Workman turned its workwear into outdoor gear and became Japan's 2019 hit

Workman had been squeezed twice: casual clothing sales were eaten by Uniqlo in the 1990s, then construction work collapsed after 2008. Its answer was to double down on private-brand workwear, whose quality was proven by daily professional use. In September 2018 it opened WORKMAN Plus at a Tokyo mall, styled like an outdoor shop, selling pro-grade casual wear at bargain prices.

Consumers who had never entered a workwear store flocked in. In the opening month, total chain sales jumped 130% year on year, and from November 2018 the chain posted 11 straight months of double-digit growth, reaching 159.5% in August 2019. The stock tripled in a year to ¥9,650, pushing market value toward ¥800 billion, and the chain's 848 stores surpassed Uniqlo's count.

The product development philosophy was trade-off: keep the functions a worker needs daily, drop the rest, so a ¥3,000 jacket matched outdoor brands costing twice as much or more. The company's own analysis put the addressable high-function, low-price apparel market at ¥400 billion, with a 25% share target.