E-Commerce and Tokyo’s Changing Vintage Scene
This article was originally featured in the October 2024 issue of Connect.
Samuel Eng (Tokyo)
When it comes to Japanese fashion in Tokyo, beloved shopping districts have drawn much attention online. Harajuku has been a powerhouse for fashion since the 1980s, and remains center stage for some of Japan’s most interesting trends and threads. In recent years, Shimokitazawa and Koenji have also become popular areas to shop, boasting many secondhand clothing stores and vintage boutiques.
However, Tokyo’s vintage scene is not confined to its streets. According to Kanda Yusuke, “Most Japanese people within the industry source their clothes from the U.S., Thailand, and the Philippines.” At least, the bigger corporations do.
Kanda, the owner of Beatnik, has been running his secondhand clothing store near the Waseda train station for the past four years. Despite opening right after the height of the pandemic back in 2019 and 2020, his clothing store has been able to sustain itself well.
“My supplier visits Los Angeles, mostly, and brings me back vintage pieces from the ‘80s and ‘90s. We have some authentic band tees as well,” he says, pointing to a Rolling Stones print t-shirt that hangs off the back wall. The same wall is adorned with handmade leather goods on shelves and an impressive collection of vintage and high-end eyewear. The strategy of employing a buyer and/or closing shop to go overseas to buy vintage stock for a few days is common for independently-owned stores here in Japan.
“You can buy most of my goods on the Beatnik website as well. I upload listings of them whenever I can find the time.” According to Kanda, running a secondhand clothing store is incredibly time intensive. Once his buyer returns from the U.S., he must check each piece of clothing’s integrity, fix and maintain those with poorer conditions, put them in stock, and arrange them within his store, as well as put them up for sale online. While customers do regularly buy his goods from his physical store, his online sales also make up a good portion of his revenue.
“Running a physical store’s operations and having its salespeople manage the e-commerce website as part of day-to-day work has become the norm for many clothing stores here in Tokyo.”
Selling goods both online and in-store is common sense for any business owner. In Japan, an increasing number of websites and apps are being used for such sales. Big players in the market are BASE and Pay ID, with a significant number of vintage clothing stores in Shimokitazawa and Koenji using these online sale platforms to market their goods. Store owners have cited their easy-to-navigate webpage creation tools and extensive user base as the main reasons for their popularity. While the Mercari and Yahoo! Flea Market apps have dominated the market for everyday users, BASE and Pay ID have welcomed businesses. Running a physical store’s operations and having its salespeople manage the e-commerce website as part of day-to-day work has become the norm for many clothing stores here in Tokyo. The ability to take aesthetically pleasing photos of products and being knowledgeable of picture editing software are now just as prized as being a good salesperson in-store.
Kanda reasons that online apps’ effects on the market have increased the work of the average retail employee, giving leverage in the market to corporations that own multiple stores in popular locations. “If you go to Koenji and Shimokitazawa, you will realize that multiple stores are now owned by a single corporation. Independently owned places are getting fewer in number,” he explains. This is true: down the main shopping street in Koenji, you will see three Marco Polo stores, with a fourth in Setagaya. There are four Safari stores within the neighborhood. Little Trip To Heaven and Small Change, stores opposing each other on the main street, actually belong to the same organization under different brandings.
“These companies likely have a person that lives in the United States or Canada to give them regular big shipments, instead of a Japanese buyer that goes overseas for them. It cuts costs in the long term.” The sheer number of listings companies can upload onto e-commerce apps is daunting, especially in comparison to a single individual. More listings online give big companies a higher likelihood of having their products seen and sold.
“For some, the online web store comes before, not after the establishment of a physical store location.”
While companies have reaped the rewards of algorithms, individuals looking to break into the market have also benefited from these apps. For some, the online web store comes before, not after the establishment of a physical store location. With the increasing trend of e-commerce for fashion, those who cannot yet afford but aspire to have their own store start off by selling their products online. PURITY, which newly opened in Meguro City earlier this year, started off as an online store for a few years before transitioning into a storefront business. Rabble Tokyo, which opened in Harajuku this year, had also long operated as online-only. While just about anyone can go on Mercari to shop for clothes from their favorite brand or search for a specific clothing item, some shoppers in Japan pay a premium for the curation that secondhand clothing shops provide. Rabble’s online site, for example, lists the approximate decade of an item’s production with detailed explanations of its make. Japanese consumers recognise this trend and are buying into it, though hardly at the detriment of stores that sell more widely appreciated stock without overt curation. According to Kanda, Beatnik primarily has older patrons who well understand American vintage already.
“Many of my main customers are in their 30s and 40s,” he explains. “I have some high-brand goods as well, but those take a while to sell. The day-to-day sales are from the quality pieces my buyer vets and sends me.” The quality of fabric, the history of the clothing label, and even the age of the zipper on a blouson can be key factors that a Japanese customer considers before making a purchase. These things can only be seen and felt in person, an experience that is limited to the brick and mortar of secondhand clothing stores.
While e-commerce platforms continue to pave the way for up-and-coming fashion businesses to get a start here in Japan, they are only a supplement to brick and mortar shops for an already fashion privy community that has been shopping secondhand for decades.
Samuel has spent the last three years speaking to and getting to know local business owners around Tokyo. He is a fashion enthusiast and collector.
Kanda was born in Hokkaido and moved to Tokyo in recent years to start Beatnik. He now owns two stores in Tokyo and Shizuoka.