none of them really approximate the Samba’s slender profile, placid design, and retro-sporty look. Enter the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66.
The Mexico 66 was introduced in 1966 during the pre-trials for the Mexico City Olympics. It was the first Asics shoe to feature the company’s now-iconic Tiger Stripes insignia, and its look widely influenced the running shoes of its era. Three years later, Asics introduced the Corsair, a running shoe eventually made famous by a fledgling Portland brand name Nike, which shared the rights to the design. (A legal dispute between Blue Ribbon Sports, Nike’s precursor, and Asics, which BRS distributed, left both companies able to develop their own version of the shoe.)
That sneaker became the Nike Cortez, and ever since it landed a major spotlight in Forrest Gump it’s been off to the races. Look closely, though, and you’ll find that the Mexico 66 is a bit of a cinema buff, too: it makes key cameos in Game of Death and, later, Kill Bill, Vol. 1. The Mexico 66 never quite became a pop culture phenomenon on the scale of the Cortez, but its under-the-radar appeal helped it catch on with the indie music scene of the aughts decades later.
Which brings us, of course, to the “indie sleaze revival”. Because, we’re slightly nervous to report, the Mexico 66 is certainly starting to look like it’s so back, baby! Fueled by Gen Z’s nostalgia for an era it never lived through (and half a pack of cigarettes, probably), the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 is roaring back into the fashion consciousness. On TikTok, views related to the sneakers number close to 100 million, and reliably viral fashion plates have been wearing them for a while, often accented by a hodgepodge of late ‘90s and early Y2K flourishes.
All of which is…fine, we guess. It makes sense—stylistically, the Mexico 66 shares a lot in common with the Samba: the nearly-identical suede paneling, the dainty profile. So it's no surprise that early adopters trying to cure their Samba anxiety have sidestepped the Three Stripes’ hottest shoe in favor of a lesser-known counterpart. After years of elephantine sneakers with massive soles and monster-truck chassis dominating the discourse, the pivot towards smaller, slimmer silhouettes marks a natural turning point in the zeitgeist. However you feel about it, the Mexico 66 is only on the up-and-up from here. The It sneaker of the summer is a hotly-contested honorific, but if we were a pair of Sambas, we’d really need a smoke break right about now.
