New work wear for convenience and style

Respected work wear brand Toraichi has teamed up with 7/11 to offer a line of clothing and accessories that will be available exclusively at the convenience store. Just when we thought that the convenience store had stocked everything we could possibly want (cosmetics, stationary, fresh green tea), they come up with something new that we didn’t even know we could need.

The very reasonably priced “Red Ear” series features t-shirts (¥750), hand towels (¥399), boxer briefs (¥780), work gloves (¥350), and a durable multi-use case (¥580) for clipping your mobile phone or cigarettes to your belt. All items are styled to match Toraichi’s “Fighting spirit for working” motto that sums up the general construction worker aesthetic of traditional tobi pants and tabi shoes in dark monotone.

Meanwhile manufacturer Marugen is working to change the throwaway image of work wear through its new website Tobikakumei (Work wear Revolution). The one-month-old site specializes in top quality 100% Japanese-made apparel of the kind traditionally worn by construction workers.

With images of stylish young men in ballooning tobi pants, the site also features advice from the resident “work up coordinator.” With prices starting at ¥4,500 and reaching upwards of ¥8,000, these items are significantly more expensive than the usual work gear, but the fashion and quality element means that their appeal has the potential to extent beyond those who actually need the clothes for work.

For a more in-depth look at construction worker fashion, check out PingMag’s excellent article on the subject.

Tags: Convenience Stores, Fashion

Highschoolers making healthier convenience stores

We’ve been noting for sometime that convenience stores are working to offer healthy alternatives to the fried chicken and barbecue pork buns that have given them a reputation for fast and fattening food. So what is interesting about the new “healthy lunchbox” available at Ministop convenience stores in the Kinki region isn’t so much the waistline friendly tofu hamburger and 15 different grain rice, but the fact that the product was conceived and developed by high school students.

The healthy lunchbox (¥430), pictured left, versus typical Ministop fare (¥128-¥240), right.

16 students from three Osaka City vocational high schools who participated in a business-training tutorial proposed the idea last October and spent five months developing a sample product that was tested this February. The final shelf-ready lunchbox will debut on May 13th. Good work kids!

Tags: Convenience Stores, FMCG, food, health

Favorite Meiji snack food immortalized in gold

On the subject of convenience store nostalgia, every child of the 80’s is familiar with Meiji Confectionery’s “Kinoko no Yama” mushroom-shaped biscuits. From this month, the favorite after school snack, which debuted in 1975, will also be available in silver and 18K gold coating instead of the usual chocolate.

Ease Design has released an accessory line in collaboration with Meiji that includes pendants and rings inspired by the bite-size snack that start at ¥10,000 and go up to ¥25,000, allowing fans of Kinoko no Yama to wear their devotion around their neck.

The cute accessories will be sold at select boutiques like United Arrows.

Not long after the press release went out, I spotted these mushroom-themed accessories at teen fashion center Shibuya 109.

Could mushrooms (snack-food inspired or not) be the next big fashion statement?

Tags: Convenience Stores, Fashion, food, nostalgia

BeamStationary: Beams + 7-11 and some retro

Convenience store chain 7-11 is collaborating with fashion and lifestyle brand Beams to sell exclusive stationary from the BeamStationary line. Like many of 7-11’s recent campaigns, the line is overtly retro and features notebooks, pens, markers, folders, stick glue, and even label makers that are just like the same items that kids had in the 80’s, but branded for Beams.

From what we’ve seen in the stores, many of the items (such as the pencil case) sold out almost immediately, especially due to the prime display location in front of the register compounded by high traffic from the under-30 set eager for 70’s and 80’s nostalgia.

These pieces aren’t cheap either. With the “floating” pens going for about $6 apiece, they’re a far cry from the similar items I used to get out of vending machines for under a dollar back in the day.

Tags: 7-11, Beams, Convenience Stores, Retail, Retro, Stationary

Japan Inc. Jan/Feb: Convenience Store Trends

CScout Japan wrote a piece on convenience store trends for the January and February issue of the bimonthly Japanese-market oriented magazine Japan Inc.

Click the picture to read more…

Tags: Convenience Stores, Japan Inc.