PROFILE
After working in planning for The North Face and C3fit, he is currently in charge of MXP. He enjoys trail running, and has competed in many prestigious races in Japan and abroad, achieving good results.
The story of the birth of MXP® from space to everyday life.
How much do we sweat in our daily lives? Not only when exercising, taking a bath, or sleeping, but even when sitting in an office, we are secretly sweating at an imperceptible pace.
Along with the sticky discomfort that clings to the body comes the unpleasant smell of sweat. Focusing on the smell of perspiration, "MXP" has released clothing with deodorant functions.
The idea was born while climbing a mountain. In a mountain hut, where you cannot even take a shower, it is impossible to take a good rest with the distinctive smell of sweat on you. Then, could we use textiles to eliminate the smell of sweat? That was the idea behind the project.
Ayako Murai, who is in charge of planning the brand, says so. According to Ms. Murai, "The mechanism by which sweat smells is mainly due to three components. Ammonia, isovaleric acid, and acetic acid, the sources of unpleasant smells, drift into the air.
The fabric used in MXP garments is made of a special thread called Maxifresh. This thread adsorbs isovaleric acid and acetic acid and neutralizes ammonia so that it cannot be exposed to air.
This Maxi Fresh was completed in 2003. In 2004, the following year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which is responsible for Japan's aerospace development, began joint development of space underwear in its "Space Open Lab" initiative.
The amount of supplies you can take into space is extremely small. It's an ultra-light world, so to speak. The drinking water is so severe that we have to filter our own urine to get it, so we can never take a shower. I think the facilities are clean to some extent, but there is no ventilation, and it is a very harsh environment. Astronauts have to spend nearly half a year in such conditions. That's where Maxi Fresh could be useful, and that's when we started working on this.
The company researched the posture astronauts often take when working and developed underwear with a pattern design that matches this posture. Through such communication with JAXA, the functions of Maxi Fresh were further scrutinized, and it has been used in the Goldwyn brand, which releases a variety of outdoor wear.
But there are people who sweat even when they are not in extreme conditions. In 2010, MXP was born as a brand that incorporated Maxi Fresh into everyday life.
Deodorant is secondary. First, design.
The appeal of "MXP" lies in its high degree of perfection as clothing. At first glance, the lineup includes basic, everyday wear such as plain T-shirts and sweatshirts, but the brand's attention to detail is evident in the casualness of the items.
No matter how high the deodorant functionality is, it is meaningless unless people pick it up and wear it. For this reason, we needed to create clothes that would inspire customers as fashion items. Once the customer senses the quality of the garment as a fashion item, he or she will then realize that it has a deodorant function. That is our ideal. In order to achieve this, we had to create clothes with a high level of fashion perfection, including materials and silhouettes, which was an unavoidable path.
Mr. Murai says so with passion. Take the fabric, for example. The new crewneck sweatshirt has a three-layer construction.
The texture of the sweatshirt is nothing less than cotton. That's why we use cotton for the front, Maxi Fresh for the pile fabric on the back, and polyurethane threads that can deodorize odors from aging for the threads that join the front and back together. At first glance, it may look like an ordinary cotton sweatshirt, but it actually has the ability to deodorize four components.
In addition, the silhouettes are designed with careful consideration. For example, even when making a basic T-shirt, "MXP" regularly rearranges it to make it fit the times.
The standard silhouette also changes with the times. We also rearrange the height and width of our T-shirt sleeves accordingly. While pursuing cutting-edge functions, we also closely monitor fashion trends. It is not uncommon for us to hear stories about how a very simple T-shirt had to be re-sampled many times until we were satisfied with the final product.
A view of the world conveyed through packaging.
There is a reason why such a minimalistic and clean worldview of "MXP" was created. Mr. Murai had this to say.
When the brand was first established, our main target was the underwear market, and our packaging fully emphasized the deodorant function. From there, the number of functional underwear products in the market increased, and price competition ensued. We decided not to join them, but to renew our brand image by adding new value. We expanded our product lineup from underwear to cut-and-sew clothing, and renewed our packaging with a high level of design that appealed to the senses, just like our current world view. It was at this point that Naomi Hirabayashi joined us as art director.
Mr. Hirabayashi has created logos for popular Japanese brands and art direction for magazines and advertisements. As is common with the world view of , many of his works are simple but impressive.
From there, brand awareness gradually grew. We feel that our attention to detail in packaging, the brand's worldview, and fashion is being conveyed in our stores. Customers who pick up an item of "MXP" clothing once will continue to buy it as repeat customers. We would like to continue to make clothes that meet the needs of our customers.
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