The birth of goro's #2

In junior high school, Goro had a destined encounter at the summer camp in Hayama.
Goro said,
“When I was in junior high school, I met an American troop soldier stationed in Yokosuka and learned leather carving from him. He taught me how to carve leather with sculptural patterns. On the day of the soldier’s return to his home country, he gifted me 7 tools, and I got obsessed with leather carving. I started by making belts.”

He also mentioned,
"I don’t carve the leather with a knife. I make all the patterns by beveling the leather. The area becomes very weak if I carve or shave the leather with a knife. This is the first method he taught me in Hayama.”

Goro made Western belts and book straps. When he brought it to the school, everyone wanted to have one. He also hand-sewed peg-top trousers (also known as Mambo Trouser) and pantaloons using deerskin, which was popular then.

After graduating from junior high school, as Goro was devoted to putting himself in making things, he decided to drop out of high school after two months and started his career as a leather craftsman at the age of 16.

Using the tools offered by the American troop soldier, he carved western floral patterns on the leather belts and brought them to Nakata Store in Ameyoko, Ueno. The owner of Nakata Store, Tadao Nakata, is a legendary figure who created many trends for modelguns and military surplus goods.

Goro once recalled those days as,
“I visited Nakata Store in Ueno with a belt. The owner has told me, ‘They are very well made. Make 100 of them and bring them to me, and I will buy them for 900 yen each.’ He also decided on the selling price of 1,800 yen per belt. I was so happy. The unit cost of the leather for the belt is 180 yen. So if I make 100 belts, the sales revenue will be 90,000 yen, and my profit will be 72,000 yen. It was a lot of money, and I was so happy. I was making them with excitement. That was my first business. I had just opened my own store, and I can’t tell how much it had helped me.

I wanted to earn my own money. I want to be independent and live on my own. That’s what I’ve always wanted since junior high school. So I used to use the stair landing of my house as a workshop and made belts. Eventually, modelguns became popular, and I made gun belts. These sold very well too.

As I did the same in middle school, I continued to use the stair landing of my house and turned it into an actual workshop when I got to high school. This is a place that even my mother would never touch. Eventually, they let me use the second floor, and people wanted to work there. I gradually got the hang of it and started making leather handbags and stuff like that."

This way, goro’s was born as a brand to produce and sell leather goods.