I have been following a mysterious Japanese shoemaker, When for years. The model caught my attention is this one.
Then I browsed all its offerings and I confess they are all beauties.
I cannot help but contacting the shoemaker behind, Kota Kobayashi to know his story.
Could you please introduce yourself, such as age, hometown, education, hobby and so on?
I was born in 1994 and I am 30 years old.
My hometown is Nagano, Japan. I attended an agricultural high school, where I studied landscaping.
After that, I enrolled in Esperanza Shoe School in Asakusa, Tokyo, a district known for shoemaking.
I don’t really have particular hobbies, but I love thinking about shoes, and I also enjoy wine.
When and how did you fall in love with dress shoes?
When I was in my second year of high school, I saw a pair of shoes from a brand called forme at a local clothing select shop.
Although there were several shoes lined up in the store, only that pair seemed to shine—it had an aura about it.
That was the very first moment in my life when I felt drawn to shoes.
Soon after, I went to Tokyo to meet the founder of forme, and while listening to him speak, I realized I wanted to become a shoemaker myself.
What is your learning experience of shoemaking?
I entered Esperanza Shoe School and studied there for two years.
However, I did not graduate.
For my graduation project, I took a rather radical approach: I created shoes for humanity in the year 2045, when people would be digitized and live without physical bodies.
Instead of making tangible shoes, I presented them in a dark room with three monitors projecting shoe images, accompanied by loud music.
In the end, the project received no “technical” score, and I was not approved to graduate.
I still remember leaving the school in despair.
When did you decide to build your own brand?
After leaving school, I started job hunting and received a job offer.
The position was in shoe planning, but I was told I would first need to spend about two years working on the sales floor.
That was not what I truly wanted to do, so I declined the offer.
I then asked forme, the brand that had inspired me, if I could train under them, but unfortunately it was not possible.
Six months later, in September 2015, I founded When.
You are an independent shoemaker, or you have a team behind When?
I run When by myself. The only parts I outsource are upper stitching and pattern making, which I entrust to skilled artisans I can rely on. Everything else I handle personally.
Could you describe the concept of your lasts and patterns?
Not all of my customers are shoe enthusiasts. Many did not know what a truly good shoe fit felt like.
That’s why When’s lasts are not overly tight. The concept is to hold firmly at three key points—the heel, the arch, and the instep—while allowing the rest to feel relaxed.
In terms of design, I focus on flowing curves.
When I put a pen on the last, I let the pen move in the direction it naturally wants to go—that is my design philosophy.
Some customers tell me my shoes have a feminine quality, though I am not particularly conscious of that myself.
What I do keep in mind are images of beautifully flowing water, air, or wind.
And of course, imagining the individual customer also plays an essential role in my design process.
When provides bespoke and MTO, which one is more desired?
I started offering Made-to-Order around 2020, and since then it has become very popular.
Currently, about 80% of orders are MTO and 20% are bespoke.
Bespoke orders are often from female customers.
What is the plan for next 5 years?
In the future, I would like to hold trunk shows overseas and connect with shops that would carry When shoes.
I am particularly interested in doing trunk shows in Asia, where fashion has been growing rapidly in recent years, as well as in the United States.
Price
Made-to-Order: from JPY 176,000 – Delivery in about 5 months
Bespoke: from JPY 385,000 – Delivery in about 12 months
