Japan - November 2014

@Megatron1505:

Weirdly I was thinking about a shirt design the other day using buttons very similar to those…..back to the drawing board

Gav. That is button off a Triple Works chore coat…..

Can't wait to see the rest of it.

@Giles:

This seasons's theme….

Indigo and selvedge

I love that theme

Giles

I had a long chat with Haraki yesterday about his concerns for this business and what it will look like in the near, mid and long term future.

Loads of weaving is being offshored (obviously a lot to China) but interestingly one of the largest Japanese mills has just entered into a JV with Uniqlo. The new mill will be built in Thailand.

We are now on the 3rd (could be the forth any minute) supplier for cotton duck, the previous ones going out of business.

The IHSH-107's were late because the factory producing them went bust in the middle of production. Haraki had to find another factory at short notice.

The new deck jackets are a month late because the factory making them got another easier order from another brand (because the factory the other brand were using went bust) and because the new order was easier to do (and thus convert into money), our deck jackets got bumped.

Brands like Edwin our contacting massively here in Japan. Like them or love them, it is brands like that keep the mills and the factories going, it is their bread and butter business. When that goes, they're in trouble.

Some of this particularly hurts Iron Heart because our denim is hard to weave and our products are hard to make, so we are never at the front of the queue when a mill or factory has choices to make.

Giles

@Megatron1505:

I love that theme

There's bloody selvedge everywhere, shirts, chinos, work pants, type II's, chore jackets…........

davito

Indigo dot calico sweet nice tease G and thanks for that honest insight. i am confident you, Haraki and your japanese team do the best to keep your high manufacturing standards although the hard environment.

mclaincausey

Giles, there seemed to be a strategy to vertically integrate some more of the materials production aspects of the supply chain. Are those still in flight?

Omega Man

@mclaincausey:

Giles, there seemed to be a strategy to vertically integrate some more of the materials production aspects of the supply chain. Are those still in flight?

In relation to this, I seem to recall the potential to buy a mill.

Giles

Buying a mill is not part of the plan at the moment, though I did discuss the possibility with H last night.

Buying the Union Special production line (the heavy ounce line) in the jeans factory is still part of the short/medium term plan.

Giles

This is going to be so good…...Not Wabash but woven dots...

Giles

This just about sums up how safe Tokyo is…

hajduk

impressive fabrics^^!!
organic cotton/natural indigo, G?
tell us more about all these new fabrics

Giles

I can't remember. There is a load of natural indigo stuff flying around, as for organic cotton, probably not. We wanted to move to this, but it really really narrows our options down….

I am spending whole day in Hachioji tomorrow. Will take loads of photos and ask loads of questions.

hajduk

Cool G!

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Japan - November 2014