■ Does it mean that Sonomitsu has gone on out of your desire, not calculation?

S: It has originated from my actions. I was too young to be wise… well, I am still almost ignorant. There are possibilities since you are stupid, aren’t there?


■ There are.

S: So we have to desire on what you have made. Money follows the actions. At the early times, I didn’t go based on thinking about capital.


■ Money follows your way?

S: Now, they'll do well enough and work out OK. LOL It might have been for trust from material sellers or some. I was desperately running without any calculation.


■ What so drove Sonoda Hajime in early times?

S: That was… my desire and ideas about changing somehow, you know. They work first. Then, I made shoes, a shop, and a workshop. Sonomitsu makes various things.



■ Well, let me wander from the main subject for just a while. You have looked at numberless feet, because you have made bespoke shoes since 1996. How have Japanese feet changed?

S: Hmm… I have lately been used, but I often felt most of young people had the tinier heels and the wider toe width. 30s of my customers are mostly so. Do you know E.T.?


■ A famous film directed by Steven Spielberg?

S: Yes, like that. Most of them have E.T. feet. LOL



■ LOL Old Japanese don’t?

S: Their heels are almost solid and steady for aging or something.


■ The weaker their feet are, the younger they are…

S: I often wondered why with shoe journalists before. Some said “that is probably because the young don’t have heavy things” and “they don’t walk longer than old men.”


■ It means physical fitness of young feet is on the decrease?

S: No idea I have… but it brings no problems to them, because it is true that they don’t walk as much as bygone days.