Founded in 1982, Tess Mode is a women's shoe manufacturer whose distinctive strength is its pattern-making and design engineering. Years of focus on this discipline have given the company a deep understanding of how to make every pair look its most elegant. Beyond construction know-how, the shoes' patterns and designs are carefully considered, producing beautifully drawn curves. Tess Mode also takes the passing on of skills seriously, with President Takahashi leading a thorough in-house training system for the next generation.
Tess Mode continues to take on B2B and OEM work while developing a new private-label brand — with the clear ambition, in the company's own words, to "make a product that overturns conventional thinking". As noted above, one of Tess Mode's strengths is pattern and last design — the very basics of shoemaking. President Takahashi is a recognised expert in the field: a teacher at trade schools, a mentor to other craftspeople, and a long-time examiner for the All-Japan Leather Footwear Federation's leather-shoe skill certification. It is no exaggeration to call him a leading figure of the Japanese shoe industry.
What is just as striking is the company's flexible attitude — holding on to traditional craft while readily adopting new technologies. CAD systems and automated cutting machines have been brought in to speed up technical innovation, and the latest equipment is used to amplify the skills and pattern development the company has built over many years — all in the pursuit of greater efficiency.
Even the tools used for pattern-making are out of the ordinary — Italian and German COMPASSes with slightly unusual shapes, brought in from overseas for the way they handle, are evidence of the care the company puts into pattern and last work. Around the workshop, piles of failed samples reveal endless rounds of trial and error. The production line is led by seasoned artisans, and the finishing in particular is treated with unusual seriousness.
When people hear "shoe finishing" they tend to picture polishing — but "polishing" itself takes many forms, from drawing out a shine to dyeing or scorching the leather to give the shoe a particular mood. Tess Mode's finishing sits at a very high grade, and is well regarded by its clients.
Asakusa shoemakers are particularly known for the quality of their finishing — drawing out the tightness, the casual ease and other expressions in a shoe. The same is true of Japan's shoe industry as a whole: when it comes to finishing, it is hard not to say that Japan has surpassed even the spiritual home of fine footwear in Europe.
It is worth noting that shoe-shining and finishing are similar but distinct: shoe-shiners are professionals who maintain shoes that have already been finished. Needless to say, their technique is exceptional — under their hands shoes last longer and look genuinely clean — and the service comes very highly recommended.
Tess Mode is centred on OEM production today, but plans to expand the B2C side of its business — selling shoes directly to wearers. The main channel will be online, but through its private label the company will showcase the experience and track record it has built up over the years in a direct way.
In today's market, it is genuinely difficult to build awareness for a private-label brand. But anyone who tries on a Tess Mode shoe even once is more than likely to come back, drawn in by sheer comfort. That comfort is evidence of a traditional, pattern- and last-driven approach to making shoes that suits Japanese feet. With new ideas on the horizon for both product development and how the shoes are sold, Tess Mode is a company to keep watching.