Subject: Brass Shoe Co. / Representative: Mr. Matsuura
Industry: Shoe repair & manufacturing (original brand “CLINCH BOOTS”)
AI Applications: Sounding board for ideas, multilingual translation, brand context retention
How is AI actually being used on the floor of Japanese manufacturing? For this feature, we visited Brass — a Tokyo-based studio specializing in vintage shoe restoration and the original footwear brand CLINCH BOOTS.
With more than 70% of their customers based overseas, Brass has built a genuinely global following while remaining committed to traditional handcraft techniques. We spoke with founder Mr. Matsuura about why a craftsman at the apex of handmade work turned to AI, tracing his decision-making process and the unique brand philosophy behind it all.
1. Business Overview and Value Proposition
Q. Could you tell us about your business and the current market environment?
“Keeping what lasts — alive for today.” We operate as a hybrid of repair and creation.
・What we do: We restore and repair antique and vintage shoes, and manufacture and sell our original brand CLINCH BOOTS — footwear crafted entirely by hand using the Hand-sewn welted construction method, with no machines involved.
・Our customers: Through our Instagram presence, approximately 75% (three-quarters) of our customers are based outside Japan.
・How we sell: Rather than holding general inventory, our primary sales model is an “entry lottery” system for monthly Instagram subscribers. Demand is high — products sell out immediately, every time.
2. Why Brass Adopted AI
Q. You’re in the world of traditional craftsmanship — so why did you start using AI?
Managing international customers with a small team — and needing a “thinking partner” as a business owner.
My daily life revolves around making shoes, but I also need time for PR and business strategy. I introduced ChatGPT as a “sounding board” for that thinking process. On top of that, because most of our customers are overseas, publishing content in both Japanese and English is essential. Increasing the speed and accuracy of that translation work was another major reason for adopting AI.
3. AI Success Stories: Teaching AI the Brand’s Context
Q. What has actually worked well when using AI?
AI learned the “context” of our brand — and became a dedicated advisor.
Rather than simply asking for translations, I kept feeding the AI our business history, brand concept, and my own thought process. Over time, the AI began to hold the philosophy of Brass as a brand in its memory. It now responds with a genuine understanding of context — things like “this business is for promotional purposes” or “this product has this particular background.” At this point it functions like a consultant who truly understands me, and it does so efficiently.
4. Challenges and Trial-and-Error with AI
Q. On the flip side, were there any failures or difficulties in using AI?
Tuning the brand’s “voice” — and the limits of system integration.
・Tone mismatch: In the early stages, the text AI produced was too generic — it didn’t match the atmosphere of our brand. I went through repeated cycles of revising the output myself and feeding those revisions back in as training material. Only recently has the need for manual correction begun to ease.
・Data integration limits: I tried to have AI compile our Instagram data into lists, but app-side restrictions made it impossible, and we ended up having to rely on manual entry.
Including these kinds of “painstaking, one-by-one finessing” and its “inherent limitations,” I now treat AI simply as a practical tool—without inflated expectations.
5. Future Plans and Brand Strategy
Q. What does the road ahead look like for Brass?
Turning the making process itself into entertainment — a brand that feels like a “game livestream.”
With the weak yen as a tailwind, we’re focusing on strengthening direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales to overseas customers — bypassing wholesale to improve our margins. As for the daily work updates we share with our subscription members: the feeling is exactly like a “game livestream.” The idea is that people enjoy not just the finished product, but the entire process — the trial and error, the struggle, the craft unfolding in real time. Our plan is to hand the administrative work to AI, so that human energy can go into this kind of engaging, playful communication.
6. Stance on Social Contribution and Sustainability
Q. Finally, what are your thoughts on social contribution and SDGs?
Rather than making “social contribution” the goal, I’d rather have it be the natural result of playing seriously with our craft.
We deliberately use hides from deer culled for pest control, and leather with natural scarring — then we elevate those scars into design features. But this isn’t about “doing our part for the SDGs.” It’s more like a craftsman’s response to a creative brief: taking something negative and flipping it into something positive, because that’s an interesting challenge.
Plastering “good for the environment” across everything feels off to me. When we do something genuinely interesting with our skills, and the people around us say, “hey, that’s actually a social contribution” — that’s the right distance. That’s what healthy making looks like.
Editor’s Note (AIAM mirAInews)
Teaching AI the brand’s “context” — a winning strategy for small businesses.
What stands out most in the Brass story is how Mr. Matsuura doesn’t just use ChatGPT — he actively trains it, feeding in the brand’s philosophy and context until it becomes a genuinely unique partner. The approach to AI is as painstaking and deliberate as the handcraft itself.
And that refusal to slap a trendy “SDGs” label on work that simply emerges from deep craft and creative instinct — describing it instead as “playing seriously” with the materials — speaks to an aesthetic and integrity that may be precisely what earns a brand genuine global fans in the age of AI.