SHOE STOOL STORY

一人へ宛てたスツール、だった。

Words by Kenji Jinnouchi, Photographs by Hiroshi Mizusaki,Edit by Masafumi Tada

Koichi Futatsumata is a product designer, who has been one of the very close friends of Go Fujito. He designed “SHOE STOOL” to celebrate his friend’s fashion brand “FUJITO”’s 10th anniversary in 2012.
This stool looks very compact and handy to carry compared with other regular stools.
Besides for use as a stool when wearing shoes, some of its relaxing and useful features are:
- A thick bar pipe used for the foot rest. (Very helpful when you tie your laces!)
- A convenient storage area inside the bar pipe for shoe care items such as shoe cream or a polishing brush.

In 2011, Fujito asked him to design something for the celebration, which was a year before the anniversary year, there was only one simple request; “Something related to fashion”.
Fujito said: “Since he created the products such as “CONTENTS” earlier, I knew he had great imagination. I just expected that he would be able to make something incredible if the request was simple.”

Around the end of December, 2012, “FUJITO” was getting ready for a new shoe collection for the following year, and finally, Futatsumata came up with the idea of a stool relevant to shoes.
“As represented by Sori Yanagi’s butterfly stool, Japanese have designed stools for when we wear shoes. Of course they are not too space-occupying but, because of the Japanese housing conditions, I thought it could be much smaller. Also I wanted some space for shoe cleaning items in the design because I guess almost everyone just puts them away in their shoe boxes like I do. It seems we can’t find any other suitable place to set them.” Futatsumata says.
Its great features have been designed because he had some pet peeves. He found it interesting to solve these issues with his stool. After, he sketched out some roughly designed pictures from any ideas that came to mind.

sketch
The main constituting parts are the round seat, the foot rest, and the dish beneath the seat (which seems good for keeping little things in). Besides those, the other two legs, and the support rod form the whole stool.
Free from any of result-oriented marketing or modification request, there were no additions or changes in the pure design. After Fujito saw the finished product, he could say nothing but, “Wow, just awesome!”
Actually, because its appearance was so unique, he didn’t realize the full potential of the stool immediately.

At the FUJITO’s exhibition, people showed the same kind of reaction as Fujito’s, however, 20 of the stools got sold out soon after they started selling at his store “Directors”.
Soon afterward, unexpectedly, Wallpaper in London contacted them and offered to do an article about SHOE STOOL. Also, OPINION CIATTI in Italy proposed to collaborate in the world-wide market, which is now underway for release this September.

However, there is one different specification from the original stool.
“The originals are chromate conversion coated because I thought it would add a nice retro look after it had been used for years. On the other hand, the first thing that CIATTI suggested was a protective coating from dirt. The newly designed stools are going to be colored with silver or gold paint, and some are covered with copper foil, and finally finished with the same clear paint that is used for car body protection. The reason we decided on such a protective coating is that people in Europe have a culture of wearing shoes inside their homes and they would presumably be using SHOE STOOL in bedrooms or near closets. So, this would be an easy way to keep it clean. This was one of the utmost concerns for furniture for them.” says Futatsumata.

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SHSC_113_MG_2284_S photo:Takumi Ota

In April 2014, Futatsumata flew to Europe to view the re-born stool at the Milanosalone for the first time.
He could see the Italian dedication all over the product.
“It was beyond my expectations. My description would be that it was showing its strong presence as an art work, in a slightly different way from sophistication.”
People there looked so curious and amazed with its features after sitting on the tiny stool.
Fujito is quoted as saying; “I guess people in Europe have ‘the smaller, the better’ culture since a lot of them like a compact design. It can be very opposite to the American culture. ”
Futatsumata continued with a story that he was impressed with by something he stumbled upon at the Milanosalone:

“A little girl was just sitting on the stool with both of her feet on the foot rest bar. It was so adorable! I found it very interesting that the bar would be helpful for children when they sit on it. That was something I didn’t expect!”
He hopes everyone can enjoy his stool. It isn’t just for shoes, it might even be good for a flower vase.

Even if it hadn’t led to any sales performance, they would have just been happy to share the story of how they produced the anniversary product, but actually now, it turned out to be a big business collaboration with OPINION CIATTI and coming back to them in Japan soon.
Fujito often suggests that we should bounce ideas off of people close to us, but they may have had no idea it would get so much attention from overseas.
Futatsumata said; “There was no pressure and I could just enjoy developing my idea because that was a request from my friend, Fujito. I couldn’t help thinking about it even while I was taking a shower or driving. I was just thrilled to think how surprised he was going to be. For business, I usually spend a lot of time on modifying work to make sure it comes out perfect, but, in my opinion, too much brushing up in designs kills the initial power of inspiration. Designs from powerful intuition sometimes wins the hearts and minds of people.”

The new chapter of the SHOE STOOL story has just begun.


Original Fujito version of SHOE STOOLs in 3 colors and OPINION CIATTI version (copper covered type), are now exhibited at FUJITO’s flag shop “Directors”, as one of the exhibitions of 10 DAYS/ FUKUOKA DESIGN RELAY until May 18, 2014.
Saturday, May 17: Fujito and Futatsumata’s cross talk event at Cafe galleria, Fukuoka. (Second half of the session will be the CENTRAL members talk event.)
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dss3 photo : Takato Shinohara



OPINION CIATTI
http://www.opinionciatti.com/


Go Fujito
The designer of “FUJITO”
In 1975, he was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki.
In 2002, he launched “FUJITO”.
In 2008, the flag shop “Directors” opened.
In 2014, he co-organized the exhibition “thought”
http://www.wstra.com


Koichi Futatsumata
Designer
He was born in Kagoshima prefecture in 1975. He runs “CASE-REAL” and “KOICHI FUTATSUMATA STUDIO”
Being based in Fukuoka and Tokyo, he designs furniture and interior accessories etc. for projects inside and outside of Japan.
http://www.casereal.com
http://www.futatsumata.com



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