Fandom x Creativity

What Japanese denim industry can teach us about innovation

David Beckham has a pair of bespoke jeans with five 18-carat gold buttons. They’ve been made by a Japanese denim Evisu in Kojima, a seaside town near Okayama.

Kojima is the spot of the first locally-made Japanese jeans (previously, there were only American imports in the country). The pioneering pair of Japanese jeans made of selvedge denim, Kurabo KD-8, was done by Big John (originally named Maruo Clothing) in 1972. M Series followed a year later. All denim was made locally, from the Okoyama prefecture-grown and woven cotton to the mills and cutting and sewing.

Fifty years later, Kojima is the Denim Disneyland. There are more than 200 denim companies — brands, mills, and wash houses — all fiercely competing with each other, spurring constant innovation and creativity. Thanks to this vibrant denim ecosystem, a steady stream of pilgrims, ranging from professionals to obsessives, flock to town.

Unpacked, Kojima ecosystem is made of denim brands, like Evisu, Momotarō, Kapital, Japan Blue Group. It is also peppered with local attractions, like jeans vending machines…