Chronology
Our History
SINCE 1952
Back in 1952, the founder, Yoshimi Doi bought a small house in Osaka, Japan and started his own shirt-making business named "Doi ho-ko-sho" with his wife, Ayako Doi. From the time the business started, we've been manufacturing around 10 million pieces of shirts in total. His legacy carries on as his skills and dedication to quality continue to run through the company for more than 70 years until today, ensuring garments of the finest NIPPON MADE quality. The small cottage industry has been now developed as an international shirt apparel company that presents six different product lines and has an advanced productive system of making quality garments.
1950's
The founder, Yoshimi Doi was born in 1920, at Sakaide, Kagawa. He worked hard to aid family livelihood as the second eldest brother of 11 siblings and started his career as a shirt craftsman in Osaka when he was 17. After he got drafted into military service for the Pacific war, he studied under Gunji Takeda, who was famous for his shirt craft quality. These craftsmanship and craft spirit learned from Takeda are passed down to current Do-1 Sewing Inc. In 1952, Yoshimi founded his own factory 土井縫工所(Doi Ho-Ko-Sho) in his small house with his wife when he was 32. As his business picks up with the high reputation of his craftsmanship, he moved to a larger factory with 10 craftsmen a year later. Furthermore, he moved much larger factory in 1957. In 5 years, the factory expanded 5 times larger and the number of employees increased to 25.
1952 土井縫工所“Doi Ho-Ko-Sho” (currently Do-1 Sewing) is founded at Nishi-imazato, Higashinari-ku, Osaka.
1953 土井縫工所 moves to Ikaino, Ikuno-ku, Osaka.
1957 土井縫工所 moves to Shariji, Ikuno-ku, Osaka.
1960's
During the years of steep Japanese economic growth, his business had been developed. With craftsmen and assistant women in total 30 people, they manufactured 500 shirts in a day. They had a huge amount of orders from top shirt manufacturers for export to the USA with the economic high growth period, and worked really hard from 8 am in the morning to 10 pm. They only took 2days off monthly.
1970's
Along with a diversified fashion scene, the order also became varied. In addition to USA exports, domestic orders for high-quality shirts increased more and more. As fashion became more popular, the order became fractionalized and mass production became unnecessary. Moreover, at that time, skilled craftsmen commonly started their own business, therefore lots of craftsmen left and became independent from 土井縫工所.
1980's
Looking to the opportunity of new business with a fashion label that is committed to quality and design, Yoshimi’s two sons who experienced other companies became Chief Executive Officer and Senior Managing Director in 1982. Along with the new administration, they moved the factory to Nakamoto, Higashinari-ku, Osaka, and established Do-1 Sewing Inc. Under the new administration, craftsmen who had left in 1970’s returned to the factory and restarted the production.
1982 Do-1 Sewing Inc. is established
Shigeki Doi becomes Chief Executive Officer.Do-1 Sewing Inc. Moves to Nakamoto, Higashinari-ku, Osaka.
40 employees
1990's
Along with diversified fashion trends and consumers’ needs, our production line became necessary to have more quick and productive response. To deal with these needs, a new manufacturing base (Okayama Factory) which can handle various kinds of items and a small bulk production was established in Tamano, Okayama. The OEM business with both the domestic and international luxury brand labels had been successfully developed. At the same time, a sales company for Do-1's production was established and started with its office and showroom in Tokyo in order to expand the sales market.
1990 Okayama factory was established and starts in operation.
1994 Tokyo office opens at Nihonbashihoncho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
2000's
Due to cheaper manufacturing alternative factories in overseas countries became more and more common in the fashion industry, the Do-1 manufacturing business in Japan went into a struggling time. In addition, Customer orders also required the production of a wider variety of items/designs in small quantities, while mass production orders were placed in cheaper factories.
In light of these difficult business situations, Junji Doi, Managing Director, developed the foundation of the current single-product manufacturing business model that specializes in made-to-order manufacturing and customizable products. Established a production system that can provide planning, ordering, production, and sales all at once collectively.
The business model has made breakthroughs with marketing, sales and planning enhancements, continues to be highly regarded as a manufacturer and led it to today's corporate success.
2007 The founder, Yoshimi Doi passed away at the age of 87.
2008 Osaka headquarters moves to the current location, 70 Employees.
2010's
Generation shifted to the third CEO Junji Doi.
Do-1 is now offering various production labels from dress to casual, in both men's and women's to our clients. We commit to the finest quality in garments with established craftsmanship passing through our history and also make the best effort in cooperative development of shirting materials.
Our mission is to build a more effective and accurate order system for fractionalized and global custom production needs. With our 70-years of experience in custom-made production, we are looking ahead to form a highly sophisticated production line that can produce detailed custom garments to meet the needs of individual customers all around the world.
2010 Tokyo office moves to Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
2011 Junji Doi becomes Chief Executive Officer.
The original shirt label “土井縫工所” starts.
2014 Tokyo office moves to the current location, Tokyo showroom opens.
2019 Do-1 USA Inc. starts in operation in New York.
2020's
2020 The headquarters move to the Tokyo location.
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