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 knit worked to hold up as tabi

Mitsuke, Niigata, has long been known as a town of knitting. A fabric maker there worked the knit tension for us until it held up as tabi. Stretch, hand, the character of the stitch. Rather than using ordinary sock fabric, they worked it until it would stand up to being cut and sewn — a jacquard knit made for the tabi.

Gyoda — tailored 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 fabric from Mitsuke is cut with size-specific dies and sewn into shape by the tabi method — not knitted into shape like a sock. That is why, though they look alike, the feel is something else entirely.

Two craft regions, in a single pair

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.