How Our "Sand Land" Movie Merchandise Was Joyfully Received by Customers

On August 18th, the release day of the movie "Sand Land", my colleague Hibiki-chan and I (Suzuki) were in Nagoya, Japan. We traveled from Hong Kong International Airport to Nagoya Centrair Airport to witness first-hand how our specially prepared "IIJAN" design products were delivered to customers and to lend a hand at the event we had been preparing for.

The experience renewed our gratitude for being involved in the event and strengthened our resolve to continue striving as a licensee based in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The variety of products we, IIJAN, prepared this time was not much. We focused on creating "on-demand products", special items made in collaboration with Brother Industries. We had a particular affection for the T-shirts and tote bags we provided at the workshop at the event venue.

First and foremost, we, together with Brother, are taking on the challenge of creating a world where "customers can participate in the design process and create a unique, one-of-a-kind item". Until now, most character merchandise has been produced via mass-production methods. However, we believe that among the diverse needs of customers, there is a demand for something unique. Brother's on-demand production technology makes this possible, and we experienced this latent demand firsthand at our previous event in Nagoya (Future GPX Cyber Formula). For fans of the movie "Sand Land", we wanted to provide the same experience, offering even more customization options with a variety of combinations.

Secondly, we wanted to introduce our "IIJAN" method to the world of character merchandise, even if only a little, and we were able to realize this. This involved adding a slight twist to the original designs. Of course, we treat the given designs from licensors with respect, but we also wanted to tailor them to the needs of our customers. For this workshop, we boldly proposed multiple color variations for the "Sand Land" title logo and received approval from the production committee. We believe our raison d'être is to continue challenging ourselves to offer customers as many variations as possible without detracting from the original world view. We were able to see many customers deliberating over design combinations for their bags and being satisfied with the final product. The production committee and even the movie's producer were pleased with the color combinations, saying, "This color combination is a great idea!" Nothing could have made us happier.