Where did the idea of eliminating elastic waistband come from?

The concept for "AIRZ" began around 2012, six years before its release in 2018.
At that time, loose-fitting silhouettes were trending in outerwear, and women's shorts were becoming more and more popular, with raw-edged materials used for seams and no elastic, and the world as a whole was beginning to seek out things that were "stress-free" and "comfortable."
Noticing these changes, I began to think, "What if there was a pair of boxer shorts without an elastic waistband?"
The challenge was also bolstered by the fact that a survey of men on the comfort of boxer shorts revealed that many of them were dissatisfied with the tightness around the waist.

What were the difficulties that caused it to take six years to release the game?

Women's shorts with no elastic waist and raw hems were already common, but we faced a big hurdle when trying to create the same thing for men's pants. The reason is that men have less of a waistline, so without an elastic waist, the pants themselves would naturally slip down due to gravity and movement. If we were to remove the elastic waist and make the fabric around the waist stronger to hold it in place, we wouldn't be able to achieve the essential stress-free feeling... We ran into a contradiction right from the start of development.

What was the clue that led to the solution?

The selection of materials and product design create an exquisite fit.
When I first made a prototype, I thought, "It would be a problem if the pants slipped down while I was walking at work," so I tried wearing them before going to bed, but sure enough, when I woke up in the morning, they had slipped down, which was a terrible start. However, this failure was a valuable experience that made me realize the importance of choosing the right material. Since then, I have knitted many different materials to achieve the "non-slip" feature, and have repeatedly made and worn them. Finally, I discovered the "Cutoff®" material that is ideal for "AIRZ," which is hard to fray even when cut, and stretches well to the sides and returns to its original shape. In addition, I developed the "Argo Wave Cut®" design to fit the body just right. By combining these two, I was able to achieve an exquisite fit that holds the body with the entire fabric and is "hard to slip down" even without an elastic waistband. However, it took many millimeter-by-millimeter adjustments and more than 50 fittings to get there.

What was the response after its release?

It was featured in various media outlets, and was a hot topic on social media, and the response was so great that the product was temporarily out of stock on e-commerce sites. Not only was it a novelty that it had no elastic waistband, but many customers also commented on how comfortable it was to wear, with some saying they had replaced all their pants with AIRZ, making it a huge success beyond our expectations.