Japan, man.

March 9, 2006 11:09 AM

Asics have some velcro sneakers I like on their Japanese site, but not on their US site - how can I get hold of a pair?
posted by forallmankind to Shopping (10 answers total)

I just found out about http://www.fdjp.com, a company (or maybe just some guy) who will buy anything in Japan and ship it worldwide for a 30% overhead charge. I very recently placed an order to get some concert tickets that I would have no other way of getting ahold of. I can't vouch for them fully, but I don't think it's a scam - my dealings with them so far have been very professional. I think there are other websites that will do the same sort of thing if you look around, or maybe other folks here can recommend some?
posted by Gortuk at 12:23 PM on March 9, 2006

I googled around a bit and couldn't find any Japanese sites selling those shoes that ship to America.　Maybe if you can find an intermediary, a friend in Japan who can order them and ship to you? I know a lot of mefites live in Japan, so maybe someone could help.
posted by dead_ at 12:24 PM on March 9, 2006

classicsportsshoes.com sells some Onitsuka Tigers (made by Asics) with velcro. But they are much less "athletic" than those in your link.
posted by minimal at 12:28 PM on March 9, 2006

Rinkya is a popular proxy bidding service for Japanese auction sites like Yahoo! Japan (Y!J is the market leader there). They have an extensive FAQ about the process. Good hunting.
posted by junesix at 12:58 PM on March 9, 2006

www.sneakerhead.com ?
posted by ollsen at 2:08 PM on March 9, 2006

If I were you, I would get in touch with Asics to see if these are legit. I have ordered things from Asia that did not turn out to be real and ended up not giving me the quality of the company I originally wanted. Good Luck!
posted by Gabe014 at 2:16 PM on March 9, 2006

Celga is another Japanese bidding proxy site. In my experience, it's a lot better (and cheaper) than Rinkya (and FDJP charges 30%?! eek!) Celga is mostly used for anime and manga, but they've bid on non-anime stuff for me before. So long as you have the URL for the auction and you pay in advance, you should have no trouble with them.
posted by vorfeed at 2:31 PM on March 9, 2006

Why wouldn't they be real? They're on the Japanese Asics site.
posted by smackfu at 5:43 PM on March 9, 2006

vorfeed - 30% may sound a bit high but I'm happy to pay it if I get the service I need (eg, an item that I would not be able to obtain any other way than by having a Japanese speaker in Japan physically buy it for me and put it in the mail). That said, I did a bit more searching and found some additional sites that offer similar service, for what may or may not be a better price (first link is 20-25% depending on what you are buying and how much it costs):

http://www.crescent-shop.com/
http://www.akibado.com/

Again, I can't vouch for any of these, and in fact I found the second link via a complaint on a message board form... but it shows that these services are out there, and some people find them useful. Some of the other sites linked above appear to be strictly for Yahoo! auctions, which wouldn't help in the questioner's case.
posted by Gortuk at 7:46 PM on March 9, 2006

Just an update on the above in case anyone's re-reading this thread later... I just completed a successful order with FDJP for concert tickets and can fully vouch for the speed and efficiency of their service.
posted by Gortuk at 4:15 PM on March 15, 2006