This articles was originally published online on Ethical Fashion Japan in September 2012. It is edited and republished with permission.
Author and Interviewer: Hitomi Ito, Ethical Fashion Japan, Twitter: @EthicalJP
Photography: Kota Sugawara, from PASS THE BATON, Omotesando
Editing: Shirahime
PASS THE BATON is a new type of recycle shop with two locations, in the center of Tokyo – Marunouchi and Omotesando – both of which are on the leading edge of the economy and trends. Masamichi Toyama, the President of Smiles: Co. LTD., the company that runs PASS THE BATON, first received an offer to do something with a new commercial building in Marunouchi – Tokyo’s main business district, and only a stone’s throw away from the Japanese Imperial Palace gardens.
Toyama remembers that he always thought that there were no cool recycle shops in Tokyo. He also liked the idea of having a recycle shop in a very urban place like Marunouchi. So, he decided to create a new type of recycle shop, which would create an innovative new image of recycling.
Inside PASS THE BATON, there’s literally everything. There is general merchandise, books, clothes and more, just like in a garage sale. However, it is also like a sophisticated vintage shop filled with the owner’s favorites from Europe, and with the addition of the urban atmosphere, the store makes you feel like you are at a very special place indeed, where you will find something truly special.
So, what exactly is new with recycling here? How did he innovated recycling shops? Hitomi Ito from Ethical Fashion Japan (EFJ) investigated these questions in an interview with Mr. Toyama.
Ethical Fashion Japan (EFJ) As you said, we still all have the image that 3R (recycle, remake, reuse) things are not fashionable. Where do you think that comes from? How did PASS THE BATON overcome this image barrier?
I hence think it is kind of natural for a recycling shop to be disorganised, which as a consequence leads to the image of being ‘unfashionable’. However, when it comes to a vintage shops, there’s the professional buyer who chooses and judges which items are good enough for the shop, and which ones are not.
For PASS THE BATON, I intended to go between the recycle shop and the vintage shop. The customer who would bring in the items personally, plays the role of the buyer for PASS THE BATON. It is him or her who judges which items are suitable for this place. This place is not just like an ordinary recycling shop, but it has a unique atmosphere.
Also, the items for sale are presented not only through their pictures and the object itself, but also through a brief profile of the seller and a short anecdote about the item itself. I think this makes sellers feel like you can’t just bring everything and anything here.
While PASS THE BATON allows anyone to bring anything, the items are still judged by the seller him- or herself.
EFJ: In this place, you sell literally everything: books, tableware, fashion items, Japanese antique home wares, European antiques, sunglasses, accessories … But there’s a unique atmosphere that implies a message about what kind of items are suitable for this place. When you told your design team about the vision you had for PASS THE BATON, what kinds of things did you tell them in order to describe what you had in mind?
Toyama: My keywords were “Age, Nationality – Unknown“. I wanted to make it feel like treasure hunting, or travelling around the world. When you go around a corner, you may find yourself in a cave. Then when you go around another corner, you may find yourself in an Amazon jungle. Something like that. There may be piles of antique kitchenwares. There may be piles of antique brooches, as if you just found piles of gold.
More precisely, I had made myself some time ago a present: A package of chocolate and a soba noodle cup. I showed those items to the interior designer, and said: “I want to sell soba-noodle cups like these”.
I think that normally you would not choose soba-noodle cups or any Japanese traditional antique item as a present, because it depends greatly on individual taste whether it is liked or not. However, if it’s wrapped neatly and it has refreshments like chocolate with it, it makes it a lot more suitable to just about anyone. Also, it offers a new perspective onto it. I described it as “bewitched” – bewitching an unwanted item and presenting a brand new look.
EFJ: In terms of presenting a new look, you do a lot of collaborations with odd items and dead stock from brands.
So we collaborated with Akira Minagawa, the designer of minä perhonen. We had his illustration printed on them, and we sell them. We added a new light to what was supposed to be garbage, to make it look better. Japan’s production checks are too strict. Even a small difference is not acceptable. It is too sad to see all these items thrown away, even though they are entirely fine and good to use.
As another example: We did an in-shop dead stock fabric shop with theatre products, and also sold remade fashion items using their dead stock fabrics. Inside the ‘Theatre Products‘ warehouse, there are vast amount of fabric stocks that they created in collaboration with Japanese factories and artisans each season.
If the fabric just stayed inside the warehouse, no one could figure out what to do with all these fabrics. However, by doing these kinds of in-shop specials, the brand could present fabric in a new way. By selling the fabric itself, the customers will figure out themselves how to best use it, and find and add new value to it. By collaborating with us, we offer brands and shops a chance to create a new look, add value and sell otherwise ‘useless’ items.
This is what we call “relight“. We’ll have more of these.
EFJ: So, what is new about PASS THE BATON is, that this is the place lets people be actors in passing on the baton of culture, not just passing on items. The customer himself chooses the true story to be passed on as his “personal culture”, or designers add value to what is supposed to be thrown away. This is the place for each one of us to be bewitched and relight the items.
Does that mean that products can’t add value or stories by themselves?
Mottainai is the sense of regret that occurs when the value of a product or resource is not properly utilized, and hence wasted. When I was still planning PASS THE BATON, I actually packed two bags filled with shirts that I no longer wore and I went to a recycling shop to sell them. The two bags of shirts were priced at 980 JPY. Indeed, selling them is better than throwing them away, but I brought the shirts to the shop in first instance because I felt it was mottainai to throw them away, and I wished them to be utilized again properly. In that sense, 980 JPY wasn’t equal to my emotions.
Anyone who brings items to recycling shops, despite they no longer wear them, still would like to cherish the story and memory they have attached to them. Conventional recycling shops won’t evaluate the story and emotions that each person experienced with these items.
Some may be their favorites, but maybe they have chosen to sell an item simply because the shirt is now ‘too young’ for their age. Perhaps one was bought in Italy, where a gentlemen visited for his honeymoon. Can 50 JPY or 100 JPY per item reflect the feelings and memories that are attached to it?
EFJ: How does PASS THE BATON properly handle the mottainai feelings that the customers have about the items?
Toyama: At PASS THE BATON, we first listen to the seller, to find out what price they want to sell their items for. Then, our staff negotiates to reach a price agreement for both sides. For example, you can sell a vintage shirt that you bought in Italy during your honeymoon at 2000 to 3000 JPY, which may be priced at 80 JPY at conventional recycling shops.
Also, we have the customer who purchased the item write a message back to the seller. We ask the customer to write how he or she would like to use the item, and why he or she wanted the item. Then we deliver the cards to the exhibitor. They really love this.
EFJ: As the company Smiles:, you first developed the soup chain Soup Stock Tokyo. Did that affect how you created PASS THE BATON?
Toyama: Soup Stock Tokyo is a fast-food chain. By developing Soup Stock Tokyo, I was able to get away from sticking to what I don’t really need to, like limiting the target cluster. For Soup Stock Tokyo, I had to make it open to anyone as a fast-food chain: foreigners, the elderly, teenagers, businessmen, anybody can come in. However, at the same time, I wanted to have a sophisticated image. It was a very nice challenge to make a shop that is non-exclusive, but cool and sophisticated.
EFJ: You also develop fashion brands under the Smiles: umbrella. What do you think is important for fashion brands in this age?
Toyama: I try to be open. We will launch a new brand, my panda, using a micro-funding system provided by PARCO (a popular fashion department chain). About 70 people have invested in this brand in advance, and while creating the items, we had meetings with all the investors.
However, since this was quite an interesting system, it was more focused on business media rather than on fashion media, so most of the investors were businessmen, which wasn’t the primary target of the brand. In these kinds of cases, you may think you might not want to listen to what people outside of the target may say. But I found it really fun to listen to them, and I was simply very happy to see them say “Kawaii! (Cute!)” and “Very nice!” as the product was made.
It is the same thing as Soup Stock Tokyo – it’s non-exclusive. I love exclusive restaurants and brands, but by being non-exclusive and trying to listen to the “outsiders” you are able to find new ways, and this is a very fun way to develop business.
EFJ: You are also an artist. Are there any books/music/artists that you would recommend in order to feel the atmosphere in Japan now?
Toyama: I liked the painted bus by Ichiro Endo. It has “GO FOR FUTURE” painted really big on the side of the bus. I think that is kind of what is needed in Japan right now, in this heavy atmosphere after the 3.11 earthquake. Also, we recently installed art pieces by Kohei Nawa at our office.
EFJ: Do you think there is a change in how how people accept the idea of recycling since the 3.11 earthquake?
Toyama: Well, I don’t know. The sense of “mottainai” is within anyone, any time. But maybe we all try be be more honest and live in accordance with that meaning and sense.
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EFJ Afterthought: What sticks to the image of ‘recycled’, may be the sense of ‘affluence’, which again allows people to take for granted that we have everything we need in our lives. This image may have been the reason that made ‘recycled’ something too common to appreciate.
PASS THE BATON reminds people that each item has something to do with someone specific in his or her moment of life, and therefore contains an emotional connection to that person.
What makes PASS THE BATON special is that every item in the shop offers a chance to the customer to feel, and cherish – to ‘relight’ – the personal relationship with the item.
Another thing that the shop also reminds us of, is the fact that no one else, except for the actual person who uses the item, can add value or a story to a product, and become part of its heritage.
