SEGA just teased a new project with collage artist Kosuke Kawamura

SEGA just dropped a 25-second teaser video for a new collaboration with Japanese collage artist Kosuke Kawamura. In it, the company's blue logo explodes into a chaotic swirl of black and white rectangular shards. It then reassembles with a distorted, glitched texture next to Kawamura's stylized signature.

The project will be fully revealed on April 29, 2026. The entire teaser is just a logo treatment and a date. It is the exact kind of cryptic branding exercise that usually precedes a line of expensive streetwear.

Analog glitch effects

Kawamura is a prominent figure in the Japanese art and fashion scene. He is currently the creative director for Uniqlo UT. He took over that role in 2022 to help shift the brand away from basic licensing deals and toward original streetwear designs.

He is best known for his physical "shredder" collage work. His process involves taking existing images, slicing them into thin strips, and reconstructing them into new patterns. The technique creates a visual glitch effect using analog methods. His most famous public work was the massive Akira art wall that surrounded the Shibuya Parco construction site from 2017 to 2019.

Kawamura has applied this exact style to video game properties before. In 2020, he designed a capsule collection for Cyberpunk 2077 that mixed character art with 1990s hip-hop merchandise aesthetics. He has also directed multiple Dragon Ball Z and Gundam apparel lines.

Returning to Shibuya

This new project is a reunion for the two parties. When SEGA opened its first Japanese flagship retail location in July 2025, the company hired Kawamura to create an exclusive item for the store. The shop is located on the sixth floor of Shibuya Parco, the same building where Kawamura's Akira mural once stood.

For that grand opening, Kawamura designed a custom Sonic the Hedgehog plush toy. Instead of standard blue fabric, the figure used a custom textile covered in shredded, reassembled variations of the Sonic logo. In a 2025 interview on SEGA's official website, Kawamura said he grew up playing the company's games and immediately agreed to the project when they reached out.

Apparel or art

SEGA has not specified what the April 29 reveal will actually be. Given Kawamura's background in fashion and his current role at Uniqlo, a clothing collection is the most obvious guess. He has previously collaborated with brands like Adidas and G-Shock to apply his visual style to sneakers and watches.

SEGA has spent the last few years aggressively pushing its classic franchises into new mediums. The company refers to this as a transmedia strategy. In practice, this means putting game characters into movies, television shows, and high-end merchandise. Partnering with a recognized streetwear designer fits neatly into that corporate playbook.

A full apparel line would also be much easier for international fans to acquire than last year's plush toy. The 2025 Sonic figure was strictly limited to the physical Tokyo store. Overseas buyers had to rely on secondary markets. Whatever Kawamura has been cutting up this time, the results will be public at the end of the month.