Tetsu Nishiyama

Born in 1969 and active in the Ura-Harajuku scene of the early 1990s, Tetsu Nishiyama — known by the initials TET — co-founded the Forty Percent Against Rights (FPAR) and Wtaps imprints in 1996 after time spent skating and absorbing American military and workwear codes. Wtaps grew out of his obsession with reissuing and reinterpreting utility garments: M-65 jackets, BDU trousers, deck shirts and tonal logo caps recoded as graphic, contemplative streetwear under the maxim 'putting things in their proper place.' Operating from Tokyo with a deliberately low public profile, he has become one of the foundational figures of Japanese militaria streetwear, with longstanding collaborations with Vans, New Balance, Porter, and Neighborhood's Shinsuke Takizawa. He continues to direct every season of Wtaps personally.