KAPOK JAPAN

SOC 3★: Fair trade fashion placing well-being first
ENV 1★: Approach towards vegan fashion
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Kapok Knot redefines sustainable, vegan fashion with kapok

Kapok Knot was founded in 2019, with a vision to use sustainable kapok fiber to provide customers a sustainable choice in fashion. Kisho Fukai, the founder of Kapok Knot and whose family members have always been involved in the fashion industry, wanted to tackle the wasteful nature derived from fashion. He understood that the production of clothing needed to be sustainable, based on an abuse-free environment for workers, while bringing back quality clothing for customers’ happiness. Kapok fiber offered the solution.

For those unfamiliar with the material “kapok”, it is a natural fiber from the fruits of the kapok trees, usually found in tropical regions. While difficult to use, Kapok Knot worked with a reputable company to develop them into special cloth sheets.

Kapok fiber is 13% the weight of cotton, but excels in providing warmth by absorbing moisture. On the other hand, it releases that moisture in hot environments, allowing cooling. But versatility is not the only advantage kapok offers, because it has quite an impact on the environment too. Each kapok tree can create 30 coats per year. This replaces an equivalent of 900 waterfowls whose feathers would be needed to make the coats. Kapok Knot achieved a CO2 reduction of 260kg in 2019 too.

Kapok Knot also respects fair trade, proudly promoting their Farm to Fashion model. It is a model they use to oversee the whole process, from the start of procuring ingredients to the end where customers get the finished product.

Therefore, instead of going through the traditional middle parties, Kapok Knot creates its own supply chain. That allows Kapok Knot to focus on caring for the people involved in making the product, rather than the traditional structure that sacrifices human welfare for consumption speed.

The knot in the Kapok Knot’s logo has a meaningful background to it. It refers to the knot that we often see on the Japanese envelopes given to others for congratulatory occasions. The knot represents well wishes to the recipient for a long-lasting happiness. It also represents an endless continuation of a sustainable world, which Kapok Knot hopes everyone involved will become a part of.

Founder Fukai shares, “If you are going sustainable, and would consider wearing Kapok Knot, it would make me more than happy. Let’s head together towards a sustainable world without needing to hold ourselves back.”

Originally published on Zenbird Media.

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(updated 25 Feb 2023)