The Knit Tabi has already been updated four times
The Knit Tabi, launched in June 2026, has already been through four updates. We count the launch version as Ver.1000; from the second series of patterns, due around mid-October, it will be Ver.2201. The pair looks the same at a glance, but the making has changed little by little. This is that story.
Four changes in three months
A new product really begins once it goes on sale. We wear it ourselves, watch customers’ feet in the shop, and stop the people sewing on the factory floor and ask them. Each small snag we found, we fixed one at a time.
First, a premise: a tabi maker is a woven-fabric sewing factory
Tabi have traditionally been made from woven fabric. Woven fabric is made by crossing warp and weft threads. It resists stretching and holds its shape; the calico of white tabi is the classic example.
Knit, by contrast, is made by forming loops of yarn. It stretches and springs back. It is the fabric of socks and T-shirts.
Our tabi factory in Gyoda has sewn woven fabric for more than a hundred years. The sewing machines, the cutting dies and the feel in our sewers’ hands are all built for fabric that does not stretch. Sewing firm woven cloth is what we do best. Fabric that stretches was, honestly, our weak point. The Knit Tabi is the product in which we faced that weak point head-on.
Update 1 — Matching the sewing machine to knit
The first thing we changed was the tool. Sewing knit on a machine built for woven fabric can leave the seams unsettled. So we switched to machines for sewing knit. We can’t show the details, but the seams became steadier and the silhouette cleaner.
Updates 2 and 3 — The pattern, and a fine adjustment to the elastic at the opening
Once the tool changed, the quirks of the paper pattern became visible. The second update was a revision of the pattern. The third was a fine adjustment to the elastic at the opening. The specifics stay in the factory, but both are about how the tabi sits on the foot.
Update 4 — A major rework of the elastic at the opening
The fourth is the change you notice most when wearing them. We reworked the elastic at the opening substantially. How the tabi sits around the ankle is what we cared about most in this change.
About the pair you receive
To everyone who has bought The Knit Tabi from the beginning, and to everyone who has come to it recently: the pair in your hands and the pair that arrives next are both The Knit Tabi. It is just that we, the people making them, are getting a little better at it.
From the second series of patterns, Ver.2201. Due around mid-October. → The second series: WAGARA
The Knit Tabi comes in two sizes, M (23.0–25.5 cm) and L (26.0–28.5 cm), at ¥3,300 including tax. Machine washable in a laundry net.
See the size guide for sizing, the styling page for how to wear them, and About ISAMI for the story behind the brand.
