Denim Distancing: Japanese Denim and Covid-19

[japanalogue]

Hey guys, I got a little over-ambitious this time 'round and put together what might be the biggest denim interview in history. Had to break the dang thing in two!

I got in touch with everyone I could think of in the denim world here in Japan and asked them some questions about how they are dealing with the coronavirus situation, how it's affecting their companies, their towns, their families, and themselves. The response was larger than I had anticipated and, after a week straight of translating, eet ees done!

Pretty heavyweight lineup if I may be so bold as to say so :

• Pure Blue Japan founder Kenichi Iwaya
• Iron Heart founder Shinichi Haraki
• Momotaro/Japan Blue COO (and son of founder) Katsu Manabe
• Samurai founder Toru Nogami
• Tanuki tactical magician Minoru Tanaka
• Full Count founder Miki Tsujita
• Resolute founder (and ex-Denime) Yoshiyuki Hayashi
• Okayama Denim founder Merv Sethi
• Graph Zero founder Tetsuya Suzuki
• Denimio founder Mahoto Harada
• Studio D'Artisan manager Yuji Tamanaha
• Cottle founder Toshiaki Watanabe
• TCB founder Hajime Inoue

Hope some of you will find some enjoyment in it. Stay safe and take care!

Denim Distancing: Japanese Denim and Covid-19

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by japanalogue

[oomslokop]

thanks for your interviews, not just this one but the previous ones as well. i love their hearing-it-from-the-horse's-mouth feels!

[JDelage]

It's interesting to read of those brands saying they're pretty much limited to 100% online sales and yet their online outfits often don't ship outside Japan. I suspect that Iron Heart might be in a better position, though of course shipping from IH Jp to IH UK is by itself a challenge.

[Broark]

You have to remember that their bread and butter is the domestic market, we're just a blip on the radar as far as their total gross margin goes.
Also I'd imagine you'd start stepping on the toes of your western retailers if you offered international shipping given domestic pricing vs. international.

[JDelage]

Agreed, yet some manage to have both online and dealers. I'm just wondering whether this crisis will cause some to reassess their strategies.

[lance]

Wonderful, informative interviews, enjoyable reads, thank you!

[Geeman]

2 hours ago, JDelage said:

Agreed, yet some manage to have both online and dealers. I'm just wondering whether this crisis will cause some to reassess their strategies.

Perhaps not directly relevant to this thread specifically but I was thinking the same about Japanese brands/stores that won't ship international. Will they reconsider that strategy and what's stops them doing it now? Loopwheeler springs to mind. They point blank refuse to ship outside of UK. Manufacture can't be the issues as they support 2 or 3 B&M stores with regular restocks, they have a website, they have an amazon JP store (albeit with 3 items only) that does ship abroad((? ??))Since lockdown in JP they have launched a new webstore but still don't offer international shipping!

What prevents them from doing so as they have no international distributors to consider?

Edited May 7, 2020 by Geeman