Message from Junji Sawagami, President & CEO

Passing On SAAB’s One-of-a-Kind Craftsmanship to the Next Generation

In 1987, SAAB began as a small denim washing business, founded in one room of an apartment. I joined the company at the age of 21 under the guidance of my father, the founder. As part of my journey to understand the industry, I discovered the art of denim processing—a field full of creativity and individuality.

Denim is unlike any other fabric. It has a unique way of aging—its fading and character develop over time with the wearer’s life. Our craft is to recreate that beauty on new denim through careful processing. I became fascinated by this challenge—reproducing time and stories through technique—and began our great journeys of denim stories without a textbook.

We developed new processing methods, created samples, and proactively proposed them to brands—an unusual approach at the time for a factory. This led to real achievements and ultimately became the core of SAAB. In recent years, to scale the quality of "Made in SAAB," we’ve introduced the latest machinery, integrated sewing factories into our group, and established a production base in Cambodia. We continue to evolve, with the ambition to make even greater contributions to the denim industry.

There are two things we always keep in mind. First, to treat every pair of jeans as one-of-a-kind. No matter how many pieces we produce, each one is special to the person who chooses it. We never cut corners—not even on a single abrasion. Second, to keep proposing denim that makes people say, “Wow, this is cool! I want to wear this!”
Because anyone in the world might wear SAAB denim, we want to keep sharing the joy of denim.

We take pride in the skills we’ve built over time. We trust our creativity. And with that pride and confidence, we continue forward.
We will carry Made in Japan, and Made in SAAB denim into the next generation.

Junji Sawagami
President & CEO