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"Free socks! They stay dry, are comfortable and stay fresh. Great on the train." This was the pitch major sock manufacturer Okamoto made at Tokyo Station as commuting businessman came and went in an unending stream. The sales staff turned out in droves from their Nara headquarters on March 4th and 5th in a campaign to promote their men’s sock line Super Sox. "This event is how we will get a major foothold in the national market. We have to be successful," said participant Jiro Mizutani earnestly. Mizutani, 48, is the manager of the brand development team and has been involved with Super Sox since the planning and development stage.
The foot odor- and moisture-eliminating Super Sox is a result of Okamoto’s dedicated pursuit of a comfortable wearing experience. Developed as a product in Okamoto’s first brand line, Super Sox had an advanced release in western Japan in May 2001. With prices starting at 800 yen ($7) a pair, it was a high-end sock line, but favorable sales growth indicates that at least 800,000 pairs will be sold in 2004. What makes this brand unique is the proprietary material "Breathe Fiber" developed by Okamoto. In contrast to Okamoto’s conventional bacteria-resistant, odor-eliminating sock created by adding chemicals to blended fabric, Breathe Fiber is created by a specially processed wool. By going back to the basics, Okamoto has turned a conventional material into an outstandingly moisture-absorbent, transpiring sock with a smooth feel that overturns the defies image of wool.
Following their success in western Japan, Okamoto launched sales in eastern Japan this spring. Their nationwide success hinged on their campaign at Tokyo Station. Okamoto targeted businessmen traveling on the Shinkansen train. Their hope was that men who had long sock-wearing days would feel the difference. The response far exceeded their expectations. Okamoto had planned to distribute 4,000 pairs, but ended up distributing 7,000. "It seems there are truly a lot of people bothered by foot odor and moisture. Our product is sure to be a hit nationwide," Mizutani said with conviction, and recalled an anecdote from five years before.
In February 1999, sock manufacturer Okamoto surveyed three hundred consumers about their awareness of hygiene. Okamoto aimed to receive feedback on the mid-term business plan started the previous year as part of the company’s 50th anniversary and use the survey results for new product development. The most common response to "What concerns you when you wear socks for an extended period of time?" was "moisture" at 76.1%. Next was "odor" at 70.6%. Clearly, these two problems concerned the majority of consumers.
To Mizutani in development, the survey results were no trivial matter. "I have a problem with sweaty, smelly feet, and my wife wouldn’t let me inside when I got home." His wife would tell him to take his socks off before he came inside because his feet smelled. The first thing he had to upon coming home was throw his socks into the washer. This daily problem brought the survey respondents’ worries close to Mizutani’s heart.
There are numerous sweat glands on the sole of the foot, and the feet alone can produce a cup (200 ml) of sweat in a single day. Along with sweat, fatty acids from inside the body collect in the shoes, causing bacterial growth and creating odor. "If that weren’t enough, Japan is a humid country. A businessman wears leather shoes all day at work, and conditions inside his shoes deteriorate—it’s as humid as a tropical rainforest in there." Recognizing the problem of damp, odorous feet as a national problem, Mizutani rethought product development, forgetting everything he knew about shoes to approach it with a fresh perspective.
Mizutani had devoted himself to product planning since he joined Okamoto in 1978. He used his own ideas to handle a range of products and put them on the market. He had developed the habit of considering a product successful whenever it began selling well. However, looking back, Mizutani realizes that those were all brand products or tie-ins to mass media characters that stressed design but ignored functionality. "It’s important to have customers purchase a product because of image, but we have to create socks with the functionality that consumers really want." His mind made up, Mizutani headed for the R&D department.
The usual material used for socks is a cotton-acrylic blend. Tsuneo Kawagoe, 48, was head manager of the R&D department when Jiro Mizutani brought his plan to develop a moisture- and odor-eliminating sock. Kawagoe wondered, "How do we process material whose main component is cotton?" Okamoto, which also produces women’s legwear, had previously coated the material’s surface with a wool solution during the development of moisture-resistant pantyhose. "People usually think of wool as a warm material used in winter socks, but it’s also great at absorbing and transpiring moisture," said Kiyokazu Sugu, 52, of the fiber section that studies raw materials. Turning his attention to wool, he decided to coat a cotton-acrylic blend with wool. Although he found proof of moisture absorbency, he was unable to confirm any transpiration effect.
They tried again using a ready-made wool blend. It controlled moisture and odor and had a pleasant texture, but the material itself was expensive. "Creating a product from this would run up costs. We have to develop a material within the company," Kawagoe realized. He and Sugu turned to developing a new material using wool. Without processing, wool’s loose fibers cause it to scratch the skin, and friction causes piling. They began working on binding the fibers to prevent these problems.
Taking wool clothing that holds its shape as an example, they hit on the idea of using a special chemical to bind the fibers. By mixing a binding agent into wool, piling was prevented and the fabric had a lighter feel. Through the process of trial and error, Kawagoe and Sugu used a fabric softener to create a soft feel, creating the unique new material
"Breathe Fiber."
"It’s wool, but not wool," said Kawagoe, proud of the new material’s properties.
In July 2000, men’s socks using Breathe Fibers were unveiled in a planning conference with about fifty staff members.
"What material do you think this is?" asked Sugu. Staff members’ responses ranged from "cotton" to "a hemp blend," but nobody correctly guessed the material.
Everyone was startled to hear it was 100% wool.
In an emotional moment, Jiro Mizutani of brand development took the prototype Super Sox, created with Breathe Fiber, into his hands. He tried them on immediately. "The socks felt so smooth, I couldn’t believe they were woolen. They keep my feet cool." After wearing Super Sox all day, he didn’t notice any moisture, nor did he have to worry about odor. Mizutani would wash his socks every day after wearing and confirmed that they remained effective and prevented piling. "Once people try them, they’ll stop wearing other socks," thought Mizutani. With his consumer’s perspective of socks, his confidence in developing a successful line grew.
Mizutani wasn’t the only one beaming about the advent of Super Sox. CEO Tetsuji Okamoto, 55, experienced the socks’ quality firsthand by wearing a pair for five days straight without washing them. He said, "Unless we break free from dependence on ready-made brands, we might as well not be a manufacturer." In Japan’s sock industry, which sells more than 1 billion pairs a year, Okamoto holds the position of the top sock manufacturer with sales of a hundred million pairs a year. Since their founding in 1934, however, Okamoto had focused on licensed brand products, and establishing their own brand was a long-held dream.
Okamoto’s corporate philosophy extols contribution to society. "Behind company profit is customer satisfaction. Until now, Okamoto has tended to overemphasize design and famous brands. But it’s through pursuit of highly functional, high-quality products that we can succeed in contributing to society," said the CEO. By coming together as a company and devoting themselves to this goal, Okamoto created Super Sox.
When the campaign in Tokyo Station came to an end, messages from about 700 customers from all over Japan who had tested Super Sox flooded the company. "The socks don’t smell or stick to my feet, and they’re very comfortable." "I feel like I finally found the perfect sock." "I don’t need brand socks anymore." Nearly all the messages expressed admiration and praise." Mizutani read over each one while running it against the advertising copy for Super Sox in his mind.
Standing Up to a Nation’s Problem
