History-2
Birth of our own brand.

The year was 1986. At 28, Shinya Kaneko had taken over management of the company from his father and incorporated what had been a sole proprietorship. The very next year, he launched the first eyeglass frames branded with the company's name. This was the beginning of the changes that led to KANEKO OPTICAL, which included the integration of planning, design, retail, and even in-house manufacturing. 

Passing his days in solitary sales activity, Kaneko felt acutely the reality that the company would never be able to change if they just continued as a secondary distributor, depending on big trading companies to supply them with products. As he searched for solutions and considered the future of the business, Kaneko resolved to create a new value for eyeglasses. 

At the time, a boom was underway in brand licensing by the major eyeglass companies. Manufacturers paid huge license fees to famous apparel brands for the right to stamp and sell their glasses with those brand names (logos). 

Kaneko was skeptical. Few of these designs were eye-catching. Most were similar in shape and quality. Surveying the opticians' shops flooded with bland designs, differentiated only by logos, Kaneko thought, "If I made my own glasses, this is what I would do...," and began to imagine his ideal glasses.

Kaneko's biggest asset at the time was a discerning eye. Having traveled to every corner of the country visiting all manner of retailers, he had gradually honed his taste, and was confident in his ability to judge glasses as a coordinating accessory for fashion.  

Observation, validation, and reflection. Years of those activities produced the company's first original branded product, called BLAZE. 
With this as his calling card, Kaneko set out from the hinterlands for Tokyo, his city of dreams. He focused especially on popular opticians in the trendy Shibuya-Harajuku area, where fashion sense is high. But for the first couple of years after launching his self-taught brand, retailers brusquely turned him away, telling him the glasses were "completely hopeless." Each time, he modified the designs, refining them with his unique taste and creativity, and by the third year began to produce a steady stream of well-received products.  

This was how Kaneko refined his originality and sensibility, values he still considers important in artisanal manufacturing.

Declaring that originality, Kaneko launched BLAZE, which achieved status as a trend-setting brand focused on design and fashion. Licensed brands were a mainstay at the time, but retailers offering design conscious eyeglasses were emerging, and industry conditions were beginning to change.  

In 1997, Kaneko launched an even edgier new brand: SPIVVY. If BLAZE was original, SPIVVY wanted to be "like nothing you've ever seen" -- a culture shock to customers picking them up for the first time. In conventional eyeglass manufacturing, frames are polished and edges rounded. With these plastic frames, edges were intentionally sharpened and emphasized. This design freshness and technique drew fans, and the brand grew to symbolize KANEKO OPTICAL. Based on these progressive designs, the company began a global expansion, exhibiting at major trade shows overseas and gaining unexpected support in Europe and the US. 

This allowed KANEKO OPTICAL to shift its focus to product development and distribution of its own brand. Developing products using its own planning and design capabilities meant the company could create its own sales channel. After more than 15 years as a dedicated salesman, plying the back roads of Japan and struggling to break out of last place, Kaneko had found a foothold for the reforms he envisioned.