An undated file photo exhibits Yusaku Maezawa, 42, the founder and CEO of Zozo, Japan’s most significant on the net trend retailer
Prior to he turned a billionaire fashion entrepreneur, Yusaku Maezawa was an indie rock band member who resolved to skip higher education ‘after seeing all the exhausted faces on my early morning commutes’ in Japan.
Born in 1975 in Chiba prefecture in Japan, Maezawa graduated from the prestigious Waseda Jitugyo Significant Faculty in 1991.
It was there that he commenced Swap Design and style, an indie rock band which at some point introduced an EP in 1995.
Right after graduating, he adopted his then-girlfriend to the United States, where by he collected CDs and records of musicians he loved.
Born in 1975 in Chiba prefecture in Japan, Maezawa (observed higher than enjoying the drums) graduated from the prestigious Waseda Jitugyo Large Faculty in 1991. It was there that he begun Swap Design and style, an indie rock band which at some point produced an EP in 1995
In 1995, he returned to Japan and began an import CD and record mail-buy organization.
His company succeeded, and he started to department out.
In 2000, he designed an online retail business. That exact same yr, his band signed with BMG Japan and debuted an album.
His firm, Start out Currently Inc, also started to market outfits.
In 2004, Start These days commenced Zozotown, the web-site designed a killing marketing garments from shops such as Japanese boutique United Arrows and minimum French label A.P.C.
Zozotown’s accomplishment turned its founder, Maezawa, into just one of Japan’s richest entrepreneurs, and its identify adorns a baseball stadium.
Maezawa built his fortune by founding ZOZO, an on the web outfits retailer which he started out in Japan and built into a billion-greenback business
The web page set by itself apart in its early times with a clean up, uncluttered structure and a slice of ‘Ura-Hara’ model – the modish manner of the backstreets that line the trend-location Harajuku district of Tokyo.
Business enterprise took off as fashion-conscious professionals in their late twenties and early thirties commenced applying Zozotown to purchase trendy but operate-appropriate threads on the internet from labels this sort of as United Arrows and Nano Universe.
Its target is now broader, marketing in excess of 6,800 models such as clothing by Shimamura Co Ltd, one particular of Japan’s greatest mass current market chains. But marketplace executives say it nevertheless has an enviable cachet.
It continued to grow until finally 2007, when it went community and was shown in Tokyo Mothers Sector.
In recent yrs, Maezawa has made use of his prosperity to purchase well-known and expensive will work of artwork.
In 2016, he expended $57.2million for a piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat. A yr afterwards, he shelled out a whopping $110.5million at auction in Sotheby’s for a further Basquiat piece – this 1 titled Untitled (as seen over)
In 2016, he used $57.2million for a piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A year afterwards, he shelled out a whopping $110.5million at auction in Sotheby’s for a further Basquiat piece – this a single titled Untitled.
He’s also acquired works by Christopher Wool, a single of which he compensated $13.9million, as perfectly as Richard Prince.
In 2007, Maezawa expended $9.7million on Prince’s ‘Runaway Nurse’, which was a history.
He also paid out $6.9million for ‘Lobster,’ by Jeff Koons.
Maezawa’s aspiration is to obtain up will work of artwork and show them in his individual private museum in his hometown of Chiba prefecture.
Sources: Reuters, The Each day Beast