Outdoor Gear That's Out of This World

The gravitational pull of Goldwin, the hidden gem of Japanese GORP.

The roots of Goldwin, currently a 115.05 billion Yen Japanese sportswear manufacturer, humbly begin in post-war Japan. Tosaku Nishida opened a small knitting factory called Tsuzawa Knit Fabric Manufacturer in 1950 in the town now known as Oyabe City. Having lost two brothers in WWII, Nishida channeled his previous experience in textile mills to open the factory with his brother-in-law, who had been wounded in the war.

Like many Japanese heritage brands, Tsuzawa Knit Fabric Manufacturer earned its reputation by doing simple things at a high level. Two years after it was founded, Nishida decided to focus its output on sports gear, making ski pants and baseball jerseys out of hardy wool, not too much of a departure from the high-quality hiking socks that helped put it on the map.

“I saw interest in sports surging in Japan after the war. Sports not only soothed the distress of the people in but restored their vigor,” said the late Nishida in a statement on Goldwin’s website. “I also saw sports as playing an important role in expanding and deepening our friendship with people worldwide, helping us establish closer ties beyond our borders with people of all races and languages.”

That move predated an economic boom in Japan and the rise of a leisure class all-too-eager to adopt recreational sports. In 1958, Goldwin was born as a line of performance sportswear, before the company officially rebranded as Goldwin Corporation in 1964—just in time for the Tokyo Olympics.

In 1978, Goldwin won the license to make Japanese-exclusive product for another well-known outdoor label: The North Face. That became a boon four years later when a man named Eichiro Homma started at the company after he graduated college. In a MR PORTER interview, Homma recalls his first task at the company: building on its success with The North Face by successfully managing another license—the Norwegian sailing brand Helly Hansen.

It’s a task he did all too well up to 2001, when Homma’s responsibilities changed to overseeing new business development for Goldwin as a whole. But that experience informed his independent endeavor when he left the company in 2003 to found the dearly loved Japanese casual outdoor label Nanamica, a name that translates to “house of the seven seas.”

“Taking ‘Utility’ and ‘Sports’ as key words, nanamica intends to be a high-level mix of fashion and function,” says Homma in a Sabukaru interview. “Keeping distance from passing trends, we make high quality items that can remain a part of people’s lives for a long time.”

But Homma didn’t completely leave Goldwin behind. Along with launching Nanamica, he became the creative director of The North Face Purple Label, which also debuted in 2003. The cult sub-label is a product of Goldwin’s Japanese license and shares designers with the Nanamica team. Because of the complications in licensing issues and international distribution, it took 16 years before it was available in the United States.

Before that, TNF Purple Label—with its signature well, purple label—was the kind of covetable sought after gear that savvy tourists would scoop up during visits to Japan. Mixing Nanamica’s penchant for American Ivy Style with The North Face’s rich heritage, it often produced clothing that was seen as superior to any of TNF’s other output.

Meanwhile, Goldwin’s own lifestyle offerings have become a best-kept secret of their own. Melding their heritage of premium manufacturing with ergonomic details and the blend of form and function that has become synonymous with cult Japanese labels, it’s a hidden gem in its own right, which made it the perfect partner for a HIDDEN capsule collection.

Their Tech Laboratory in Toyama continues to refine product and push the envelope of textile innovation. Its garments are quite literally out of this world, having been worn by astronaut Takao Doi during a 16-day mission on the International Space Station. And while you may not wear it on a space shuttle, the HIDDEN x Goldwin collab is certainly something that should be in everyone’s orbit. It is currently available at the Westerlind New York store at 77 E Houston St, New York, NY, 10012.