1996
ラブラドール犬、看板息子BUDDY。
どんなときもそばで2人を、TRUCKを見守ってくれた大事な存在。TRUCKスタート以前にブルースバーを開こうと真剣に考えたくらいにハマっていたブルース。買い集めていたレコードの中、アルバム"STONE CRAZY"のジャケットでギターを弾くBUDDY GUYのハの字眉毛がお人好しなラブラドールと重なって、そこから名付けたBUDDY。そしてBUDDYの息子が生まれた時、BUDDY GUYの相棒ハーモニカ奏者、JUNIOR WELLSから息子の意味も込めてJUNIORと名付けた。
This is our Laborador pup Buddy, the store's poster boy. He was always by our side, watching over TRUCK. Before we opened TRUCK, we were so into blues music that at one point we seriously considered opening a blues bar. On the jacket of a record from our collection called "STONE CRAZY", there was a picture of Buddy Guy playing his guitar. His eyebrows looked just like our good-natured Lab's – and so we named him "Buddy". Naturally, when Buddy had a son, he too got his name "Junior" from a blues musician – Buddy Guy's harmonica-playing partner, Junior Wells.
オンボロビルの部屋を自分たちで改造して住まいと工場と店を作った。リノベーションという言葉も聞いたことがなかった当時、手探りではじめた場所作り。2人で古い内装をすべてめくり1ヶ月間ぶっ通しで内装工事に明け暮れた。解体、ペンキ塗り、フローリング張りに水道工事……、気合いで完成させた。寝不足で、全身ホコリだらけで、クタクタで、お金もなくて。でも自分たちの場所を作るのは面白くて面白くてしようがなかった。
We made our home, store, and workshop from rooms in a shabby old building that we renovated ourselves. Even though at the time we had never even heard of the word "renovation", we jumped right into it, doing whatever we thought we needed to. Between the two of us, it took a solid month to change the old interior. We tore things down, added paint, removed the flooring and installed plumbing… everything we did, we put all of our effort into. By the end, we were sleepless, covered in dust, exhausted, and poor – but it was all worth it. To us, nothing was more fun or more satisfying than creating our own space.
1Fに店を作る前に、まず自分たちが住む場所を2Fに作った。内装を引っぺがしてコンクリートむき出しにペンキを塗っただけ。たくさんの写真をここで撮り、3冊のカタログはここから生まれた。そのカタログ作りも型破りで、スタジオを借りたりスタイリストやカメラマンに依頼するのではなく、すべて自分たちでこなした。素人が自由に撮る写真が逆に斬新だったようだ。
Before we made the shop on the first floor, we set up our living space on the second floor. We stripped the interior walls and simply threw a layer of white paint over the bare concrete. It was in this space that we took a lot of our photos and where three of our catalogs were born. The way we made our catalogs was also a bit unconventional in that we didn't rent out a studio space or hire a professional photographer to take the photos – we chose to do it all ourselves. Although we were amateurs, taking pictures in our own way somehow seemed more original and fresh.
1997年1月、TRUCKオープン。
38坪の1F、道路に面した側、20坪弱のスペースに家具を並べて店にし、スライドドアを1枚ガラッと開けると奥が工場。店には木工機械をまわす音が響き渡っていた。当時はインターネットも普及していなかったのでウェブサイトなんかない。特に宣伝することもなく、ひょっこりとスタートした。店にはレジなんかなくてタッパーに現金を入れていた。(実はなんと2004年頃までタッパーのままだった!)
January 1997, the opening of TRUCK. The first floor of the store was about 126 sq. meters. We used the 66 sq. meter space facing the street for the store where we displayed the furniture and put the workshop in the remaining space in the back, accessible from a single sliding door. The sounds from the workshop in the back would carry throughout the store. At the time, the internet wasn't very widespread so we didn't have a website. We didn't make any particular announcements about the opening of the store, either. We didn't even have a register – we just put cash into a Tupperware container. (In fact, we kept using the Tupperware container to store money until 2004!)
1999年「TRUCK AREA2」オープン。
作業するのに手狭になったので、TRUCKのすぐ裏手の通りに3階建てのビルを1棟借りることになった。またしてもここも自分たちで改造をした。でも、こちらは前回とは違いTRUCKを営業しながらの工事。閉店後の夜中や定休日を使ってこつこつ改造したのでオープンまで半年もかかってしまった。
In 1999, we opened TRUCK AREA 2.
Because the workshop space in TRUCK was so narrow, we rented out another space, a three-story building on the street behind it. In the same way as before, we fixed it up ourselves, but this time we were doing the work on the new space while simultaneously operating the store. Little by little, at night after we closed the store or on our days off, we would work on the renovations. Because we couldn't make any other time, it took six whole months before it was ready to open.
AREA2は、1Fが工場、2Fが倉庫兼仕上げ場、3Fが店になっていた。いつもBUDDYが展示品のベッドで気持ちよさそうに寝ている。時にはお客さんと一緒にソファでくつろいだり、遊んでもらったり。そんなほのぼのとした空気が広がっていた。
The first floor of Area 2 was the workshop, the second floor was the finishing room and storage room, and the third floor was the store. Buddy was always sleeping comfortably on one of the beds on display. Sometimes he would join customers on the sofa and relax, and sometimes the customers would play with him. He made the atmosphere of the space feel more warm and cozy.
AREA2の入り口には植物がわっさりとあり、"憩いの場"と呼んでいた。その横に狭くて急な階段があり、 ここが店の入り口?とすこし不安気に上がると現れるのは店ではなく2Fの作業場。作業をしている所を横目に通り抜け、さらに急な階段をハアハア言いながら上がるとやっと3Fの店に到着。なぜ、お客さんに優しくない配置なのか?それはAREA2を作ったきっかけは作業場と倉庫を広げたかったのが一番で店を増やすことではなかったから。普通で考えると1Fの路面が店になるんだろうけど、まず機械がある工場が優先だった。それが、決して狙ったわけではないのに思いがけず「作り手の顔が見える家具屋」なんてよばれるようになった。
The entrance of Area 2, with its bright gathering of plants at the front, was called "The Breathing Space." Next to the entrance there was suddenly a set of steep stairs – you would think they led to the store, but once you got to the top you would find that instead of a store, there was a workshop. It wasn't until you looked down the side of the workshop, saw yet another staircase, and wheezed your way up it that you would at last enter the store on the third floor. Why would we put our store in such a difficult place for customers to get to? It was because initially, we mostly needed Area 2 for extra workshop and storage space and not necessarily for another store.
Ordinarily we would have put the store on the first floor facing the street, but we chose to make having a workshop with machines the priority. We didn't intend it to be, but TRUCK ended up being known as "the furniture store where you can see the makers' faces."
シロクマ舎
TRUCKオリジナルの革『ファロードレザー』を使ってソファを作るときにできる切れっ端がもったいなくて捨てられずにとっておいたのが、シロクマ舎の革を使ったもの作りのはじまり。ベルトポーチに携帯ケース、財布、どれもひとつひとつ手縫いで形にしていく。革の端っこの部分なので、キズがあったりミミが残っていたり、同じ形のアイテムでもそれぞれに表情が違う。さらに日々使っていくと、どんどんいい色に変わっていき味わいも愛着も深まる革小物達。
Shirokumasha
When we made sofas with TRUCK's original "Furrowed Leather", we were left with a lot of scrap pieces that we thought would be a waste to just throw away. We decided to reuse and make little accessories out of them.
For everything from belt pouches to cellphone cases to wallets, we stitch them together by hand. Because we work with scrap leather, the surface has marks and the uncut, natural edges are uneven, so even items of the same shape and design each have a different look. On top of that, the more that they are used, the more their color and character change and deepen over time.
2008
いよいよ旭区の新しい場所の工事が始まった。
大きな樹にかこまれて日々を過ごしたいという思いでやっと見つけたこの場所。土地探しに4~5年、土地が決まってからプラン1年、オープンまでの工事は1年半かかった。店と工場、Birdと倉庫、シロクマ舎、自宅からなる4つの建物や大きな 鉄製の窓、10mを超える樹々、レンガの塀などすべて一から自分たちで手がけた。
At last, the construction on our new space in Asahi-ku had begun. We had finally found the place where we could spend our days surrounded by trees. It took about 4-5 years of searching before we found it; afterwards, we spent a year planning and another year and a half constructing it before we could open it. Everything, including the the four buildings – the store and the workshop, Bird and the storage area, Shirokumasha, and our home – and their big steel frame windows, plus all of the trees over 10 meters tall and the brick walls, was put together by ourselves from the ground up.
TRUCKをはじめた頃からあったらいいなとずっと思い描いていた、お客さんにコーヒーでも飲みながらゆっくりとくつろいでもらえるスペース。移転を機に併設したBirdの工事ももちろん自分たちで。ペンキを塗ったり床を張ったりと8ヶ月続いた。窓枠をはめると一気に世界観が高まった。
Ever since we started TRUCK, we thought that it would be nice if there was a space where our customers could relax and maybe enjoy a cup of coffee. We used the relocation of the store as our chance to create our cafe, Bird, which we also built by ourselves. Over the course of eight months, we worked on the building, doing things like painting the walls and putting down the flooring. When we finally installed the window frames, it felt like the whole place had come together at once.
2009.12
13年前、ここからすべてが始まった。何もない、ゼロからかんばって作り上げた思い出の場所。離れるのは寂しかったけど、次に進むために!引越し前、3歳になった娘とBUDDYと一緒に最後の記念写真。
Here, at this store, everything started. It's the place that we worked hard and created from nothing; from zero. It was sad for us to leave it, but we did it so we could move forward. This is our last family photo of us, our then three-year-old daughter, and Buddy, all together before the big move.
2009年12月、たくさんの思いを形にした場所で樹々に囲まれ、TRUCKとBirdが新たにオープン。
In December of 2009, surrounded by trees in the place that we had put together from our many thoughts and imaginings, TRUCK and Bird were opened anew.