今回はお約束のRMFB(Rocky Mountain Featherbed)についてです。本気で挑んだ製品作りとブランドの進化論をまとめてみましたので、少しのお時間お付き合いください。
月日は目まぐるしく過ぎてゆき、そして人も物も事も進化を遂げる。僕は今まさに過去のデジタルファイルと格闘してサーバー内を彷徨っておる次第です!ハイ!
余談ですが、ユダヤ人の友人から聞いた父と息子の話です。内容は「寒い冬の季節にシャツ一枚で歩いていた父と息子の目の前に、厚手のコートと本が落ちていました。父は息子のためにコートではなく、なんと本を拾って差し出した」と。一時的な寒さを凌いででも半永久的に価値のある本を選べ!こういった教えでしょうかね。
そう僕もデジタルよりアナログ派で、カタログとか本で残したいタイプなんです。だから僕のアトリエには整理のつかないカタログ類と古書が散乱しているのだ!HAHAHA
さて話は2003年の年末まで遡ります。「僕の髪が肩まで伸びて〜♪♪」、そう僕がまだ長髪だった頃、ヴィンテージのRMFBを着てはいろいろ研究していたその頃。真のブランドホルダーへなる前に、実はもう製品作りに挑んでいたんです。懐かしい僕の後姿をみてください。
2005年には商品として市場に現れた訳ですが画像も資料も残っていません。と言う事は皆さんにお見せするほど価値のない物を作っていたということですね(笑)。今思い出すのはBERBERJINさんとUNITED ARROWSさんにだけエクスクルーシブで生産したことのみ。お見苦しい商品画像が残ってなくて幸いです。購入いただいた2社さんには申し訳ないですが……
まだまだ弊社サーバー内をうろちょろしてますが、見つけましたよ! なんと2006年秋冬用に手掛けた商品の全貌が今はなきF&E誌に掲載されているじゃありませんか! 思えば試行錯誤の末に血迷ってベルギー製のナイロンとか英国製のナイロンを使っていました! 本末転倒とでも申しましょうか、1960年代にRMFBを立ち上げたカブ・シェーファー氏(CUB SHEAFFER)に面目が立たない方向に進んでしまっていました。ただこの2006年製モデルは その翌年に入社した救世主的な生産管理人、鈴木きよた君のおかげで縫製面では抜群の完成度を誇りました!
この雑誌掲載の約1年後に当たる2008年秋冬に、や〜っと納得の行く完全無敵なRMFBが完成します。
完成に向けて、そしてその製作に一役も二役も買ってでてくれた2人を紹介しますね。
1人目は、信岡淳。サーティーファイブサマーズのマーケティング兼務PR。
今では市場で色んなRMFBのコラボ製品が出回っていますが、彼のマーケティング力のお陰で正しいブランド様やショップ様とのコラボ品が沢山生まれ、今尚進化を遂げています。
下記信岡淳本人談
早くはウエアハウスの塩谷さんご兄弟と藤木さんから「コラボで展開しませんか?」との挙手が届きました。今も続く長期コラボです。 コラボをする以前、ウエアハウスさん達は自社ネームでRMFBをベースにしたダウンベストを展開してました。弊社ブランドホルダーから客観視しても素晴らしい出来で流石だなと関心した事を憶えています。
次にコラボとして記憶に残る製品としては、対マスターマインドさん。ロンハーマンさんが1号店のオープニングの仕掛けとしてトリプルネームで展開しました。この当時は三つ巴的なコラボはなく、仕掛けとしては早かったですね。僕らの持っていないマーケットへRMFBが広がったのは、このタイミングでした。
その後はオーセンティックナショナルブランドとの共作ですね。既に世界中で有名なクラークス社やペンドルトン社とのコラボレーション。クラークスとのコラボ品はワールドワイド市場で販売し、RMFBネームのワラビーシューズも世界中で発売されました。販売当時ビブラムのネーム(8角形で黄色)に色と形状が似ているという事でビブラム社に訴えかけられました。そもそもお付き合いのあるクラークスさんチームが無き事にしてくれましたが……(汗)
対ペンドルトン社ではRMFBのネームを入れた柄のブランケットをアメリカで生産して頂きました。相手が結構アナログなので、こちらがイラストレーターで作成した絵文字を切ったり張ったりして、締め切りに追われて作業したことが今も記憶に新しいです。
クラークス社もペンドルトン社も最初の案はダメ出しの連続で 何度もやり直して最終的にはお互いの得意要素を合わせ、新しい物に仕上がり大変満足しています。
自分達が世界で商標を得てワールドワイドに認知度を高め、売上を伸ばし始めたのもこの頃かもしれません。
そして最後に話したいのが一針入魂で有名な 吉田カバンのポーターブランドとの共同作品。僕なりに何か爆発的なネタないかな?と思っていた時にふと思い付き、コラボの承諾を吉田カバンの桑畑さんへお願いに行きました。その後イメージ画をビームスさんに見せたところ、「トリプルネームで展開しましょう」となり、爆発的な人気を博し、昨年に続き今年も第2弾が発売となります。色々な意向がありこのコラボは2016年の今期で最後となりなりますが「ポーター」ファンの多大さを思い知らされた企画でいい経験をさせていただきました。
As I have promised I am going to talk about RMFB this time. I will give you the summary of the MONOZUKURI I worked in earnest and the theory of brand evolution I tackled full-heartedly. So allow me to take some of your time on those topics.
Time passes hectically, and people, things and events make progress. I am indeed wandering around inside the server, struggling with the past digital files right at this moment!
It seems like enormous amount of documents that I do not need to keep still exist there, but I do not have necessary documents that are also rhyme. God of organization, please help me!
Just a quick digression, but let me tell you the story of a father and a son that my Jewish friend told me. It says: A father and a son who were walking on the street wearing only shirts in the chilly winter found a heavy coat and a book right in front of them. The father picked up the book, not the coat, for his son. I reckon that this story teaches you to choose a book over the temporary coldness because its value lasts semi-permanently!
Yes, I actually am a type of person who want to keep things in analog like paper catalogs and books rather than digital formats. That is why I have unorganized catalogs and vintage books scattered all over my atelier.
Now, let me go back to the end of 2003. Just like an old Japanese song says – “When my hair grows to the shoulders ♪♪”, it was when I still wore my hair long and was wearing the vintage RMFB doing a lot of researches. I was already trying to make a product before I became the real owner of the brand. Please take a look at the back shot of good old me.
The product was launched in the market in 2005, but I do not have any photos nor documents. That means I was making something not worthwhile showing you now. All I can recall at this moment is that I have produced exclusively for BERBERJIN and UNITED ARROWS. I am lucky there is no photo of the embarrassing product. Although I feel bad for saying so to the two companies which purchased it.
While I am still wandering inside my company server, I found something. All about the products I made for AW 2006 was shown on the F&E Magazine that no longer exists! Surprise, surprise. Looking back on these days, I decided to use Belgium and British nylons, of all things, after numerous trials and errors! It is like putting the cart before the horse, and I was moving forward to the direction I would be ashamed in the face of Mr. Cub Schaefer who founded RMFB in 1960s. But, let me say that this 2006 creation was sewn to the perfect quality thanks to the production control manager who joined us in 2005 and our savior, Kiyota Suzuki.
The perfect RMFB that I was truly satisfied with was completed for AW 2008, about a year after the appearance in this magazine.
Let me introduce you the two people who have served many roles for the completion as well as the production.
The first one is Jun Nobuoka, the marketing and PR officer of 35 Summers. Now, you see many collaboration products of RMFB in the market, but it is only for his marketing ability that we can collaborate with the right partners to produce many products. And we are making progress even now.
Comment of Jun Nobuoka himself is shown below.
The early offer of “Why don’t we work on collaborative products?” came from Shiotani brothers and Mr. Fujiki of WAREHOUSE.
It turned out as the long-term collaboration we still work on now. Before the collaboration started, WAREHOUSE was offering down vests based on RMFB under their own brand name. From the objective perspective of the brand holder, they were impressive work only they can produce.
Next memorable collaboration product was what we made with “MASTERMIND”. It was marketed under triple brand names as the special offer at the opening of the 1st store of Ron Herman Japan. Three-party collaboration was unheard of back then, thus our initiative was the first of its kind. It was around this time when RMFB expanded to the segments of the market we did not own yet.
What followed afterward was the collaboration with authentic national brands. Collaboration with CLARKS and PENDLETON that were already famous worldwide. The collaborative product with Clarks was sold in the Worldwide Market. Wallabee boots under RMFB were also sold all over the globe. We were almost sued by Vibram for the alleged use of a similar logo in color and shape (yellow octagon) when we first launched. Luckily, the Clarks team we had good relationship with helped us solve the issue outside the court : (
With PENDLETON, we had a blanket with RMFB logo as the pattern made in the US. I still remember clearly that we worked under pressure to meet the deadline, cutting and pasting the pictorial symbols produced by Illustrator, as they were rather analog workers.
Our first proposals were rejected over and over by Clarks and PENDLETON. We revised so many times, and brought what each party was good at to create totally new products in the end. We were so happy and proud of our works.
It was probably around this time when we obtained the trademark globally and started to build the awareness and to increase the sales.
What I would like to talk about at the end of my comment is the cooperation with the “PORTER” by Yoshida & Co., Ltd., known for the “One stitch all soul” philosophy. When I was making effort in my own way to find an explosive seed, their name came to my mind. I went to Mr. Kuwabata of Yoshida & Co., Ltd. to seek agreement of the collaborative project. When I show the image illustration to BEAMS later, they immediately offered the “triple-party cooperation”. It received explosive popularity, and we are making the second creation this year following the success of the previous year. This year, 2016, marks the last of this collaborative work, for many reasons, but this project reminded us how popular “PORTER” is and was a great experience for us.