Born from the creative alliance between Ota and fellow designer Yang Chao, Japanese footwear brand Flower Mountain emerged from a shared passion for the dense, rich and kaleidoscopic beauty of the East Asian natural world — in particular as witnessed through the prismatic experience of mountaineering, trekking, and hiking in Japan. Fuelled by the wild outdoors, music, art, and the megacity urban culture alike, Flower Mountain channels a sporty, colorful and punchy sneaker aesthetic softened by a nod to the Japanese tradition and craftsmanship. 

 

For their most recent collection, Flower Mountain painstakingly observed the trends mirroring the zeitgeist, and conceived a collection celebratory of collective rebirth, and fresh starts by way of a joyous chromatic allegory of the natural world’s vitality. The choice of high-quality materials used are tactical metaphors of the collection’s conceptual inspiration: the harmony and calm of springtime are evoked by the core neutral tones of nylon and leather, while the bright color palette translates the buoyant, fresh air, and use of breathable mesh and fly knit fabrics. 

For this collection, the Japanese brand teamed up with street photographer Daido Moriyama, marking the artist’s first collaboration with a sneaker brand on the theme “keep walking” — a reminder to everyone to keep going forward and grow, despite all external adversity.