Japanese Shoes: Bespoke & RTW Super Thread

[Ilovelobbs]

Marquess: The round toe last = love











There is Bespokepalooza party event going on at Isetan this Saturday, with 20 bespoke artists (shoes, tailors etc...) showing up all at once to take orders....
I'll pay a visit to Marquess and Yohei Fukuda at the event, hopely I can snap some pics

oh Nutcracker....

when my feet are set upon these beauty ..
making love to my wife will be no duty......

 

[Kuro]

great list

 

[clee1982]

That's a lot of hard work, thanks man. How many of these guys sell oversea though?

 

[add911_11]



That's a lot of hard work, thanks man. How many of these guys sell oversea though?

really rare, most only take domestic orders. Thats why they have the capacity to work their absolute best in their product.

 

[clee1982]



really rare, most only take domestic orders. Thats why they have the capacity to work their absolute best in their product.

or they just don't know how to scale...

 

[add911_11]



or they just don't know how to scale...

that's essentially Anglo-American business thinking. Not necessary the Japs.

 

[dieworkwear]

Great thread, nutcracker.

Some interviews people may be interested in: Yohei Fukuda, Masaru Okuyama, and Keitaro Takano (of Clematis)

Shoe AristoCat also has some great pictures if you search

http://the-shoe-aristocat.blogspot.com/search?q=japanese

And obv centipede

http://centipede.web.fc2.com

 

[clee1982]



that's essentially Anglo-American business thinking. Not necessary the Japs.

Well if Vass and G&G can do it, you would think they can too, not so much about scales, rather just start taking orders from HK/South Korea/Taiwan/Shanghai/Beijing (RTW ones, I wonder how lean their inventories are). Maybe they're doing it already, though not to my knowledge, at least not in Taiwan.

 

[mimo]

What a wonderful thread. I love what I've seen from the Japanese makers like Koji Suzuki. The creativity and the attention to detail is wonderful.

 

[Ilovelobbs]

Stuff from: Hiro Yanagimachi

 

[nutcracker]



nutcracker, you are the man! How many of these makers speak English? I've approached some Japanese cordwainers with my interview requests; some have not understood me while some have professional level grasp of the tongue.

you know what? Check the 2nd post on this thread where I listed the foreign trained shoemakers. A lot of them had training at the UK (Cordwainer's College, Tresham Institue), I assume they should know English to be able to graduate?

 

[nutcracker]



Great thread, nutcracker.

Some interviews people may be interested in: Yohei Fukuda, Masaru Okuyama, and Keitaro Takano (of Clematis)

Shoe AristoCat also has some great pictures if you search

http://the-shoe-aristocat.blogspot.com/search?q=japanese

And obv centipede

http://centipede.web.fc2.com

thanks. yeah, centipede had one crazy collection of pics. wonder where he went

 

[nutcracker]



That's a lot of hard work, thanks man. How many of these guys sell oversea though?

so far I know Guild of Crafts and Spigola do shows in Hong Kong.

I talked to other shoemakers who were also interested in Honk Kong for some reason?

Ryoto Hayafuji has a stellar reputation and may be among the best independent Japanese shoemakers around. He lives and sell shoes in Munich Germany, I presume all his clients are from Europe.

 

[clee1982]



so far I know Guild of Crafts and Spigola do shows in Hong Kong.

I talked to other shoemakers who were also interested in Honk Kong for some reason?

Ryoto Hayafuji has a stellar reputation and may be among the best independent Japanese shoemakers around. He lives and sell shoes in Munich Germany, I presume all his clients are from Europe.

To me HK makes most sense for them, the culture is there. Even though Taiwan has larger population, I bet the market is smaller compare to HK for this kind of stuff, for reason you and I both know I wonder what's the case in Mainland China and South Korea though, will need some heavy marketing/word of mouth to get started I suppose...

 

[Ilovelobbs]

Well if Vass and G&G can do it, you would think they can too, not so much about scales, rather just start taking orders from HK/South Korea/Taiwan/Shanghai/Beijing (RTW ones, I wonder how lean their inventories are). Maybe they're doing it already, though not to my knowledge, at least not in Taiwan.

Isetan must had a long list of Japanese cordwainers to team up with and in the end they went with Roberto Ugolino for design and Vass
to scale the production front.

I guess it's possibly economics and logistics of: shortage of skilled labour coupled with production cost in Japan. So the niche to target the
high-end & high-margin bespoke market.