Mitsuke and Gyoda: How Two Craft Regions Met

The Knit Tabi could not have been born from a single region. The knit region of Mitsuke, Niigata and the tabi region of Gyoda, Saitama — only when the skills of these two distant places met did this pair take shape.

Mitsuke — a fabric made for tabi, from scratch

Mitsuke, Niigata, has long been known as a town of knitting. Together with a fabric maker there, we developed a knit made specifically for tabi. Rather than using ordinary sock fabric, we redesigned the very way it is knitted — a durable jacquard knit built for the tabi.

Gyoda — tailored one pair at a time, the tabi way

Gyoda, Saitama, was once Japan's foremost tabi-producing region. Isami Corporation, founded in 1907, has made tabi here ever since. The dedicated fabric from Mitsuke is cut and sewn, one pair at a time, by the tabi method — not knitted into shape like a sock. That is why, though they look alike, the feel is something else entirely.

A pairing found nowhere else

The knit region and the tabi region, their skills combined in a single pair. Auspicious Japanese patterns, two sizes (M and L), ¥3,300. Made to reach people in Japan and beyond — that is how The Knit Tabi came to be.

Not knitted like a sock, but tailored like tabi.

A new footwear genre, born from 1907.