HOTEL ONITSUKA TIGER ‣ Brand activation

As part of its 75th anniversary year, Onitsuka Tiger decided to take over the iconic Hôtel de la Païva on Paris’ Champs-Élysées and transform it into Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger for a month. On the ground floor of this location, Onitsuka Tiger will open its new flagship store in 2025. 

Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger would become a hub for sport, fashion and art during the Paris Olympics, operating as a functioning hotel for special guests with a café, heritage exhibition, live performances open to the general public. Four resident artists provided a cultural programme that included art, music, food and fashion: Yuja Wang, pianist and Grammy Award winner, Maïa Barouh, singer-songwriter and emerging visual artist Yutaro Inagaki. An exclusive food menu was prepared by Michelin star chef Yoji Tokuyoshi.

monopo was brought on board as both a creative and production partner to ensure a depth of immersion and storytelling around the activity. We were invited to build an imaginative world around the activation to inform all communications and interior design. A universe that would speak to the imagination of influencers, media, guests and fans.

To access a higher level of intrigue and excitement, we decided to focus all storytelling on the various and mysterious guests that would walk the halls of Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger. This came from the realisation that the guests are what makes a hotel magical and even iconic. Wondering who you might bump into at breakfast. Wondering who else might be walking these corridors. Wondering who else might have stayed in this very room.

Originally known as the Hôtel de la Païva established in 1866, the grandiose building provided the perfect juxtaposition between heritage and modernity for the Japanese brand. The energy created by mixing old and new is a red thread throughout all design executions. Café menus lead with the iconic Onitsuka Tiger yellow but feature an ornate die-cut that references the building’s own roof decorations, and the typographic system combines selective uses of serifs with the starkly modern sans serif of the Onitsuka Tiger brand.

Acting as a real cornerstone to the whole activity, was an illustrated key visual by Edie Medley. The illustration shows a cross-section of the 18th-century building, inhabited by an eclectic set of contemporary artist residents, as well as Onitsuka Tiger founder Kihachiro Onitsuka himself. Edie’s illustration style added a whole new layer of meaning, set against the backdrop of 19th century grandeur and the starkness of Onitsuka Tiger’s vibrant yellow identity. Because the key visual depicted several rooms and scenes of the Hôtel, it was a very versatile illustration that was used across communications, social media and Hôtel design.

Thinking of the activity as a piece of brand theatre, we built a creative and design system that used every little opportunity to make the spirit of Hôtel Onitsuka Tiger’s guests felt. Visitors could find (and take home) hotel notepads with scribbles left behind by the resident artists. Snoop around lockers where residents kept their Onitsuka Tiger outfits. “Borrow” room keys that provide information and stories about the residents. 

“We love to think about physical experiences as pieces of brand theatre. I’m a massive fan of Punchdrunk and the visual prop work of Annie Atkins, and see massive opportunities for brands to create a similar level of immersion for fans. Transporting people into a parallel world - a bubble away from reality where every detail has been considered.”

- Melanie Hubert-Crozet, Creative Director, monopo london/paris

While exploring the Hôtel, visitors would also discover the past and present of Onitsuka Tiger. The hallway and atrium were converted into an exhibition celebrating the brand’s most iconic products, while the main room showcased the latest collection.

The hotel rooms were fully taken over by the iconic Onitsuka Tiger yellow. We assisted the brand to create high quality hotel amenities to welcome and immerse special guests into the Onitsuka Tiger universe, both night and day.

The experience was also carefully curated to take the guests on an instant journey of brand discovery. 

The journey started in the heritage room with an immersion into the history of the brand with a display of 10 pairs of heritage shoes from the 60’s and 70’s. We then guided guests to the contemporary room where the brand showcased its apparel collection and accompanying bold and yellow modern universe. 

In this space, the guests were also invited to enjoy the cafe menu created by Michelin-star chef Yoji Tokuyoshi, while listening to the live performance by the artists curated by Maïa Barouh.

Journeying on, guests would discover the immersion theatre where a heritage film was projected in an intimate setting.

People were invited to wander around the hotel and discover the various rooms at their own pace - perhaps even discovering the beautiful Winter Garden which was converted into artist Yutaro Inagaki’s atelier. During his residency, he completed a piece which will be displayed at the flagship store opening at the ground floor of the same address in summer 2025.