Who Made A Magazine With 100 Million Copies For UNIQLO?

"LifeWear Magazine" will appear in all stores of UNIQLO, with a circulation of 1 million volumes. This is the envy of those magazines that are facing the risk of declining earnings and reduced channels.

In February, Kinoshita Hyoho worked as the creative director of UNIQLO global creative laboratory in Tokyo for nearly two years. He also released the latest volume of LifeWear Magazine, a corporate culture, for UNIQLO this month. Unlike the first theme of "New Form Follows Function", the theme of this book is "livable city" (Livable Cites).

The theme of book LifeWear Magazine is New Form Follows Function. Photo source: UNIQLO

Kinoshita Hyoho's reputation in the editing industry began with his revision of the Japanese lifestyle magazine "POPEYE" in 2012. In his 6 years as editor in chief of POPEYE, he has rediscovered the lifestyle of "urban boy" rather than just reporting on fashion.

"At that time, looking around, I realized that fashion is not a cool thing." Kinoshita Hyoho's vision of the future is "better to talk about food, interior decoration, travel, interest, and of course, love..." In these topics, fashion related topics will naturally be included. At least I think in Europe and America, people no longer spend so much money on clothes as Japanese young people do, and no longer think that others will judge themselves by clothing.

Those elements that make up young people's life are to explore cities, discover interests, food, clothing, love, friendship, architecture and design. And thus became the object of Kinoshita Hyoho's report. He even deleted the long list of "cooperative shops" at the end of the magazine, which is often the friendship page of fashion magazines that publish cooperative shops or advertisers.

The theme of the second volume of LifeWear Magazine is: Livable Cities. Photo source: UNIQLO

If you study the history of Japanese magazines, you will find that POPEYE returned to its original goal in 2012: Magazine for City Boys. In 1976, the magazine brought the lifestyle of the young people on the west coast of the United States to Japan, and together with a number of fashion brands including BEAMS, it aroused Japanese young people's concern and yearning for modern American life. During that time, people used the term "Popeye teenager" to call those boys who are sensitive and curious about pop, fashion and fashionable new things and live in the city.

Kinoshita Hyoho acted as the cover of some magazines during the period of editor in chief of POPEYE. Photo source: Pinterest

As for girls, another magazine, Olive, took the urban girls as the target group in 1978 to cover the topic of a new generation of young women. Its slogan is as neat as POPEYE, Magazine for City Girls. These magazines belong to the same company, the ordinary publishing house. Now it has been renamed Magazine House, and owns many magazines for different ethnic groups, including "Ginza", "&Premium", "ku:nel", "Anan", "CasaBrutus" and "Brutus".

In fact, many Japanese fashion and Life magazines are familiar with Magazine House. Photo source: Magazine World

So when he left POPEYE and joined UNIQLO in 2018, it became a "personnel change" that surprised the retail industry and the editorial industry. Generally speaking, editors are more closely related to publishers, magazines, bookstores, content brands, and planning companies. If transferred to Brand Company, it will also be engaged in planning, marketing, public relations and so on. At the beginning, people did not know what to do at UNIQLO.

Ryui Masa, the founder of fast marketing group and CEO Kinoshita Hyoho, is a senior executive vice president of fast marketing group and creative director of global creative laboratory in Tokyo. He said he hoped Kinoshita Hyoho would "polish the clothes and brands of UNIQLO" from the perspective of editors, and "create something that is very similar to the editing behavior of what to choose and what to abandon."

Speaking in an interview with the Japanese version of Forbes, Liu well talked about his views on many Japanese creative directors: "I think many people who are called creative directors have little strength, especially in Japan." But he spoke highly of Kinoshita Hyoho and had "super aesthetic consciousness".

"Creative director is actually a translator who connects business with advertising." Ryui Masa added.

So in "LifeWear Magazine", you can also see that in the new city explored by Kinoshita Hyoho, there are "new" shops that are just like UNIQLO. The jeans production process he studied is also an important single product in UNIQLO products.

To be exact, these "coincidence" are not coincidences. In UNIQLO, Kinoshita Hyoho will identify the theme of "LifeWear Magazine" with Rebekka Bay, the creative director of New York R & D design center of fast marketing group, which is closely related to the theme of next season's clothing in UNIQLO. Bey Be M joined filial Hau early in the year and joined the 5 year's creative director of clothing brand COS.

Kinoshita Hyoho is trying to make corporate culture more beautiful. He will use editorial experience to select interviewees who are interested in the magazine. The photo photography, editing and typesetting of "LifeWear Magazine" also extended his style of "POPEYE" to a certain extent.

In these two magazines, Kinoshita Hyoho was impressed by a 32 year old painter named Zhang Shexian who lived in Shanghai. Zhang's likes include: delineation of various people on the trip, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York artist Jean Michel, and unfettered. He didn't sign with any Gallery, nor did he sell a picture.

"I like this person very much," Kinoshita Hyoho said. "You see, he does not paint for others, but draws for himself. This is a way of life.

On the desk of Kinoshita Hyoho, besides a lot of magazines published through traditional channels, there are all kinds of new corporate culture, such as THE NORTH FACE's paradise, Shiseido's flower Chun, and Dior, Hermes, Muji and other brands.

"The significance of a magazine lies in how many people can get it." Kinoshita Hyoho said. The most prominent feature of corporate culture is free. Because of free, the readers who get it are not so easily dissatisfied. I've been doing magazines for 30 years, and this experience is quite fresh and comfortable.

"Taking corporate culture as a propaganda tool is a way. It is also a way to make readers understand the company better through the corporate culture. I hope to do the latter. He added.

LifeWear Magazine will appear in all stores of UNIQLO, which will be published two times a year, with 1 million copies issued each issue. This is the envy of those magazines that are facing the risk of declining earnings and reduced channels.

"LifeWear Magazine"

The following is an interview with Kinoshita Hyoho (Kinoshita Takahiro) in the future.

Q: many Japanese media related to culture are reflecting and recording the development and changes in various fields such as fashion, fashion and culture. When you work in POPEYE, what are your impressive moments? What are the things that make you feel regret or regret?

A: I have no regrets. I did 72 magazines in the 6 years of POPEYE, and I like it very much. Even now, I don't think those topics are out of date. POPEYE introduces the lifestyle of young people living in different places as widely as possible, even if they are very small. We have reported that a young man used a bookstore in the mountains where no one went to visit. He wrote a second-hand grocery store opened by a young man in the corner of Kyoto house. He also interviewed new business models appearing in Portland and Berlin, and even presented the old style of cafes or bathhouses. Many young people are influenced by these contents and start to shop in their own style. Sometimes when I come across them, I think that what we did before should help them.

For a while, when a college student was looking for a job, no one wanted to go to POPEYE. After I joined POPEYE, many young people wanted to come to POPEYE. I really felt very happy. Recently, some students read "LifeWear Magazine" and said they wanted to work together to come to the internship.

Q: although it is a corporate culture, LifeWear Magazine also has many elements related to lifestyle. For example, when it comes to second new stores in Copenhagen, it introduces new local changes, from food, architecture to sustainable lifestyles. Many people interpret this production method as your experience in making lifestyle magazines like POPEYE. Is that true? Or do you have any special considerations?

A: the experience of POPEYE is certainly useful, but I don't want to make "LifeWear Magazine" into POPEYE. We want to make a new concept magazine. When it comes to UNIQLO's clothes, people need to understand its concept first, rather than its quality, design and manufacturing process, that is, LifeWear. It hopes to enrich people's lives. In other words, understanding LifeWear is also a way of understanding modern people's life style. We also want to show this by magazine, for example, through various life scenes, interviews, shooting pictures in various places, etc.

Kinoshita Hyoho extended the editing experience of "POPEYE" to "LifeWear Magazine", trying to make the corporate culture more beautiful. Photo source: UNIQLO

Q: the theme of the first issue of "LifeWear Magazine" is "aesthetics originating from function". The second theme is "livable city". Why do you want to do these themes? How do you define the standard of livable city and choose it? What we are very interested in is that if you are in a traditional lifestyle media to produce the same theme, how will you compare with UNIQLO?

A: UNIQLO's designer Rebecca Bey in New York (Rebekka Bay) will first identify the theme of every season's fashion, and I will communicate with her every time. With the seasonal cycle of clothing, LifeWear Magazine is published every six months. If a magazine does not have a theme, it will be meaningless to make a promotional reading of UNIQLO. Anyway, I still hope that it can convey some fashionable ideas. In this case, the theme of the season is more important, and the magazine will take this as a starting point.

The first phase of "LifeWear Magazine" shows the basic attitude of UNIQLO when making clothes. At the beginning of the magazine, Liu's report was published in detail. I respect Liu Chung Li, and he is also one of the representative product designers in Japan. His philosophy has something in common with UNIQLO: the beauty of function is the most important in a concise and highly accomplished aesthetic concept.

In the second period, our theme is "life, people and clothes". When it comes to livable people, everyone will have different understandings, so we have not set a uniform standard. Some people think that Shanghai livable, some people will think that Tokyo, Hawaii, Havana and other cities livable, but others think that these places simply do not live well. Therefore, our magazine does not want to tell which city is livable, but wants to report what kind of life style people have in those cities. Different magazines, even the same theme, will show different contents. If I say why, I think readers are different from magazines.

The main audience of POPEYE is young men, who have a very strong modern style. From this, we will also think about what these people are interested in, and then take these areas as the reporting center. LifeWear Magazine has a wider audience. There are consumers who purchase UNIQLO clothing and people who are interested in UNIQLO but do not know much about UNIQLO.

Not that it is "POPEYE". It focuses on the male perspective or the topic of "youthful sense". Curiosity is actually one of the important themes of POPEYE. Similarly, when doing "LifeWear Magazine", even for those who visited the country for the first time, curiosity is not a big change factor. So I don't think there are any special differences between the two approaches.

Q: as far as you can see, how can we call it "livable"?

A: many people live in cities but yearn for rural life. Many people live in the countryside, but they yearn for city life. But I think if people who live in the city live in the countryside for a week, they may soon want to go back, and maybe people living in the countryside will feel uncomfortable here when they come to the city. What I want to say is that everyone feels different about each place, which is different from everyone's happiness. Unfortunately, I am not the kind of person who likes to socialize. If you want to say that you feel comfortable living, you may live in a society without social media. I don't want to live in a situation where everyone is watching each other.

Q: "LifeWear Magazine" will display some products of UNIQLO representative every issue. The report is also interesting. For example, the first phase of the fleece mainly refers to the development history. The second phase of jeans mainly talks about the sustainable production technology. How do you choose and determine the form of these contents?

A: when designing the contents of the magazine, the fashion design team will not participate. When I select topics, I will discuss with them. After that, the design team will design clothes according to this theme. I will do this magazine according to this theme. For example, when we introduce the fleece, we mainly talk about history because we think this way can best reflect the charm of this product. Of course, the same is true for other products. UNIQLO has many products that have long been popular with consumers, such as wool, denim, thermal clothing and so on. If you want to introduce them, you should choose different contents and adopt different methods.

In "LifeWear Magazine", Kinoshita Hyoho shows UNIQLO's long sale list in many ways. Photo source: UNIQLO

Q: after the second issue of "LifeWear Magazine", the Tokyo city exploration content of cooperation between UNIQLO and Monocle is included. Is this project done by your team?

A: we worked together with Monocle last year in a project, published 8 pages in Monocle, and published a full page of 16 pages in LifeWear Magazine. This collaboration was made by UNIQLO, and we communicated with Monocle many times, and the final interview was completed by Monocle.

"Monocle" has done a lot of topics about the city, as well as a series of city guides black book, they can objectively present the characteristics of Tokyo. If we let us do it, we may want to sell Tokyo out and say that it is good here, but Monocle can write Tokyo in the eyes of foreigners. This may be a new perspective. So we finally made this "Tokyo guidebook" together. Many foreigners will come to Tokyo this year. We also hope to provide something that they may be interested in.

"LifeWear Magazine" and the lifestyle magazine "Monocle" cooperated with Tokyo's urban exploration project. Photo source: UNIQLO

Q: "LifeWear Magazine" is now published in two phases. What do you think is interesting in the production process? What are the difficulties? Do you have any new ideas in the future?

A: when I switched to UNIQLO, I thought I would never do another magazine. It was quite unexpected that I had a chance to make a magazine so soon. I was very happy. The publishing industry may indeed be in trouble at present and even in the future. At present, I think the main reason lies in issuing, cost, talent and so on. From the point of view of distribution, UNIQLO has more advantages in stores than large chain bookstores. Take Japan as an example. We have retail outlets from the city center to the suburbs. By issuing 1 million volumes of magazines through these stores, magazines can be handed to more people.

In addition, when calculating the revenue of commercial magazines, sales volume and advertising revenue are usually considered, but LifeWear Magazine does not care about that. However, we also have a market budget. Senior executives feel that even if I give up an advertisement, I can approve the idea through the way of magazine to convey the spirit of enterprise.

I have no experience in editing digital media. I used to be conservative, I think the paper has the advantage of paper, and do not approve of digitization. But now, I think that digitalization has the advantage of digitalization, but it must be a completely different media form. I am not interested in that kind of "simple electronic". The magazine is made into pdf, so that its contents become fragmented and sold out. I am very resistant to this matter. Considering that some readers are more inclined to read digital information and make content into appropriate forms of expression, this will be an interesting editorial activity.

Now doing digital content of "LifeWear Magazine", I think we can play the advantage of digitalization, for example, we can add videos and do some longer reports. And now the system of this electronic magazine has been established. I am willing to make an active attempt.

I have many new ideas in the future. Because every season, UNIQLO has a lot to convey to the audience. Moreover, I also have many places I want to visit, and there are many people I want to see. In the second issue of the newly released issue, we interviewed talented Miranda Julie (Miranda July), snowboard athlete Hirano Ayumu, Jonathan Anderson Anderson (Jonathan Anderson), artist Daniel Ashiam (Daniel Arsham) and others, chatting with them about livable topics, which is really exciting.

In doing this magazine, Kinoshita Hyoho and his team interviewed people in various fields to show their way of life. Photo source: UNIQLO

Q: when it comes to digitization, for some time, the American "connect" magazine launched the iPad version, which had a very distinctive way of interacting with readers at that time. But iPad magazines are out of fashion now. Some podcasts are becoming popular. For example, Monocle has made Monocle 24. Do you make such an attempt?

A: Frankly speaking, I am not very good at this kind of digital interaction. I haven't read any electronic magazines, so I'm not sure how to convey information and trends. But our company has a team that specializes in digital content. They can choose the most appropriate content to explore the direction that digital content readers expect and communicate effectively with them.

(Monocle 24) is very interesting. We hope that the electronic content conveyed by UNIQLO can become a part of the audience's life. In the past, we did (UNIQLOCK) to achieve this goal. If LifeWear Magazine can integrate into the audience's life through digitalization and interact with the audience, I will find it quite interesting.

Q: in your opinion, what is the difference between corporate culture and ordinary publications?

A: before, in my impression, corporate publications are just tools for promoting enterprises. But a few years ago, some companies began producing highly quality publications. The content itself was very interesting, and the pictures were very beautiful. The level was even higher than that of the publicly published commercial magazines.

For example, (outdoor brand) Patagonia has been doing well. They have been doing this for 10 years, and I still expect them to make something new. Hermes's corporate culture is also very good. And magazines made by AESOP are also good. The 3 magazines are different in style, but they are all very interesting. Also, Shiseido's flower Chun has a long history. Although these magazines are displaying the concept of enterprises, they are very impressive. We do not want to impose the idea of UNIQLO's business on the readers. Instead, we want readers to think that this way of thinking is also very good, which is the value of this magazine.

In fact, although commercial magazines have a free editorial policy, they also have pressure on sales. Their budgets are limited and the relationship between advertisers and advertisers is also increasing. I now feel that corporate culture is sometimes more liberal than commercial magazines.

When I was doing the magazine of UNIQLO, I began to worry about the content that I could choose, but after trying, I found that LifeWear Magazine had extensive extensibility and was very surprised to be interviewed freely. Generally speaking, corporate culture has a very clear intention to convey content, so the production content has become clearer and more direct. On this basis, we have compiled the content that we want to convey into something interesting.

Q: in your opinion, what's so good about the contents of LifeWear Magazine and POPEYE?

A: I think a good magazine is a magazine that you don't want to throw away. Therefore, I also hope that "LifeWear Magazine" can become a magazine that readers do not want to throw away.