Style Resume. Kobayashi Setsumasa #7

2025.11.17

Whether it's fashion, music, or sports, there is a style that only each person can express in any genre. "Style is Everything." That's right, someone once said that style is everything. "Style Resume" is a series of interviews with adults who, as the name suggests, have style, and is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Our 15th guest is Setsumasa Kobayashi, representative of <. . . . .RESEARCH>, a man who follows his own path in everything from outdoor activities to custom bikes.

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07. What happened the night before the launch of GENERAL RESEARCH.

I worked as a freelance external designer for several companies, incorporated in 1990, and launched the shoe brand SEtt in 1993. Before I started making clothes at GENERAL RESEARCH, I had been working as a shoemaker, and for a few years before I started making clothes, I had been thinking about working as a shoe designer in New York.

I made a profit from working for an external designer, so I bought an apartment in Soho, New York. It was a time when I could see solo exhibitions by various artists just five minutes away, one of which was a pop art trio from Canada called General Idea. They made Sagara embroidery patches, which were interesting both as products and ideas. The brand name GENERAL RESEARCH was actually influenced by them.

Around 1992 or 1993, my shoes were first sold at Barneys New York in Manhattan. At the time, I was aware of and influenced by the work of London shoe designers. John Moore was making slits in existing shoes and inserting leather into them, which had the same impact on me as when I experienced making patterns in Italy by pasting gauze on wooden lasts. This is one of the reasons why I decided to "tweak existing things" when I started GENERAL RESEARCH.

This original design was a collage of numerous photographs that would go on to become one of GENERAL RESEARCH's earliest posters.

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Setsumasa Kobayashi (CEO of . . . . RESEARCH)

Born in January 1961 in Asakusa, he is the representative of . . . .RESEARCH. He runs the mountain brand Mountain Research and the custom bike brand RER (Riding Equipment Research), and he also produced the campground Suigen-no-Mori Camp Land, which opened in 2021, and occasionally holds an event called "ANARCHO MOUNTAINEERS." His attitude of freely moving between the city and nature and enjoying it freely has captured the hearts of many fans.

Instagram @ anarchomountaineers009