Japanese winter apparel upstart seeks growth in Asian markets

Category: GARMENTS

Country: Japan

Four Seasons expands product line into golf wear and suits

By HIROKI HATANAKA, Nikkei staff writer | May 16, 2022 09:18 JST

SAPPORO -- Japanese apparel maker Four Seasons is capitalizing on its competitive clothing developed for snowboarders to expand its product line into golf wear, suits and tents, as it eyes growing Asian markets, especially China.

The Sapporo-based company founded in 2009 has grown by offering competitively priced clothing for snowboarders that offers superior waterproofing and insulation. The company's 43degrees brand takes its name from the latitude of the northern Japanese city of Sapporo: 43 degrees north. Four Seasons' founder and president, Katsuhiko Yamashita, is a Sapporo native.

The company holds costs down by dealing directly with clothing factories in China and Vietnam. The company sold 15,000 pieces of clothing, mostly priced around 10,000 yen ($76), in the 2021-22 season.

Four Seasons began online sales of its snowboarder wear in China about four years ago. That market accounted for 16% of the company's sales in the last fiscal year. China's winter sports market is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years, hitting 1 trillion yuan ($147 billion) by 2025.

The company started diversifying its product line around 2014 as a way to make use of fabric scraps. It began by making rain wear. The positive customer response encouraged it to broaden its offerings into tents and golf wear. Its golf wear has proved especially popular and now accounts for around 30% of Four Seasons' total sales.

It has also come up with suits made from materials for the winter sports market, with blazers priced around 40,000 yen. Shunsuke Natori, an apparel buyer at Daimaru Sapporo department store, says Four Seasons' nylon suits handle moisture well. "They are competitive with rivals," Natori said.

Levanga Hokkaido, a local professional basketball team, has adopted Four Seasons' fabric for the travel suits its players wear to away games.

The company's materials boast excellent water-resistance and protection against the cold. "We are confident about the water-repellent performance of our suits," said Daisuke Numata, who is in charge of marketing functional suits for Four Seasons. In a demonstration, he poured water onto one of the company's suits, which promptly beaded up and rolled off.

The company's clothing offers excellent insulation as well. A company experiment showed that the air temperature near the body remained at around 18 C even if the person wearing its clothing remained inactive for one hour with the surrounding air temperature at minus 20 C.

The quality of Four Season's products has impressed a number of ski resort operators in Japan. Niseko Tokyu Grand Hirafu, a resort in Kutchan, Hokkaido, selected Four Seasons products for its rental ski wear, while Sapporo Kokusai Ski Resort in the city supplies its ski school instructors with the company's clothing.

In 2017, Four Seasons began offering high-performance snow gear. The company worked with its factory in China to develop a high-performance fabric with better waterproofing and elasticity, incorporating advice from winter sports instructors at Niseko. Its matching top and bottom snowboard outfit goes for about 50,000 yen, half the price of rival products offered by major Western manufacturers.

Four Seasons focuses on online sales. Its showroom Sapporo, opened in 2016, does not sell products. It is designed exclusively to allow customers to examine the sizes, colors and other properties of its products. This approach helps the company cut costs by reducing expenses for labor, inventory management and product stocks. "One big advantage of an online-focused sales approach is that you can get market feedback before actual sales," said Yamashita. "You can assess customer responses from their try-on experiences [at the store] and decide on production volumes."

With a staff of just three people, Four Seasons generated 248 million yen in sales in the year through September 2021 and an operating profit of 13 million yen. The company is aiming for sales of 300 million yen in the year ending in September 2022, hoping its expanded product line will lift revenues.

Courtesy: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Consumer/Japanese-winter-apparel-upstart-seeks-growth-in-Asian-markets