COVERCHORD's latest feature is an interview with Ryo Kashiwazaki of Hender Scheme

Tokyo based online retailer COVERCHORD have released an interview with Ryo Kashiwazaki, the founder of Hender Scheme, founded in 2010 as a footwear brand that now includes other accessories and homeware. The interview sheds some light on the backround of Kashiwazaki as well as the begining of his brand and the inspirations behind it.

Check out a few photos and excerpts above and below, and read the whole interview over at COVERCHORD

"As a university student looking for part time work, Kashiwazaki came across a recruitment ad that led to a job at a shoe workshop. It was through this job that he would learn the fundamentals of shoemaking. While Hender Scheme now sells a broad range of accessories and lifestyle goods, the fact that shoes are at the center of the lineup stems from Kashiwazaki’s time at the workshop. In spite of a solid grounding in the craft of shoemaking, Kashiwazaki claims it was anything but plain sailing during the early days of the company. 

“The toughest thing was dealing with the craftsmen. I think there is a difficult side to any artisan. They’re so focused on the process of construction, there are very few people who are sensitive to things like the overall look or the balance of the whole piece. Also, for a shoe craftsman it’s seen as a virtue to give something a beautiful finish. But for us that’s not necessarily the most important thing. I quickly learned I wouldn’t be able get my point across right away, so at the beginning I just had to deal with getting yelled at a lot,” Kashiwazaki recalls.