Thinking of starting a "Concept Shop" in Japan....

[djrajio]

Good question jhaime. I think there are number of valid reasons why someone would want to purchase clothing from a site like mine. One reason being that many Japanese street brands are only sold in Japan and aren't sold online. I think this is the primary reason why I want to start this site. I always had the desire and the capital to purchase the clothing I wanted but couldn't because there existed no online distributor. Secondly, the sites that do sell the certain brands that I and many others are interested in don't ship outside the US. Thirdly, most of sites are in Japanese and unless you can read and write in Japanese, you may be out of luck understanding what you bought, how much it was, and where you shipped it to.

Let's crytallize this issue a bit. Consider the situation where you wanted to purchase a BAPE t-shirt before online resellers like Concept Shop. The only way you could legitimately acquire one would be to:

1) Buy a round trip ticket to Japan and purchase the good yourself

1) Have a friend is who visiting Japan purchase and return the good for you.

2) Have a friend who lived in Japan visit the store, purchase the item, and ship it to you.

Essentially option 1 is far too expensive since the transportation cost is greater than the good itself. Option 2 is the best but honestly how many times do your friends visit Japan on a regular basis and will be visiting exactly the same time as a limited edition, new season, exclusive good, etc., went on sale? Thus, option 3 was the only viable option save the shipping cost was less than the actual good bought. I'm essentially acting as option 3. You wouldn't need a contact in Japan to purchase the item, and yes you'll have to pay a shipping fee, but I think its a small price to pay in comparison to buying a ticket to Japan.

Of course I recognize there are other sites that are doing this. But in my opinion, they are overly inflated in price. Plus, they only sell certain brands that are in the limelight currently, particularly Bape, Neighborhood, and a few others. I'm not interested in this market. If you want Bape, try somewhere else. I am interested in much more underground, less commericalized brands; brands that I genuinely believe are cool and people are interested in buying. Many of the these brands that I intend to sell you may have never heard of. That fine. I want to make a market for these brands outside Japan.

As for the initial captial issue, yes this is a major hurdle and I am not denying it. I am currently in talks with several contacts made through this forum and my own personal contacts. But I firmly believe that my site can meet an underrepresented market segment and will be successful.

Edited by djrajio on Jul 12, 2005 at 06:44 PM

[hahnstch]

i will definitely dig on your site when it materializes, rajio. keep us updated yah?

[djrajio]

Thanks hahnstch. Also, a small shout out to Sam. Would you mind contacting me when you get the chance? I haven't heard from you in some weeks and I'd like to get the ball rolling. Peace.