BIG JOHN

Founded in 1940's by Kotaro Ozaki as a sewing factory focused on the production of uniforms and work wear Big John are the original Japanese Jeans brand. From their base in Kojima, Japan they noticed that in the 1950's a demand for American jeans was growing, people were quickly buying up any jeans that they could get their hands on once they landed in Japan from the USA. These jeans, though, weren't cut exactly to local tastes and so needed adjusting with many coming to their sewing house to get this done. As trade regulations changed in the 1950s and 1960s they saw the opportunity to actually make their own jeans, importing denim from Canton Textile Mills and then from Cone Mills, probably the most reckoned and well known denim mill in the USA.
Through the '50 and 60's their jeans were made with US denim but in the early 19070's they team up with Kurabo and make their own denim for their jeans. This was the first denim jean produced solely in Japan, the KD-8 model. Throughout the '70s and '80s they continued to experiment and expand their range, making many different cuts of jean along with other work wear staples, in line with their original purpose but growing with it. In the 1990's they became one of the first denim houses to experiment with differing dyes and techniques, further growing their reputation as the great denim brand of Japan.