2024.04.12

The Pleasure of Continued Use: The Appeal of KEYUCA's Popular Backpacks

KEYUCA is a well-known Japanese lifestyle brand that sells interior and fashion accessories. Almost everyone has seen, heard, or visited it at least once.

The 'N Water-Repellent Light Shell Backpack' launched by KEYUCA has been hugely popular. In addition to interior accessories, KEYUCA has been focusing on its apparel business in recent years and attracting a lot of attention.

We interviewed Yoya Yoshika and Yasuhide Hada from the KEYUCA business unit of KAWAJUN Co., Ltd. to delve into the charm of KEYUCA and its products that fit our lifestyle.

PROFILE

Yoya Yoshika

KAWAJUN Co., Ltd., KEYUCA business unit
Brand Director

PROFILE

Yasuhide Hada

KAWAJUN Co., Ltd., KEYUCA Business Unit
Development Business Unit, Product Development Group Leader

Providing the Satisfaction that Comes with Continued Use

As this is our first interview with your company, could you first tell us about your business?

YoshikaThe company was founded in 1974 and we are in our 50th year. The KEYUCA business division was launched in 2000, and we opened our first store in Kanagawa Prefecture in April 2000, marking our 24th anniversary this year.

Our parent company, KAWAJUN, is a manufacturing company that handles display racks and fixtures for large supermarkets. From this, we have leveraged our technology and experience to launch KEYUCA in the BtoC market.

Additionally, while we might be thought of as a select shop, in fact, about 90% of KEYUCA's products are original. Almost all our products bear the KEYUCA logo, and we have a unique style where we sell products that can only be purchased at KEYUCA.

Although the design is simple, each product has its designer's vision and various stories incorporated in it.

KEYUCA promotes a 'Simple & Natural' lifestyle and creates 'just right' items to make daily life comfortable. Could you please tell us about the circumstances that led to the development of these businesses?

YoshikaFrom the start, KEYUCA has developed original products related to daily life, such as household goods, furniture, and curtains.

We strengthened our fashion accessories around 2010, after the Lehman shock and changes in the environment. To increase the frequency of visits, we moved into a new area. We began by expanding our footwear from popular slippers and then to socks, further to bags, shoes, fashion accessories, and in 2020, we expanded to apparel, gradually broadening our range.

'Simple & Natural' has been at the core of KEYUCA since the start of the brand, but we realized we had strengths that couldn't be fully communicated by that alone, and we decided to focus on 'creating what is just right'.

This is our belief that we want to give our customers a satisfaction that comes not from the moment of purchase, but from continued use.

You may have had a shopping experience that was a failure, or purchases that you realized their worth later, right? What KEYUCA aims for is not just a simple joy at the time of purchase, but a product that, after long use, gives you a feeling of being 'just right'.

We consider this philosophy to be our concept across all our products, not just apparel.

KEYUCA's 'N Water-Repellent Light Shell Backpack'

Tell us about the birth of KEYUCA's 'N Water-Repellent Light Shell Backpack', which has become a best-seller.

HadaThe currently sold Light Shell Backpack is a refined version of the original Shell Backpack. The initial concept was to develop a simple bag that can be used both for casual use and weekends.

We were aiming for a user-friendly, basic design that can be matched with any outfit, with the goal of making it a signature product of KEYUCA.