Menu
People and Pop Culture

Hangin' With ... Uniqlo Global Ambassador & Seven Summits Conqueror Marin Minamiya

MARIN MINAMIYA is a 19-year-old Japanese college student and the first female global ambassador of Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo. She has made a name for herself by conquering the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, as well as a trip to the South Pole. Up next on her bucket list is the North Pole, which she will tackle in April, to complete the so-called Explorers Grand Slam, a feat that only 51 other people have achieved. Despite those credentials, Minamiya made clear that she doesn't consider herself a mountaineer, nor does she aspire to be one. She has a passion for environmental and humanitarian issues and currently uses her experience to raise awareness about those subjects. Minamiya talked to SBD Global about her unique partnership with Uniqlo, developing an adventurous spirt and her future career path.

On how it all started ...
Marin Minamiya: I was introduced to mountaineering through a school program in Hong Kong. All of the students were given laptops, so they were connected to the internet from the morning until the night. The classes were on computers and even the homework was done on computers. Hong Kong is a concrete jungle. It was a very small school, but it was big vertically. If a friend was on the eighth floor and I was on the first floor during lunch time, we would Facetime or Skype to communicate, so I guess the teachers thought this is a big problem, we have to let the students communicate more verbally. They came up with this outdoorsy, mountain-climbing program where all students were given maps and compasses to go out and explore the mountains of Hong Kong on our own. It was very refreshing and when we got to the mountain top it was very satisfying. We just naturally started climbing more and more. When I was 13, I planned a trip with my friends to climb up to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal. Then when I was 17, I climbed some mountains in Tibet with my friends, and that’s how I really started getting into climbing.

On why she took on the seven summits ...
Minamiya: It was just for fun. I don’t even consider myself a mountaineer. I don’t think that I would like this to be my career. It was just one big project that I did before I turn 20. I just wanted to prove to the world that even a girl can do this. I think I am the youngest Asian to complete the seven summits, and I feel that in the adventure world, there aren’t many Asian people, especially girls. I wanted to change that. ... Due to expectations from families, especially parents and peers, it is not easy for us to explore what we truly want to do. I think that’s why it is very difficult for kids coming from Asian families to really even wonder what their lives could be if they chose another path.

On finding partners for the seven summits project ...
Minamiya: That's one thing that I’m very, very proud of myself. No one told me to do this project … I did some research and found that in the case of other seven summiters, their whole family was involved. Most of them climbed with their fathers or mothers. Their parents helped them raise money and gather sponsorships. I didn’t have any of that support from my parents. I lived alone. My father told me that he was with me emotionally but not financially. I was alone in this corporate world. I had to go out to get sponsorships. That was something that only I did as a kid, as a young seven summiter.

On how companies reacted to her ...
Minamiya: They were super surprised. They were curious to why I wanted to do this, and what made me think that I can do this. But most of them were really supportive. They said, “We’d really like to help you because we see the passion through your words.” … At first it was quite frightening, but, gradually, I got used to it and I was able to face these companies and land partners like Uniqlo. My main sponsor was obviously Uniqlo, but I had other mountaineering companies that provided me with gear, or some companies that gave me food, and so on.

On being Uniqlo's first female global ambassador ...
Minamiya: Uniqlo has a new line of clothes called LifeWear, and LifeWear is supposed to accompany the person who is wearing it for a whole lifetime. Uniqlo wanted to have this new type of sponsorship where it follows that sponsored person’s lifestyle. I don’t have to be a mountaineer, I don’t have to be an adventurer, and they let me do what I want to do, pretty much. Currently, I’m a university student and next April I will go the North Pole, and then after that I’m planning to perhaps sail around the world. After I graduate, I’m interested in working with organizations like the United Nations. Currently, I’m working with the UN World Food Program to encourage awareness about how people are not getting enough food and living on less than $2 per day. I have seen a lot of detrimental environment issues in the recent years, and I’d like to start working on these areas of the world that I perhaps can make a difference in. It’s not just about me exploring, Uniqlo wants to support and sponsor my thoughts and ideas and how I’d like to make contributions to society through Uniqlo’s CSR.

On how the experience prepared her for her future ...
Minamiya: Well, certainly through traveling in seven different continents and going to extreme areas I got to see directly what is really causing these environmental harms. … These recent years, the icebergs are breaking apart and I might have to swim to get to another iceberg in order to get to the pole. Or, for example, in the Alps, in French and Swiss Alps, the ice is melting so rapidly that rocks that were kept cold because of the ice are now falling and killing many climbers. Even in Alaska, the ice is melting and there are a lot of open crevasses, climbers fall in to those crevasses and they die. Living in a country like Japan you might not realize that these environmental issues are really serious. I’d like to spread awareness and through my experiences let [people] know that this is something that we all have to work on as humans. ... Every week I give speeches at schools, conferences or business meetings. At times I’d give a speech about poverty, at other times I’d give a speech about environmental issues, and sometimes I give women empowerment talks to girls. I am building up this career.


Hangin' With runs each Friday in SBD Global.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/12/16/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hangin-With.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/12/16/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hangin-With.aspx

CLOSE