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Before he became a billionaire fashion entrepreneur, Yusaku Maezawa was a member of an indie rock band who decided to drop out of college “after seeing all the tired faces on my morning commute” in Japan.
Maezawa was born in 1975 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and graduated from the prestigious Waseda Jetogyu High School in 1991.
It was there that he started SWITCH STYLE, an indie rock band that eventually released an EP in 1995.
Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa, who at the end of 2021 took videos of himself floating on the International Space Station, has booked an orbit around the moon aboard the spacecraft of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.
After graduating, he followed his then-girlfriend to the United States, where he collected CDs and records of musicians he loved.
In 1995, he returned to Japan and began importing CDs and mail-order records.
His business succeeded, and he began to branch out.
In 2000, he created an online retail business. In the same year, his band signed with BMG Japan and released their debut album.
His company, Start Today Inc, also began selling clothing.
In 2004, Start Today launched Zozotown, a site that achieved great success selling clothing from stores such as Japanese boutique United Arrows and French brand APC.
Zozotown’s success has turned its founder, Maezawa, into one of Japan’s richest businessmen, and its name adorns a baseball stadium.
The location distinguished itself in its early days with a clean, uncluttered design and a piece of the “Ura-Hara” style – the hip fashion of the backstreets lining Tokyo’s Harajuku district.
The business took off when fashion-conscious professionals in their late 20s and early 30s began using Zozotown to buy trendy but work-friendly yarn online from brands like United Arrows and Nano Universe.
Its target is now broader, selling more than 6,800 brands including clothing made by Shimamura Co Ltd, one of Japan’s largest mass-market chains. But industry executives say it still has an enviable character.
It continued to grow until 2007, when it went public and was listed on the Tokyo Maternal Market.
In recent years, Maezawa has used his wealth to purchase famous and expensive works of art.
In 2016, he spent $57.2 million for a Jean-Michel Basquiat piece.
A year later, he paid a whopping $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction for another piece of Basquiat’s work – this one titled “Untitled.”
He also bought works by Christopher Wool, paying $13.9 million for one of them, in addition to works by Richard Prince.
In 2007, Maezawa spent $9.7 million on Prince’s “Runaway Nurse,” a record.
He also paid $6.9 million for Jeff Koons’ “Lobster.”
Maezawa’s dream is to purchase works of art and display them in his own museum in his hometown of Chiba Prefecture.
sources: Reuters, The daily monster
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