Even though Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto has long ended, the merchandising for manga and anime continue strong like a shinobi assault. Japanese sportswear giant Mizuno has released the Contender sneaker decorated with the costume colours of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha as they appear in Naruto Shippuden.

The Mizuno Contender comes in three styles. For Naruto himself, the upper utilizes the orange and black colours of his outfit, with a yellow collar lining to replicate his hair. An Uzumaki clan logo, the red and black spiral that appears on the back of Naruto’s jacket, is stitched into the sneaker’s heel counter. Sakura’s pair uses cherry blossom pink and crimson to emulate the kunoichi’s garb, with the Haruno family emblem, a white circle, embroidered on the heel counter. Finally, Sasuke’s shoes work with the slate blue and dark violate shades of his robes, and a lighter lavender collar lining. Keeping in theme of the previous pairs, the red and white Uchiha fan crest is embroidered on the heel. All three sneakers are made with a mixture of natural and synthetic leathers for the upper, a white foam midsole and rubber outsole.

Mizuno Japan’s official Twitter account shared images of the shoes alongside artwork of ninja himself wearing the pair designed for him. Translated, the tweet mentioned this the “first collaboration”, leaving open if more Naruto characters will possibly see their own footgear in the future.

The tweet mentioned that Mizuno Contender x Naruto styles would go on sale (in Japan only), on January 8^th, 2022. A quick glance at the replies to the original tweet displays fans’ frustrations at securing a pair. Select Japanese retailers, including official Mizuno stores and Shueisha’s Jump Shop, were offering sizes 23.0 cm to 29.0 cm (or 5 to 11 for Canadian/US sizing) for ¥13,200 JPY (that’s $144.06 CAD after conversion).

Sources: Twitter, Mizuno

© Masashi Kishimoto/Shueisha/TV Tokyo/Pierrot

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