Sudden closure of the Ginza store. The truth about it.

Unroute opened its first store in Ginza in September 2014 and its second store in Futakotamagawa in April 2015, but the Ginza store closed on February 28, 2017. Why did it close?

marshy rice field or paddyFirst of all, I would like to make it clear that closing the Ginza store is a forward-looking decision. When we thought about the future of the Anroute brand and tried to communicate the brand's direction and worldview more clearly to customers, we decided that the best course of action was to integrate the Ginza store into the Futakotamagawa store.

Did anything about the Ginza store differ from what you had originally envisioned?

marshy rice field or paddyThe location was not on a main street, so I had the impression that more customers came to the store with a purpose than those who just happened to be passing by. Of course, we knew this from the beginning, and we have tried to make the store more attractive than its location. However, I have to admit that it was difficult to achieve the desired result.

Nevertheless, I think that opening the store in that location has given the brand an edge, and I think it has achieved a certain level of success in branding, including appeal to overseas customers.

Unroute" is well suited to the characteristics of Futakotamagawa.

Ginza and Futakotamagawa have very different atmospheres and flows of people, don't they? What was your goal in integrating in Futakotamagawa?

marshy rice field or paddyWe had a hypothesis from the beginning that we would be able to do business in either city. However, when we opened stores in both locations, we realized that what we wanted to do and what we wanted to continue to do could only be realized in Futakotamagawa.

When I thought about what I wanted to do with the "unroute" brand in the future, there were two key elements. First, we want to be a brand that responds to our customers' desire to be fashionable. The second is to be a brand that supports wellness, in other words, good health. I believe that there are still very few stores that present both of these elements in one store at the same time.

Being healthy is also fashionable. I believe that expressing such things is the raison d'etre of "UnRoute. Staying healthy is the foundation of everything we do, and people who make themselves shine through physical activity look good no matter what they wear. We want to make it our business to support this through the approach of fashion.

Which location is better suited to convey this idea to our customers? It is Futakotamagawa, after all. There is a riverbank, the sky is open, and there is a scene of physical activity while basking in the sun. And while it has a bit of a local feel, fashion is firmly rooted in the lifestyle. There are not many places like that in Tokyo, but Futakotamagawa is just such a town.

Rounded off the sharp edges. Keep the price low.

When you integrated the stores in Futakotamagawa, did you make any changes to the product lineup?

marshy rice field or paddyThe basic concept remains the same, of course, but we have made a conscious effort to round out the sharp edges of our product line. If we were to operate only one store in Futakotamagawa, we had to rethink what our customers would be looking for, both in terms of originals and selections.

Take, for example, the colors of our clothes. Until now, most of our clothes have been monotone, but this spring/summer we are actively introducing beige, olive, and smoky pastel colors. We used to avoid these colors because they had an earthy smell, but we thought that if we cooked them in our own taste, we could express them as clothing that is uniquely "Unroute".

What do you mean when you say "clothes that are uniquely "unroute"?

marshy rice field or paddyNo, it's hard for us to find the right word for it (laughs). It's not just authentic casual, it's not the American casual, and it's not greasy ragout. If I had to say something, I would describe it in my own words as "daily mode. I think that's the best way to describe it at the moment.

Futakotamagawa is a place to live, and I believe that the people who live here have at their core the desire to be relaxed without being uptight. However, I don't want to wear just relaxing clothes on my days off, and I am not satisfied with so-called "fast fashion" daily wear. I think there are a lot of people who are looking for "something a little more witty, something that looks good." I think there are quite a lot of people who are looking for something a little more "witty" and "nice. We would like to propose fashions that appeal to this segment of the population.

We have also reviewed the price range of our products. We have lowered the price range of our original products by about 30% compared to the past. Futakotamagawa is a town with a nice mix of everyday life and a place of recreation, and I think there is a price range that is easy to afford in such a town. We have adjusted the price range to make it more affordable, taking into account the business expansion of the area.

Unroute focuses not only on selections but also on originals, doesn't it?

marshy rice field or paddyYes, that's right. We call the items we create "original collections. It is commonly referred to as "select store originals. In the past, imports were the main items for select stores, and we were positioned as a basic product to supplement them, but at Unroute, original collections account for 60-70% of the items we handle. Since we make our own products, we want to do so with pride, and create products that can properly create a single view of the world.

In fact, Futakotamagawa is the origin of "Unroute".

From a consumer's point of view, I have the impression that "Unroute" in Futakotamagawa has a strong affinity with "Futakotamagawa Rise", including its concept and spatial design.

marshy rice field or paddyYes, that's right. To give you some backstory, the first Anroute restaurant opened in Ginza, but in fact, the property in Futakotamagawa was selected first.

Oh, really?

marshy rice field or paddyHowever, because Futakotamagawa Rise was a large-scale development, it took a long time from the time it was decided to open to the time it opened, so we decided to open one store before that, so the Ginza store, which was decided to open later, opened first.

The first Ginza store opened with great fanfare, and I think that helped foster the image of "Unroute," but did you originally begin creating the concept in Futakotamagawa, and the first Ginza store was more experimental?

marshy rice field or paddyThat's right. So actually, Futakotamagawa is the starting point for Unroute.

Learning from the former "Sounds Good".

United Arrows used to have a sports fashion business called "Sounds Good", right? Were you aware of that when you started running "Unroute"?

marshy rice field or paddyI was very strongly aware of the importance of the project. Although "Sound's Good" was a hot topic in the industry and received a certain amount of recognition, it eventually ended midway through its aspirations as a business. I don't want to make the same mistake, but I thoroughly thought about why it was difficult to continue "Sounds Good" in my own way.

The business of sports fashion is not about selling fashionable jerseys. Even people who like sports do not necessarily play sports all the time. When they work, when they go out to eat, they each have their own appropriate attire, and these are not connected to each other. I think that is reality.

On the West Coast in the U.S., you might wear a pair of tights, a chester coat, and Nike sneakers, go straight to work, and then stop by the gym on the way home. I think that is very "Tokyo-like". I think this is very "Tokyo-like.

Therefore, we always want to have a product lineup that is close to the reality of our customers, and although city wear and sportswear are in one store, we are conscious of expressing them along two axes, rather than lumping them together.

However, it is quite difficult to convey such conceptual aspects to people, and when I am interviewed by the media and try to explain it in a limited number of words, I end up being lumped into the "athleisure" category (laughs).

The media, including us, tend to lump everything together. ......

marshy rice field or paddyPerhaps it is my own personality, but I really dislike being lumped in or lumped in with others. Some people want to immediately categorize people by saying, "You are this kind of person," but people are not that easy to categorize.

It is natural that each person is different. The same is true for brands. If a brand is a personality, it is interesting to see how it has this side and that side. I am always thinking about how to express the appeal of brands that have their own individual personalities.

What can we do as "Unroute" in the midst of the growing sports momentum?

By the way, with the Tokyo Olympics coming up in three years, there is a growing sports momentum in the world.

marshy rice field or paddyI am sure that's true. Since we are here, I would like to join in the fun (laughs). As I said at the beginning, health is the basis of everything. There is no doubt that the world's mindset will be growing in that direction in preparation for the Olympics, and we would like to be a part of that.

We may not be able to do anything specific, but we would like to help make it happen in some way. We recently produced a T-shirt in collaboration with a running team based in Tokyo, and this may be one of the examples. I think one of the things we can do because of UnRoute is to show the world that Tokyo has a running culture of this kind.