Couverture and The Garbstore

Kapital started as a company in Kojima Kurashiki in 1984. At that time, they were "Capital", a sewing factory and lover of craftsmanship, and their passion for handicraft and "monozukuri" (craftsmanship) has never wavered. Ever since the Meiji Restoration, Kojima has been famous as a textile and sewing city due to its pioneer usage of "momen" (soaked mulberry bark fibers) to make "tabi" (traditional Japanese socks). Until the influence of western clothing in the Taisho period, Okayama was the biggest tabi manufacture in Japan. However, as the demand for tabi decreased dramatically, Kojima took a devastating hit to its manufacturing industry and had to re-think development plans for the future. The end result was the manufacturing of school uniforms that utilize the same "momen" from before. Using the various knowhow of fabric dyeing and thick fabric use, Kojima started the production of jeans and became well-known throughout Japan as the "jean capital".

At the time of KAPITAL's (Capital) creation, while operating as an OEM and taking manufacturing orders from other companies, they sought out their own original look as an apparel maker and studied American vintage wear. They took everything they learned about fabrics, threads and dyes, buttons and rivets, etc… and concentrated on the creation of jeans. They were introduced to American sewing machines – needles, turbines, and motors, and developed new stitching for thicker fabrics. Everything that they came to study and learn, led to their first original company denim [TH], in 1996.

Alongside their factory, they opened their first store in Kojima in 1995 and thus had their first official place to display original jeans. Kapital then proceeded to seek out their own world vision for clothing by taking inspiration from the various traditional clothing and work wear found around the world. In 2003, Kapital opened their first stores in Tokyo allowing further spread of their clothing world vision and met many new faces, and now have a total of 16 stores nationwide. In 2010, they opened a new original factory named, "Kountry", utilizing new washing processes.