From their humble beginnings in Boston Massachusetts back in the 1960’s, New Balance has come along way from their original six-man operation. Taking the company from selling thirty pairs of shoes through both mail-order and very select retail outlets on a daily basis, with a stand alone model that’s now better known as the 320, New Balance now houses their manufacturing plants across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and have gone from manufacturing the 320, to a slew of what have now become classic silhouettes that are sought after on a global scale.
In January, earlier this year, we had the chance to travel to Japan and meet with our brands across Tokyo and Osaka. One brand we had a chance to sit down with was New Balance. Tetsuya Shono, Takahiro Makawai, and Takashi Shinozaki managed to take some time out at their Tokyo headquarters, to answer some of our questions regarding aspects of design and technologies throughout their ranges, the brands journey over the years, and how the brand fares in the contemporary footwear marketplace.
New Balance has been developing and manufacturing shoes for over 50 years, how long has the Japanese side of the company been established, and how long have you been involved? Could you provide a little background about yourself and New Balance? Where are Japan’s New Balance operations based?
Tetsuya: My name is Tetsuya Shono, I’ve worked for New Balance Japan now for 14 years as the product manager of the lifestyle category.
Taka: My name is Takahiro Makawai better known as ‘Taka’ or ‘Hiro’ I’ve worked for New Balance Japan now for 4 years marketing for lifestyle and other inline categories.
Shino: My name is Takashi Shinozaki better known as ‘Shino’ I work on merchandising for the product lines and have worked for New Balance Japan for 12 years. Prior to this, I was apart of quality control within the sales department, and in most cases I was known as the ‘shoe dog’.
Taka: This year marks the 22nd year of New Balance’s establishment in Japan. In the beginning the Japanese side of the company started in 1989 so that makes this year makes for its 22nd year. Prior to this, our CEO the first president of New Balance Shoehe Karata used to work for the company Suki Hoshi better known as Moon Star, and New Balance America in 1976 released the 320 running silhouette, and during that time Shoehe Karata travelled to the United States and brought the 320 back to Japan as one of Moonstar’s silhouettes know to us as the M320, and that’s how New Balances product itself launched in japan. It was after this point that Moonstar started bringing New Balance’s other silhouettes to Japan.
In Japan New Balances head offices are housed in Tokyo, however we also have other offices in Osaka and other prefectures.
How did you become involved in the area of design, and what prompted your involvement with New Balance?
Tetsuya: I was originally a student and also what you call a ‘Sneaker Head’. Whilst I was a student at University I Majored in Architecture, and after I graduated I began work for a construction company, but I still held a very strong passion for sneakers. I then quit my previous job and put myself out to all of the brands, New Balance, Nike, and Adidas, and New Balance ended up being the perfect fit for me.
Taka: The only reason why I’m here is because I have a strong passion for apparel. I previously lived in San Francisco and during that time I was playing a lot of basketball, everyone was wearing Nike, and Adidas and I was like ‘come on!’ I was sick of seeing the same silhouettes on everyone’s feet, I just wanted to be different and be the only one wearing something different. I was at footlocker and I saw this pair of New Balance basketball shoes ones that we traditionally don’t have here in Japan or Australia, and it was the pair that I picked up that introduced me to New Balance as a sneaker, and from there the company.
Shino: The reason for my employment here at New Balance Japan is, when I was studying at university my major was sports science, and especially my other major which was biomechanics, so when I was a student I tried to become the person that would create for the sports and I tried to find a job that I could create sporting goods within as it’s very suitable for me with my background, and that’s how I came into contact with New Balance Japan.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Tetsuya: For me I draw inspiration from everything everywhere, but I especially have very strong ties within street culture, things like music, movies, books, magazines, and fashion, the types of things that come from the kind of young culture here in Japan.
How long does it take to make and develop a season, and what are the outlining processes that go into designing the Japanese ranges that New Balance release?
Tetsuya: Generally speaking, the normal inline takes about one and a half years or eighteen months to develop. As for processes, first of all I have to write down all my inspirations and where they’re coming from, be it my idea or other designers ideas and then I initiate the product by sharing my ideas and concepts to other designers here at New Balance. It’s from here we make decisions and choose the materials, and the technologies that we want to either put in or adapt to the silhouette, and then we send these specs to our factories in different countries, sometimes China, sometimes the United States, and sometimes the United Kingdom, and we make the samples and product from there.
What makes New Balance so different from other brands, and how do you feel the Japanese side of New Balance, sits in comparison to New Balance from both the United States, and the United Kingdom?
Taka: Well first of all, the silhouette is different; we have two different styles, outdoor and running styles much like the 574, 999, and 1700, those are originally running shoe build ups, so that’s why the technologies that we had used in the past makes them actual running shoes, you can use them to run in. I know that in the past, other companies also have strong backgrounds in running, and if we compare ourselves with other companies, we think the lasts that we use and our development is different from other companies. If you look at the 574 for example, the sole is a little bit wide compared to others, in Japan we have wide feet and people tend to like new balance it tends to fit the foot better.
Tetsuya: In terms of the difference between New Balance in Japan, America, and England, each regions markets is very different, also, our market here in Japan is very different compared to elsewhere. It’s very tied in with each regions population and their daily life and culture. For example in America people tend to drive everywhere, whereas here in Tokyo people tend to walk and take the train and bus so we are always on our feet…
Taka: I think Tetsuya already mentioned this but, different countries have different situations, different transportation and for example here in Japan we tend not to use cars and we walk a lot, and what we’re trying to say is these situations shape the way we develop our ranges, be it the colour, silhouette, or even the shape.
