Where does the beauty of sportswear come from?

Patterns engineered to let the body move freely. Materials designed to protect it from rain, wind, and cold. Details stripped away in pursuit of the fractions of a second that can define an athlete’s performance. In sportswear, form is often shaped by function.

What happens, then, when that same beauty born from function is translated not into clothing, but into architecture?

On September 17, 2026, DESCENTE GINZA opened on Namiki-dori in Ginza, Tokyo. Formerly a multi-brand golf store, the space has been transformed into a directly operated store dedicated solely to DESCENTE. Across three floors and approximately 332 square meters, it brings together the categories that define the brand today, from skiing, golf, and training to DESCENTE ALLTERRAIN, MIZUSAWA DOWN, and footwear.

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But the first thing worth noticing here is not the product.

Stainless steel, glass, mortar, white light—and diagonal 45-degree lines running throughout the store. Architect Koichiro Oniki, who designed the space, has translated a philosophy that DESCENTE has long placed at the heart of its product development—“functional beauty”—into the language of architecture.

Expressing “Functional Beauty” Through Architectural Materials

After completing his graduate studies at Waseda University, Oniki worked at Nikken Sekkei before joining nendo, where he spent approximately a decade working on spatial design projects in Japan and abroad. In 2015, he established ODS / Oniki Design Studio. Today, his practice spans architecture, interiors, exhibitions, and product design, with a particular focus on commercial spaces.

His work with DESCENTE began in 2025. Starting with the store at Shin-Marunouchi Building in Tokyo, he went on to work on locations in Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Futako-Tamagawa. Ginza is the sixth.

Courtesy of DESCENTE
Across these stores, Oniki has continually returned to one question: how can DESCENTE’s idea of functional beauty be expressed through space?

“What matters most is how we express the philosophy the brand values above all—its idea of ‘functional beauty.’”

At the press preview, Oniki pointed to stainless steel, glass, mortar, and white light. None was chosen primarily for decorative effect.

Each has a clear function as an architectural material. And within that functionality lies an inherent beauty.

Just as sportswear arrives at a particular form by pursuing the functions required for the body to move, architecture can derive beauty from function as well. At DESCENTE GINZA, product and architecture are governed by the same underlying principle.

How a 45-Degree Angle Born from Skiing Became an Architectural Rule

Functional materials alone, however, could not fully express the sense of movement inherent to DESCENTE. Oniki therefore turned his attention to a recurring element: the diagonal 45-degree angle.

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Its origin lies in DESCENTE’s Spirit Mark. Composed of three arrows, the symbol represents three fundamental skiing techniques rooted in the brand’s origins: straight descent, diagonal descent, and side slipping.

Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal at 45 degrees. Oniki took this geometric composition and introduced it as a common spatial language throughout the store.

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Among its most distinctive expressions are the plastered walls used on the first and second floors. Craftspeople drew each groove individually with a comb-like tool, maintaining a consistent 45-degree angle. According to Oniki, while experimenting with different ways of incorporating the angle, the resulting texture unexpectedly began to resemble the surface of a freshly groomed ski slope.

“That sense of excitement before anyone has skied it—just before you make the first run.”

The wall Oniki describes ultimately leads back to the snow-covered mountains at the origin of DESCENTE. The first floor was conceived around the image of a ski slope first thing in the morning, combining 45-degree combed plaster walls with stainless steel and luminous panel lighting.

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Rather than simply placing the brand logo on a wall, Oniki extracted the movement embedded within it and transformed that movement into an architectural rule.

A 45-degree angle born from sport became a logo—and now regains a sense of physical movement within the space itself.

“Premium” Does Not Mean Becoming a Luxury Brand

Why is DESCENTE now using space to articulate its identity to this extent?

Behind the new store is the company’s ambition to evolve as a “premium sports brand.” At the press preview, DESCENTE emphasized that this move toward premium positioning does not mean “simply shifting toward luxury fashion or trends.”

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Since its founding in 1935, DESCENTE’s point of origin has remained sport.

Beginning with ski wear, the company has pursued patternmaking measured down to the millimeter and material development designed to support the performance of elite athletes. In a world where fractions of a second matter, unnecessary elements are stripped away, while every necessary function has a reason to exist.

What emerges is a minimal, structurally precise form.

DESCENTE calls this “functional beauty.”

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The idea is to refine sports technology and craftsmanship, and to locate “premium” on that continuum. The brand itself identifies athlete-driven product development, proprietary sports technologies, craftsmanship, and the functional beauty they produce as central to its identity.

DESCENTE is therefore not seeking to transform itself from a sports brand into a fashion brand.

Rather, by digging deeper into its origins in sport, it is attempting to turn function itself into value.

Oniki’s architecture can be read as a spatial expression of precisely that idea.

From a Place That Sells Products to a Place That Communicates a Philosophy

The transformation of DESCENTE GINZA also reflects an attempt to rethink retail itself.

Many of DESCENTE’s directly operated stores have historically been relatively compact. According to the brand, such spaces made it difficult to communicate not only the products themselves, but also the philosophy of making that lies behind them.

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DESCENTE GINZA spans 332.28 square meters, or 100.49 tsubo. The first floor is dedicated to performance products and footwear, the second to DESCENTE ALLTERRAIN, and the third to golf and events. Each floor has a distinct atmosphere, yet all are connected by a single idea: functional beauty.

That philosophy extends into the staircase.

The graphics covering its walls appear three-dimensional at first glance and were created specifically for DESCENTE GINZA. Their motifs come from details found in actual DESCENTE products: seam-taped construction, pockets, laser perforations, back panels from running apparel, and technologies that vary the functionality of a textile according to different areas of the garment.

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Rather than merely arranging products on shelves, the store turns the technologies behind those products into components of the space itself.

From a place to buy products to a place where visitors can experience how DESCENTE thinks about making them.

That is the shift this Ginza store is attempting to make.

Beyond MIZUSAWA DOWN: Footwear Takes Over the First Floor

One category commands particular attention as soon as visitors enter DESCENTE GINZA: footwear.

The first floor houses one of DESCENTE’s largest footwear selections in Japan, ranging from sneakers and sandals to boots and golf shoes. According to the brand, the expansion reflects both growth in the wider footwear market and strong performance within DESCENTE’s own footwear business.

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For many, the name DESCENTE may still evoke skiing and golf. In recent years, however, MIZUSAWA DOWN has become one of the products that carried the brand well beyond the conventional boundaries of sport.

Yet at the Ginza store, MIZUSAWA DOWN is not positioned as the protagonist at the entrance.

Instead, shoes occupy a substantial part of the street-facing first floor, bringing to the foreground a category that naturally connects sport with urban life through the everyday movement of the body.

Having entered the winter city through MIZUSAWA DOWN, DESCENTE now appears to be broadening its relationship with the everyday body through footwear. The store’s composition offers a glimpse of that shift.

MIZUSAWA DOWN and the Form That Emerges from Function

MIZUSAWA DOWN nevertheless remains essential to understanding DESCENTE today.

The Mizusawa Factory in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, began operations in 1970 and was rebuilt in 2025. Beyond renewing its manufacturing environment, the project introduced facilities designed to reduce environmental impact and improve conditions for employees. In 2026, these initiatives received the Topic Award at the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix.

Courtesy of DESCENTE
For this season’s MIZUSAWA DOWN collection, the outer fabric of its core models has been changed from polyester to nylon—the first major update to the outer material in a decade.

New additions include a lightweight collarless model that can also be worn as an inner down layer, as well as the INVISIBLE series, which reduces the characteristic volume of down and conceals seams and seam-tape details from the exterior for a cleaner, more urban appearance.

Courtesy of DESCENTE
Here again, form is determined not by decoration, but by function.

To make it lighter. To keep the body warm. To protect it from rain and wind. To allow freedom of movement. And to sit naturally within the urban environment.

As each of those requirements is resolved, a minimal form emerges as the result.

How Do You Show Beauty Born from Sport in Ginza?

Ginza itself is also central to this transformation.

DESCENTE sees the district as a place that draws not only discerning customers from Japan, but also visitors from around the world seeking Japanese craftsmanship. In explaining why Namiki-dori was chosen in particular, the brand pointed to an environment that is less congested than Chuo-dori, allowing passersby to slow down and take in the store from the sidewalk.

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The goal is not simply to pursue immediate sales, but to establish a point of contact through which DESCENTE can communicate its technology and philosophy of making to the world.

What was required, then, was not a space designed to resemble a luxury boutique, but one capable of communicating why DESCENTE makes things the way it does.

There is a reason for the stainless steel.

There is a reason for the 45-degree angle.

And behind every line carved into the wall lies both the history of skiing and the hand of a craftsperson.

As in sportswear, the process begins by pursuing what is functionally necessary and discovering beauty on the other side.

What is being reconstructed at DESCENTE GINZA is not simply the design of a store.

It is an attempt by a company that has engaged with sport since 1935 to reconnect its own origins in “functional beauty” with contemporary urban life.

One answer can be found here in Ginza, where Koichiro Oniki has translated that philosophy into architecture.