“Do you have clothes that fit petite women with an average height of 155 cm or less?”
“Can petite women enjoy adult fashion?”
I will answer these questions.
CONIA founder Ayako Tanaka favors petite women (below 155 cm tall)
Rapid growth in the niche market for people with an average height of 155 cm or less! Petite clothing brand
Is inferiority complex a business opportunity? A petite woman with a height of 148 cm has launched an apparel brand for petite women. Ayako Tanaka (27) is 148 cm tall. Among the complexes unique to petite women, fashion is a particular source of concern.
Her favorite clothes don’t have a size, and the design changes when you fix it. Three years ago, Tanaka founded a brand exclusively for petite women. She was vehemently opposed by those around her, saying that she was too niche to succeed, but as she continued her steady PR efforts, women with the same concerns raised their voices one after another, and before she knew it, it had become an enthusiastic movement.
This article summarizes the story of how Ayako Tanaka created a business out of her worries.
・Troubles of petite women with short stature✖️My own troubles
・Average height of 15 cm or less, COHINA is a fashion brand for petite women
この投稿をInstagramで見る
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1994.
After participating in an overseas internship as a student, he established an apparel brand in Japan, and then joined Google as a new graduate.
In 2017, when I was in college, I participated in an internship at the company “newn” where my senior works, and experienced marketing and product development support. “COHINA” was launched.
Determination to become a petite woman’s “Hinata”
Ayako Tanaka is 148 cm tall. She is petite compared to other people, so she worries that she has almost no clothes to wear.
When she wears normal size clothes, her collar is too wide and her shoulders are too low. She’s also long, so she inevitably feels like she’s “wearing” rather than “wearing clothes.”
She wants to enjoy a lot of fashion, but because she is short and has “a condition that she can’t help herself”, shopping for clothes is not about “clothes you want to wear”, but “clothes you can wear”. It was.
She also has no choice but to go shopping for kids clothes because she doesn’t fit. The average height of a 6th grader today is about 150 cm, so she wore children’s clothes for 11-12 year olds.
Around 2014, oversized silhouettes were also popular. It was the beginning of an era when small women struggled with the trend of clothes getting bigger and bigger.
She started COHINA in 2018, thinking that she would try to make her own clothes if there were none in the world.
A niche area for petite women with an average height of 155cm or less?
この投稿をInstagramで見る
When I consulted with senior working adults I met through job hunting, most of them gave negative answers. “The market size is too small” “Isn’t it too niche?”
I thought it would be difficult, but one entrepreneur said, “Let’s try it together.” Founded in
I thought that people under 155cm were a niche area, but there is quite a demand.
Even if you’re short, your lifestyle doesn’t change much, and it’s a difficult area to understand. However, Instagram is followed by more than 180,000 people, so I feel that there is demand even though it is a niche area.
“COHINA” fashion brand for petite women
I have no apparel-related experience, and I have no acquaintances. The hardest part of all was finding a production factory. After looking for dozens of factories in Japan, but unable to find one, he ended up making his first clothes in a factory in China, but the quality was too bad.
No matter how you look at it, the initial method was a failure, and I regretted that I should have proceeded more carefully. However, it seems that it was fun and unavoidable to see what he wanted to do gradually take shape.
Things that I had been ignorant about before, such as making clothes, marketing, and management, I learned everything.
I received various comments from customers, such as, “I thought choosing clothes was fun for the first time,” or “I have an important date coming up, do you have any recommendations for clothes?” I’m getting more and more obsessed with the feeling of being made.
Where can I buy “COHINA” for petite women?
You can purchase directly from the COHINA STORE official website!
We deliver Instagram live every day. Individually, I started YouTube and regularly send fashion information for petite women.
The number of people who know the brand has increased because of appearances by celebrities such as Tomomi Itano and Ai Takahashi.
この投稿をInstagramで見る
future goals
The first goal is to make COHINA bigger. In terms of scale, we aim for sales of 10 billion yen, which is among the top 10% of Japanese apparel companies. She says she wants to build a world where clothes for petite women are the norm.
I want to find new material and start a new business, or learn again, but in any case, I want to live a life that continues to create new value.
summary
The point of this article is to solve your own problems and the problems of others – isn’t that what you want to do?
Also, ask yourself, “Is there anything I can do for you?” First, find your area of strength, and try to improve it!
I would be happy if you could refer to it even a little.
Thank you for reading to the end.
Related article
おばあちゃん80歳和田京子は起業し年商５億円を達成！でもそのお金どうするの？
ドムドムバーガーの社長藤崎忍は専業主婦からの転身「思いやり経営」
コメント