WDC Creative Delivers Two New Premium Onitsuka Tiger Stores in Sydney’s Iconic QVB

WDC Creative is proud to announce the completion of two new Onitsuka Tiger stores in Sydney’s historic Queen Victoria Building (QVB), marking the latest milestone in a decade-long collaboration between the Japanese heritage brand & ourselves.

The openings follow Onitsuka Tiger’s recent retail successes at Emporium Melbourne and the flagship store on George Street, Sydney, and represent a strategic shift towards a premium, direct-to-consumer (DTC) model. Moving away from a global wholesale approach, the brand is expanding its monobrand store presence with a focus on full-price, luxury lifestyle positioning.

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A Dual-Store Strategy in an Iconic Setting

The QVB, a Romanesque Revival masterpiece built between 1893 and 1898, is a landmark shopping destination in Sydney. Due to the limited footprint of individual tenancy units, Onitsuka Tiger adopted an innovative approach—transforming its existing smaller unit into an apparel-only store, while opening a new, double-width space directly opposite to house its footwear collection.

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Global Collaboration for a Premium Result

The project brought together expertise from across four countries, with the client actively managing the process alongside on-the-ground project management in Australia, creative oversight from the Onitsuka Tiger Tokyo and Kobe headquarters. As well as high-end fixtures provided by a supplier in China, and design input from our consultancy based in the UK.

Given the QVB’s heritage status, the design and build required meticulous coordination between the client, project manager, ourselves, landlord, the QVB retail design management team, fire officers, and the listed building authority.

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A Refined Retail Experience

The new stores embody Onitsuka Tiger’s luxury vision through carefully selected high-end materials and bespoke craftsmanship, combining brushed stainless steel, hidden LED edge lighting, authentic Japanese Sumi mortar, soft leathers, stone flooring, and custom light fittings to create a refined, contemporary retail environment.

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Design Excellence from Concept to Completion

Leveraging our proven ‘flex’ process, WDC Creative guided the project from initial brief to final fit-out. The consultancy worked closely with Onitsuka Tiger to define a robust brief, create concept proposals for stakeholder approval, develop detailed drawing packages for procurement and contractor tendering, secure landlord and local authority approvals, and oversee the construction phase.

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A Winning Result

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. “Apparel sales are up, which is great. The stores look amazing! Sales are increasing daily.” said a spokesperson for Onitsuka Tiger.

About Onitsuka Tiger

Onitsuka Tiger, relatively little-known in Europe, is a long-established name in sport apparel. It is an elemental part of Asics, being the original name adopted by the sport brand, from its founder’s surname. In 1949, Kihachiro Onitsuka, a young shoemaker based in Kobe, Japan, nicknamed Tiger, launched a sports shoes business starting from an analysis of how basketball players moved on court. His company quickly made a name for itself through its expertise in footwear construction. Phil Knight, before founding Nike, used to import Onitsuka Tiger products in the USA.