Mr. Clean Representative
Born in 1977, he built his career at the famous Lost Hills store in Harajuku, and began working as a freelance buyer in 2011. He spends about half the year buying in the US, and is a world-renowned vintage buyer who has earned the trust of many with his industry-leading aesthetic sense and overwhelming knowledge of both new and old items. His personal collection is not limited to Converse, but also includes a wide range of items such as outdoor and military wear. He also has his own shop, Mr. Clean, in Oku-Shibuya.
Instagram: @michihikokurihara
During the first vintage boom in the 90s, shoes made before the 70s that had heel patches other than the All Star designation, such as Converse Chuck Taylors and Coach shoes, were considered vintage. But when did American-made All Stars in general start to be considered vintage?
When I went to America for the first time to buy in 1996, most of the in-line models were still made in America, and even the so-called "silver boxes" from the 80s to early 90s were sold cheaply, except for some models with different materials or patterns such as camouflage. When the current models were still made in America and new ones were sold for several thousand yen, no one went out of their way to buy used ones at thrift stores. Later, when American-made ones disappeared, they were put up for clearance sales at mass retailers in Japan. People with foresight bought them up at that time, and later sold them when they became rare as dead stock and became expensive. I think that from around the end of the 2000s, when it became difficult to find American-made ones even used, they gradually started to be treated as vintage.
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