Kojima Genes

Hidemitsu Kawazome was born and raised in Kojima, Okayama and has thus been around denim his entire life, founding his own company in 1996. Having grown up in the denim Mecca of the world, Kawazome-san feels that jeans are not something that should cost a fortune, and it is with this idea in mind that he creates his works, managing to produce very high quality selvedge denim jeans that come in at an average price of 15,000 yen, very reasonable indeed by Japanese jean standards.

Aside from the obvious play on the word “jeans”, the name of the company is meant to convey the passing down of the skills and work ethic of all the artisans in the Kojima area that have been dying, weaving, and sewing in the area for centuries.