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Tangentially related: I was recently reading the autobiography of the CEO and one of the founders of Sony, Akio Morita. Sony Japan has been famous for having u
by GuiA 9y ago
Tangentially related:
I was recently reading the autobiography of the CEO and one of the founders of Sony, Akio Morita. Sony Japan has been famous for having uniforms, like many other Japanese companies (which Steve Jobs really liked and wanted to emulate, except the idea was shot down early on. He did apply the idea to himself though, which is where his famous look comes from).
Many people would ascribe this as Sony being a typical, paternalistic Asian company - however, the reality is a bit more subtle. Keep in mind that Sony was started right after World War 2, in a Tokyo ravaged by years of bombing:
"When we started the company, clothing was scarce and expensive on the black market. People came to work in an odd assortment of gear; returning soldiers wore bits of their uniform or old-fashioned suits that had been saved for many years. If a person was fortunate enough to have a good suit, he didn't want to wear it to the office where he might risk burning a hole in it with acid or soiling it. Some of our employees just didn't have the money to invest in a work jacket. So with company money we bought a jacket for everyone to wear in the office.
Pretty soon these jackets became a symbol of our company family. As the company prospered, we could have done away with the jackets - we used to have a summer jacket and a winter one - because we were all being paid and could afford our own, but everybody seemed to like the idea, and so we just decided to continue to provide them. In the beginning, we executives had a different colored name tag from the others, but we eventually adopted the same kind worn by everyone else.
Today these jackets and tags are being used everywhere, even where class distinctions made people hesitant to wear them at first. Many of us liked our blue jackets, and I still wear mine occasionally."
Akio Morita, Made in Japan
- slededit 9y agoDoes anyone know where I can find a picture of these uniforms? Google image search happily returns a picture of Kim Jong Il and steve jobs, but no actual images of the damn uniform. You'd think "sony company uniform" would be pretty easy for a search engine to search for.
- GuiA 9y agoThe later uniforms were designed by Issey Miyake, whom Jobs ordered his turtlenecks from. Here's one picture of early days Sony where all employees appear to be wearing the same jacket: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/SonyHistory/8ido18000007kygs-img/8ido18000007kyn2.gif https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/SonyHist...
- kcanini 9y agoDo you have a version that isn't potato quality?
- drakenot 9y agoBest version I could find: http://imgur.com/a/Kkck7 http://imgur.com/a/Kkck7
- canadian_voter 9y agohttps://i2.wp.com/www.sopitas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sony-fundacion-4-e1462649780571.png https://i2.wp.com/www.sopitas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05... Courtesy Tineye[0] [0] https://www.tineye.com/search/c9d37d27e89b6836f417109fc993ff052d0dba06/?sort=size&order=desc https://www.tineye.com/search/c9d37d27e89b6836f417109fc993ff...
- goldenkey 9y agoThose jackets look pretty damn nice, thick canvas fabric.
- rwmj 9y agoIf you're interested in Japanese industry from the 60s and 70s then there's an excellent film "Dawn of a New Day", a fictionalized account of the invention of VHS video recorders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329177/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329177/). The cover (http://asianwiki.com/images/2/21/Hiamatanoboru.jpg http://asianwiki.com/images/2/21/Hiamatanoboru.jpg) shows some workers in standard uniforms.
- ilamont 9y agoTaiwan, a former Japanese colony, has a few companies which follow Japanese corporate traditions. A friend worked for EVA Air in the back office, and besides having to wear a uniform similar to that of flight or gate staff, she said every morning at 9 am people would have to stand at their desks and do calisthenics that were broadcast over a loudspeaker. She said this was something the founder had picked up from visiting or interacting with Japanese companies in the 60s and 70s. At one company I worked at, a television network, they issued male staff with blue blazers but we never had to wear them during the course of the business day. I think the idea was we could throw them on in case some big shot came to visit.