The Williams F1 team has unexpectedly collaborated with Initial D for a line of merch. There really isn’t a lot in common between a British Formula 1 team formed in the 1970s and a touge racing manga from 1990s Japan, aside from the two properties nominally having to do with cars. To the layman that’s probably enough, and when it comes to car culture in 2026 that’s often the issue.
Some of the items that you can buy from this fourteen “piece” — the word itself is steeped in streetwear culture and somewhat cringey — collaboration, but which the company behind it calls “artefacts”. They include a “touge crew” jacket ($100), several T-shirts ($45 each), a water bottle ($30), a jigsaw puzzle ($20), and more.
The Williams team has had some historic ties to Japan, including back-to-back Constructors’ Championships in 1986 and 1987 with Honda twin-turbo V6 powerplants. Kazuki Nakajima drove for the team in the late 2000s, and Komatsu has been an on-and-off sponsor since the 80s, utilizing some of the Japanese heavy equipment company’s hardware in their cars.
Nothing in this history has anything to do with touge racing, and aside from a three-year period when the Williams ran Toyota engines, there’s no connection to the AE86, either. That was in 2007-09 and today Williams uses Mercedes-AMG power units, so why the Initial D tie-in now?
In recent years there’s been a global boom of F1 hypebeast culture among Gen Z, where the teams are no longer just there for sport. F1 teams now actively model themselves as lifestyle brands. By collaborating with Initial D, Williams taps into the hypebeast subculture, where racing aesthetics, vintage car merchandise, and anime are highly coveted streetwear trends.
The centerpiece of the collection is a $699 Seiko watch that glows in the dark with the outline of a touge course. Admittedly, this is kind of neat, and probably better executed than some of the other watches we’ve seen with Initial D themes.
The irony of these streetwear brands, which have their origins in skateboarding, punk, and hip-hop culture, is that with big F1 money entering the fray the clothing is now plastered with the logos of billion-dollar multinationals. Nothing says urban fashion like investment banking juggernaut Barclays, or project management software giant Atlassian on your hoodie.
A collab needs to feel right, not like two giant brands slapped together. Formula 1 might be the hot ticket right now, but it doesn’t feel like an organic link to the Initial D universe. Besides, we all know that when Takumi turned pro, he became a rally driver.
