Hello Taka! How are you? Are you writing from Vancouver right now ?
Hello Distance. I’m doing well here in Vancouver.
I’ve never travelled to Canada, how is British Columbia region? How would you describe the life out there? Because for stupid foreigners like me I think about a lot of outdoor scenery and beautiful landscape!
Ski in the morning, beach in the afternoon. The proximity to nature is incredible. The coastal mountain wilderness is such a gem. You can even hike up for a few hours to get to glaciers.
You know we don’t carry your brand yet…will you still answer our questions ? (please…ahah)
Sure thing. It’s always good to connect with like-minded people who share similar values.
Maybe we could go back in time a little bit and you can explain your background and how you ended up being the creative director of VEILANCE.
I grew up in Japan and played many sports when I was little. My granduncle, who ran, was an Olympic finalist for 100m! So everyone thought I was going to be an athlete too. I started skateboarding, listening to Beastie Boys and wearing oversize tees and vintage Levi’s between 10-12 y.o, before turning more to fashion. I was quite determined to become a designer at an early age.
I went to Bunka Fashion College to take the advanced apparel program. After graduation, I worked at Comme des Garcons and was assigned to work on Junya Watanabe. We were collaborating with brands like Levi’s, the North Face, and Converse back in early 2000’s when there wasn’t such a term as collaboration. I realized that the things we wear today all came from ultimate utilitarian inventions often from workwear to American military. I wanted to be a part of what’s next and decided to move to the US.
After working in NY for 10 years, I was looking for a purpose of designing again, something meaningful and innovative which ultimately led me to Vancouver to work for Arc’teryx. I’ve been here nearly 5 years, where I oversaw both Veilance and Arc’teryx lifestyle products for the first few years, then moved into the creative director role for Veilance.
What’s the link between Arcteryx and VEILANCE and how does the relationship works between the two brands?
Arc’teryx mainline, LEAF (Law Enforcement & Armed Forces), and Veilance all work on the same design floor and share the knowledge and expertise in material R&D, product development and colour. Each brand designs for different intended end use and consumers.
About your creative process, I’m curious, do you start with a silhouette in true fashion or do you have more of an outdoor/performance brand approach starting with the user’s functional needs?
Identifying a problem and coming up with a solution is one aspect of how we design. It’s actually quite organic and messy at the beginning. I usually like to brainstorm as many ideas as possible with the cross functional team members. This is very important for me because we are an innovation driven brand. We tend to have so many ideas in material, styles, details, problem solving, etc. We take feedback from consumers and our commercial team about their needs, wants, and insights as well.
Line building for a season is like a puzzle. I really enjoy being creative in connecting the dots between design intent, feasibility, and brand relevancy. It’s critical that we have materials that meet our performance expectations. If the product doesn’t function as intended, it’s not Veilance.
Arcteryx..technical garments, Canada..sorry looks like you have it all for trail running ? Are you more into road or trail ?
Trail! I didn’t know that trail running could be so enjoyable until I moved to Vancouver. I get bored too easily with road running unless I’m visiting new cities and exploring different areas. It’s easier to fit a quick road run into the schedule though, and trail running is more accessible in our summer season because it gets really wet in the winter.
Any great sport challenge out there you would like to achieve one day?
Staying healthy with no injury is the main thing. As I get older, I like mixing different types of sport such as running, soccer, yoga, and climbing. With that said, I just joined division one soccer (football) league this winter and won the championship!
About running, common question to all our interviews, what’s your running shoes ?
Salomon for trail running. I want to check out their new S/LAB SENSE 8 with knit upper.
Nike Zoom Fly 3 for road running.
Did you ever considered designing running products with VEILANCE?
We are not looking to compete with Nike, Adidas, Salomon, Arc’teryx, Satisfy or other running brands. We are only interested in designing more versatile products that can help people navigate through different activities and environments. Running could be a part of that. For example, we think about high performing materials that are developed for running (ultra-lightweight and highly air permeable) then turn design something that could be worn for post morning run and then throughout your work day. You should try our Secant Composite Pants and Shorts, if you haven’t. These are the best styles we have for high output activities and also great for hot and humid summer conditions.
We’ve seen people arguing over the term streetwear these past few years. Do you still think that terms like sportswear, activewear, casual, are still relevant today? Don’t you think everything could be defined as “sportswear” somehow and the only difference we could really make is what is built to be functional and what is not. It’s hard to even put you in a box for example! Not that we want to, but that’s a great example of how much the fashion landscape has changed…
The terms such as streetwear, tech wear, athleisure, sportswear and so on are still relevant from cultural implications that are tied to a certain aesthetic. I agree with you that all these recent trends are heading in the same direction, which has more to do with performance. Who doesn’t wear sneakers these days?
I think we’re all set, thank you Taka, one more thing : Any other running aficionados you would love to see in this series of interview ?
I’m guessing you are already connected to most of the runners in the community that I know, but here’re a few:
- Patrick Stangbye
- Adam Katz
- Ryan Willms
- Stephen Man