BEAMS and Paraboot rework Thiers into Japan-exclusive street-ready shoe

International Gallery BEAMS and Paraboot pushed the 1960s Thiers away from pure loafing territory and into a sharper streetwear lane with the Japan-exclusive THIERS EYELET. The special-order shoe swapped in Paraboot’s Japan-only ROCAD sole, widened and repositioned the eyelet setup for both function and visual balance, and introduced the brand’s first fat laces, details that make the familiar leather silhouette feel more architectural without losing its heritage shape.

The color choice does as much work as the hardware. VEL ARDOISE, a grey suede with a concrete-like cast, gives the shoe a hard-edged, city-ready finish that sits closer to Japan’s quiet product innovation than to polished French dress shoes. BEAMS priced the pair at ¥69,300 tax included and framed it as a 50th-anniversary special-order item. It came in UK5 through UK9.5 and was made in Spain, a tidy list of specs that underscores how carefully this was engineered rather than merely recolored.

That tension between old and new is exactly what makes the collaboration land. Paraboot frames Thiers as an original model from the 1960s, now back in the spotlight thanks to celebrities, while the brand itself dates to 1908 and remains a four-generation family business rooted in the French Alps. Its Japan footprint is already deep, with boutiques opening in Tokyo in 2001, Osaka in 2015, and Ginza and Sapporo in 2017, which makes a Japan-exclusive special order feel less like a novelty than a continuation of an established conversation.

BEAMS and Paraboot have also been circling each other for years. Paraboot has highlighted a previous Paraboot x Barbour x International Gallery BEAMS project as a first-time design collaboration, and BEAMS staff described this THIERS as a shoe type they had never had before. That is the real appeal here: not a reinvention, but a precise edit. A sole swap, a new eyelet geometry and oversized laces are enough to recode a heritage derby for a more fashion-aware, street-ready wardrobe, which is exactly the kind of subtle move Japan does best.