Wandering around Shibuya select shops, I keep repeating the same experience. I am drawn to a very simple, yet innovative casual shoe only to discover that — once again — it’s from Keds Japan. This would be a completely unproblematic situation for the normal Japanese shopper, but with a size 13 US (31 Jpn) foot, no domestic company of any merit makes my size. And since all these great Keds are Japan-only, not even the American home company can come to my aid.

The U.S. side of the company only seems interested in a single style of men’s shoes — the classic Champion — while the Japanese partners have created an incredibly broad product line of various styles, perhaps to adequately match the diversity of looks out on the Tokyo streets. Their dirty brown Cushion Welt II is the sleek buck you wish Bass still made, and the white version would look great with a seersucker suit in Spring. The Edifice collaboration kicks in the picture at left feel both eco-Bohemian and deconstructed. These gum duck shoes give LL Bean a run for their money.

The lesson: Japan is not just home to a panoply of foreign and domestic brands, but each foreign brand often has to work a lot harder in Japan to come up with novel products for the millions of incredibly sophisticated Japanese customers. Keds U.S.: take a lesson from your foreign partners and step up your game back home. (Keds Custom is pretty great, though. Just extend it to men, please.)

The New York Times‘ art/fashion blog The Moment has a post up right now about The Gap’s new “Pantone T-Shop.” In short, The Gap is currently offering a limited-edition set of T-shirts based on certain colors in the Pantone spectrum within a special pop-up store.

Hmm. I wonder where that idea came from.

Over a year ago, a Japanese retailer by the name of UNIQLO — perhaps you have heard of them — also did a series of limited-edition T-shirts and cashmere sweaters based on Pantone colors. But I am sure The Gap came to the whole Pantone idea through a completely independent thought process.

Anyway, props go to Uniqlo for being the first mass retailer on the Pantone train. One more example of Japanese fashion prescience.