The Lost Arrow Special feature [Part 1] covers new efforts set out by Lost Arrow, one of Japan's leading mountaineering equipment import agents.
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In this episode, for those who don't know much about Lost Arrows, we will explain how this one-of-a-kind distributor was born and has made it this far, for those who don't know much about Lost Arrows. I would like to introduce the story of the birth of Lost Arrow, which has not been discussed in great detail until now, in Sakashita's real words.
There was a story studded by the connection of a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, which in a sense could only be a miracle.
Chapter 1: Meet Yvon Chouinard and the birth of Chouinard Japan
Before "Lost Arrow" there was a company called "Choinard Japan."
It was in 1978, and Ikeda Tsunemichi, editor-in-chief of the climbing magazine "Rock and Snow," asked me, "Climbing Ice, written by Yvon Chouinard (※1), has been published, but it's a great book, so why not try translating it?"
As an amateur, I was suddenly asked to translate a book, so Ikeda-san is also a very broad person.
*1 Yvon Chouinard: American climber and mountaineer, founder of Patagonia.
The translated book was published by Yamato and Keikonsha in 1979, and at that time, famous mountaineers such as Chouinard and Rick Ridgway (※2) had the opportunity to stop by Japan on their expedition to the 7,500m peak in China called "Minyakonka." There was a slideshow hosted by Okura Sports, which invited them, and by chance I was asked to be an interpreter.
Editor-in-Chief Ikeda was also present on the day and introduced Chouinard on the spot.
*2 Rick Ridgway: Vice President of Environmental Affairs at Patagonia. Mountaineer, surfer, writer, film director. In 1978, he was the first American to ascend anoxic K2.
At that time he told me, "Come to America, let's climb together." "I'm currently building a villa in Wyoming this year, so if you come there, it's fine for a month or two," he said.
Two years later, after failing to climb Annapurna I in winter alone, I wrote a letter saying, "I would like to climb together in Wyoming before going to Yosemite," but for some reason, even after a month, I have not received a reply. Well, he said, "You can come," so I didn't get a reply but decided to go as much as I could, so I took the plane with a big backpack with a set of climbing gear.
There was one bar in Moose where climbers gather, and when I called through a public phone there, he was lucky enough to get out. "Hey Naoe, where are you calling? Is it Tokyo?" He said, "It's America," and he replied, "Is it Los Angeles?" Me: "No, it's Wyoming." Yvon: "Huh? Where is it in Wyoming?" I am "Moose" (Moose is a small village with a population of about 500, just near Grand Teton National Park). Yvon: "What? Where is it in the moose?" I was "in a large bar." Yvon: "Oh, I understand. Then I'll go and pick you up."
That kind of exchange led him to come and pick him up in the car.
On my way to the villa, I stopped by the post office and asked to come with me, so I went inside, and when I looked at his private book box, I saw about 200 mailings had been accumulated. Apparently he had not taken out the mail for more than a month. When I looked for the stack of letters that I had carried from the post office box to the passenger seat of my car, I came across my letter. I handed him the letter, "This is my letter from Japan," and he arrived at home, opened the seal and read the letter, then said, "Ah, that's fine."
I then spent a month living at his house and climbing the rocky walls and rocks around Tayton, including Grand Tayton and Mount Moran, and teaching students as an assistant to his ice wall technology seminar. The two children, Claire, 4, and Fletcher, 7, played together, mimicking the American Indian festival. Regardless of Yvon, I think Malinda, a wife with two young children, has often held back from the sudden long-term stay of the Gentiles. After that, I was planning to go to Yosemite, but had little money. In the first place, I only brought about $500 from the beginning, and I had already spent $300 of that, so I only had $200 left.
Thinking about what to do, could you let Yvon work at Chouinard Equipment? "I asked him to do so, and he said, "It's fine. If I went to my friend Rick Ridgway, I'd be able to live alone so I'd rent a room."
So I moved from Wyoming to Palalto, a suburb of San Francisco, where my boss at the company I used to work for. The trip was a message from the climber's hangout, where I negotiated a discarded car of a student climber who was working at a Standard Oil Company on the West Coast from Boston, for $50.
It was a strange journey with an extremely talented student who had skipped grades from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in three years. He then took a Greyhound bus from San Jose to Ventura and slumped into Rick Ridgway's house with almost no money. And for about a month and a half I worked at Choinard Equipment. The first was California's then minimum wage, with a $2.40 hour pay.
In the first week, I worked under the factory, cutting wires for stoppers, installing pickles and hammer heads, and in the second week I found out I could read English and was promoted to the shipping department. Earn $4 an hour.
In the third week, Yvon returned from Wyoming and was asked to translate the catalogue to a Japanese-language salary of $10 per hour.
After that, I had a little savings, so just as I was starting to prepare for Yosemite, I suddenly received a call from Tokyo. "I've been selected for the K2 Expedition (※3). If I can return to Japan right away, I'll be a member of the reconnaissance team, but what will I do?" He canceled his trip to Yosemite and returned to Japan three days later. Four days later, I left for Beijing as a member of the scout squad.
In the end, Rick doesn't pay any room fees, and he will need to pay his debt someday.
*3 K2 Expedition: On August 14th, 1982, the first ascent of the K2 Northern Ridge by the Japan Mountaineering Association Chogori Mountaineering Team (Commander Shingai Isao). Sakashita Naoe, Yanagisawa Yukihiro and Yoshino Hiroshi were the first successful climbing from the Chinese side.
After climbing K2 and descending the mountain, I sent a postcard to Chouinard, saying, "We were able to reach the summit using Chouinard's ice axe and bile. We were very lucky." (This postcard appeared on the back cover of a 1983 Choinard catalogue the following year). He then told me, "Come and come and visit me again," and I flew to Ventura, California.
There, he was in the midst of talking about souvenirs such as K2, and he asked, "Would you like to work as a Choinard Equipment agency in Japan?"
It was a very grateful story, but I was planning to go to the Southwest Wall of Everest the following year and the West Ridge of Makalu the following year, so I refused to explain the reason.
A few days later, on the day I was returning home, Yvon asked me to go and say, "Would you like to go and have breakfast with me?" and at my table I was asked, "Would you like to think about the agency again?" "There aren't many opportunities like this," he said.
Although I refused the first time, it was not a story about "Three Caress," but since someone I respected called out to me twice, I thought I couldn't refuse this and replied, "Okay, I'll do it." Although I said I would accept it, I don't know how to do the business and I don't have the financial means. I said, "What exactly should I do?" Yvon: "This is how you should do it." I said, "I'm sorry, but I don't have any money." Yvon: "If you don't have money, how many dollars do you have to save?" I've only saved $500.
Yvon: "I'll arrange everything about this, so don't worry. Please do something about it yourself in Tokyo." Me: "I understand."
On my way home on my way home, I thought about the expedition to Everest Southwest Wall in the fall of the following year, when I was planning to participate, and if my opinion on the "southwest wall in Alpine style with two members" that I argued was not accepted, and if it would be the traditional style of "stretching ropes over the wall and everyone climbing at Yumar," I decided that I would not be able to participate in Everest.
After returning to Japan, he immediately began working as an agent for Choinard Japan.
First, when I called my younger brother, "Can you lend me 1 million yen?" he said, "Are you going to the mountains again?" and explained, "This is why I'm going to start work next time," and he was able to raise funds for starting a business through debt from his younger brother.
At that time, faxing was not yet popular, and communication with overseas countries required International Telex. To use Telex, you will need a 300,000 yen rights and a basic usage fee of 30,000 yen per month, which means that you will no longer have 30% of your capital. The office also installed a telephone and a telex in the old wooden apartment where he lives, and used the platform under the closet and the next pool hall as a warehouse, and started the business on his own.
At the time, the rent for the apartment was 40,000 yen, and the phone, 50,000 yen for a teleex service, and my monthly salary of 150,000 yen, which was about 300,000 yen, which was a monthly expense of about 3.6 million yen, and the running cost of 3.6 million yen per year.
When an order is received over the phone, we have to deliver it to a mountain climbing equipment store, but all we have is an old bicycle. So we decided to pack the items in our backpack and deliver them by bicycle. I live in Waseda and it is almost 30 minutes away from a mountain climbing equipment store in Tokyo. We were able to deliver the order 15-30 minutes after receiving it.
However, during delivery, I removed the receiver and was talking. When you get back, put the receiver back.
I have been doing this style for two years since then.
I think this bicycle delivery system was innovative.
At that time, trading companies and wholesalers were intervened between import agents and retailers.
Trading companies usually do business with banks such as negotiating with overseas manufacturers and issuing letters of credit (LC)), but since Telex is a single company, and our client is Choinard Equipment, there are no credit issues. There was no need for a trading company or wholesaler.
We omitted all the middlemen that was common knowledge up until then, and the sales price has now been half the previous price due to the low running costs.
With Yvon's special consideration, the payment was indefinitely and there was no requisite for payment at any time.
I paid 200 days after the first product was shipped, and the business gradually got on track as I was able to shorten the payment dates for the second time, 150 days later and the third time, 100 days later. Yvon told me, "If I had 20 million yen in my first year, I would be able to make a living," but in my second year, I had 100 million yen in my second year.
When I think about it, I wouldn't be the present unless Yvon invited me, and if I hadn't provided the translation job by Iwa and Yuki Editor-in-Chief Ikeda, I would not have met Yvon, and if I hadn't joined the Mountain Academy Comrade Association, I wouldn't have met Ikeda, and if I went back and forth, I might have had a life that would have been unrelated to mountain climbing without Saruyama, my university friend who invited me to Mt. Phoenix in March.
Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing now if they didn't show up before me. I am grateful that this is a truly strange and grateful match.
Chapter 2: Meetings in Ama Dubram and the birth of Lost Arrows
A year after starting the business, he became the agent of Fille climbing shoes, with the recommendations of British and American climbers such as Gramici founder Mike Graham and Wild Country founder Mark Valence, and was asked by Bear, a Choinard Rope manufacturer, to become the agent. One day, Chris McDavid (※4), the vice president of Choinard, who we were close friends, asked me, "It's strange that it's Choinard Japan, but it's a distributor for Bolière and Bear. Can you think of something else?" and I was forced to change the company name.
*4 Chris McDavid: Former CEO of Patagonia. Later, he married Douglas Tompkins, founder of the North Face, and with Doug he spent his private money creating a vast environmental protection area spanning South America, Chile and Argentina. Even after Doug's death, he continues to carry on his legacy and continues to carry out his natural conservation efforts.
Around the same time, I started working for a year and started thinking, "If it's this job, I think I can go to mountains overseas depending on how I think." So, in the spring of 1984, all our business partners said, "We will be closed for two months from April to May. If you have an order, please place your order by March 31st. The next delivery will be in June, so we will not be able to ship for two months, so please take care of it," and together with famous American mountaineers John Roskelly (※5) and Jim Bridwell (※6), we headed towards the eastern wall of Tauche in the Himalayas of Nepal.
*5 John Rosskelly: American climber and writer. He is a leading American Himalayanist, having been the first American to climb an anoxic K2 summit with Rick Ridgway and others in 1978. He won the Pioledore Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
*6 Jim Bridwell: A leading rock climber and mountaineer in America in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been active in the Yosemite Valley since the 1960s, and is also known for bringing aid climbing to a new level, such as developing new routes at El Capitan and Half Dome.
However, on the expedition, the two of them gave up on the mountain climbing and returned to Japan, citing that "there are many rock falls and the rock walls are in poor condition." I had imagined such a case, so I had obtained permission to climb Ama Dubram in advance, and after they returned to Japan, I headed over to Ama Dubram alone.
When I successfully climbed the southeastern ridge of Ama Dubram and approached the base camp, I saw three figures downstairs and asked, "Where did they come from?" and when I approached, they found Chris McDavid and her husband, Dennis Henek, a well-known climber. And then there was Kathy Lalamendi, the chief designer of Patagonia at the time.
The three of us happened to be on a trekking trip in the Kumbhu region, and by chance we ran into a base camp in Ama Dhabram with me, who had descended the mountain.
"Naoe, what are you doing alone here?" Chris said. I pointed at the back mountain at the tip of the pickel and said, "I just climbed up this mountain and descended." "Huh? I'm alone," Chris. "Oh, that's right," me. I'm not surprised at how talented Dennis, who has been climbing Great Trango and Uli Biafo for the first time, but Chris and Cathy were surprised at my solo climb.
While I was telling him it was strange to meet someone by chance at a place like this, Chris asked me, "By the way, Naoe, have you decided on a new company?" and replied, "Yes, I've decided on it. It's called 'Lost Arrow'." He then said, "That's a really good name!" and the company was decided on the spot.
The name "Lost Arrow" was an idea even before I went to the Himalayas, and I sometimes thought of it on my expeditions. There are several reasons for the name, one of which is the actual name of the place, "Lost Arrow Spire," and it is also the name of the Choinard Equipment Piton, the "Lost Arrow Piton."
Then there is a legend that is passed down to Native Americans, where the name Lost Arrow Spyer comes from. One day, a young man who was good at hunting pursued the beast at Yosemite and fired an arrow, which disappeared. Arrows are important, so I tried my best to search, but couldn't find them. It is said that over time it became a rocky mountain called "Lost Arrow Spier."
Alternatively, the theory is that while pursuing a wounded deer that had been shot with an arrow, the girl of a brave chief climbed the rock wall, cut all her hair, tied it together, and used a rope to help her boyfriend, who fell and broke his bones, couldn't get off the rock wall. Regardless of whether it's true or not, I thought it was a pretty romantic legend. I think it's a good name for myself.
However, "Lost Arrow" was very popular among American climbers, but the branch manager of a Japanese bank who handed him his first business card said, "That's a very unlucky name, it looks like it's going to go bankrupt next year," and I was impressed that some people have that kind of association.
Fortunately, it hasn't gone bankrupt yet.
--Continued to the second part-
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Sakashita Naoe Profile
Born on February 6, 1947 in Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture. In 1970, he joined the Yamagaku Comrade Association. First ascended the North Wall of Januo in 1976. First ascending the north ridge of K2 in 1982. Translated by Yvon Chouinard in 1979. In 1981, he went to the United States at the invitation of Yvon Chouinard and became friends with famous climbers. In the winter of 1982, Choinard Japan was founded at the recommendation of Mr. Choinard. In 1984, he founded Lost Arrow Co., Ltd. and has been the CEO to this day. In 1989, he participated in the establishment of Black Diamond, the United States, and was appointed as an outside director and was a board member for 20 years until 2008.