Gyakusou placeholder

The latest drop from Gyakusou (pron. gee-yuk-sue) is right around the corner, and here @ TEMPO we thought it timely to bring you up to speed on the name so you can be educated before you cop.

Gyakusou is the collaboration of Nike and street fashion label Undercover (the label founded by legendary designer and fashion icon Jun Takahashi in the early '90's), on a twice yearly collection of running apparel and footwear. The Japanese are arguably the keenest runners on the planet, and 50 year old Takahashi is no exception, regularly putting up 10 miles around Tokyo's Yoyogi Park (shoutout to anyone who has cut laps of Yoyogi - if you see some guys running it counter-clockwise, aka the wrong way, it could be Takahashi and his boys. They regularly run the route in reverse - the English translation of Gyakusou is ‘running in reverse’).

The Gyakusou line debuted in 2010, and since then has tackled some iconic Nike footwear silhouettes, while also introducing a huge amount of new apparel styles - each of them highly considered and functional, and usually in Takahashi’s favourite earthy, understated tones. Over the years we’ve seen features like zip-off sleeves, packable hoods, and a series of pockets designed to keep your keys and your coins separate - so you can run in silence (I know, I know - no one carries coins anymore, but they’re still big in Japan. You can cop a Pocari Sweat and a can of BOSS coffee with 1 coin).