South Korean fashion eyewear label GENTLE MONSTER has recently announced its latest collaboration and concept pop-ups across its Asian stores. This collab, however, is not with a real-life celebrity but a virtual one. It is Kazuya Mishima from the long-running video game series TEKKEN (鉄拳, lit. fists of iron). A hero-turned-villain, Mishima is one of the series’ most charismatic characters and has demon blood flowing through his veins, no less.
This partnership is with the latest launch in the fighting game series, TEKKEN 8 which was released in January 2024 by Bandai Namco. The collaboration mostly involves a pair of co-branded sunglasses aptly named “INFERNO”, with demon horns as temples and comes in a boxing glove similar to what Mishima wears in the game. Currently, GENTLE MONSTER has released several short clips featuring Mishima, from him creating the INFERNO sunglasses with a beam from his third eye in a lava-filled subterranean space to him trying on the eyewear in a locker room, all the way to Mishima, as a representative of Mishima Zaibatsu, the fictional evil corporation that tries to take over the world in the game, stepping out of a limo, sporting the sunglasses, to face cameras and boom mics.
The pop-up spaces will launch in Haus Nowhere in Shanghai, as well as GENTLE MONSTER’s Beijing store, along with the Haus Dosan in Seoul, South Korea and the brand’s Tokyo Aoyama shop. For a limited time, the retail spaces will be converted into a large fighting space with a recreated Mishima in a “traditional zen” style. Visitors can also interact with an AI photobooth with TEKKEN 8-inspired AI filters to become iconic characters from the game.
GENTLE MONSTER is no stranger to building campaigns with fictional backdrops and creating immersive spaces based on that story. Last November, the Korean street fashion eyewear brand launched a campaign called “GENTLE HIGH SCHOOL” featuring Japanese musician and DJ Shinichi Osawa and actress Nana Komatsu. The promotional videos show a fictional school with classes such as robotics and martial arts. In the pop-up and online there is an AI student ID generator that will morph the photo that users upload to fit the aesthetic.
As a rather niche cool brand, the collaboration with the fighting game is another step towards niche cool. The heavy metal aesthetic fits both the game and the brand, with console games and fighting games in particular being lesser known outside groups of dedicated fans. However, Tekken does have a large following in Japan and the West, with an American-made film in 2009. When the pop-up opens over the weekend, we will see whether this collaboration strikes the balance between the niche cool of the IP and the mass appeal of the product design.
