IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s New “Towel Maintenance” Service. What we are looking forward to

This is Abe from IKEUCHI ORGANIC.

This year marks our 69th year in business. As we have been announcing for some time, we have started a new initiative to become a company that is more deeply committed to “a life spent with things.

We have started a new service called “Towel Maintenance” to keep your towels in a comfortable condition for a long time.

We will take your towels and terrycloths to our Imabari headquarters factory for maintenance, and return them to the condition in which they were purchased. For more details, please see this service page.

Towel Maintenance page

After long use, the towels have become hard to the touch or have lost their absorbency. Or, the towels have become stained black or have a smell that is difficult to remove. If you have such problems, please try our towel maintenance service. We are sure that you will be surprised to find that your towels will feel as if they have been reborn.

For your reference, here is a sample of how much maintenance can change the condition of your towels.

Before the official release of Towel Maintenance, we had several customers monitor the product, and the photo above was taken at that time. We received many surprised comments from the monitored customers, who did not expect that the volume would be restored so well or that the dark spots would be removed so cleanly.

This maintenance service is only available for IKEUCHI ORGANIC products (towels, terrycloths, bathrobes, etc.). Instead, we will provide the best maintenance for our own products because we understand the individual characteristics of each product best.

For example, in our maintenance process, we place towels in very hot water for sterilization. This would be insane in the eyes of the world’s cleaning professionals, because there is a risk of color fading. This is because there is a risk of color fading. But because we understand the details of the dyes we use, we understand the temperature and time limits for processing at high temperatures with as little effect on the product as possible.

What is the best maintenance that can be done only by the manufacturer of the product, which is difficult to achieve with cleaning services that handle clothing and textile products made by various companies? As a result of our pursuit of this, we are now able to return your garments to you in the same condition as if they were freshly grated, as you can see in the photo above.

Towel maintenance by IKEUCHI ORGANIC for IKEUCHI ORGANIC products.

This has finally become a reality. This service is something we have wanted to do for a long time, and the idea has been in the works for about five years. We have been preparing for the release of this service by obtaining cleaning qualifications as a company, selecting and installing machines, and making repeated detailed adjustments.

What is the reason for our focus on towel maintenance?

It is simply that we want our customers to use our products for a long time.

As we have always said, depending on care such as washing and drying, towels will improve in condition the more they are used, and we have always communicated that “towels are meant to be nurtured. Ikeuchi towels are designed to be used comfortably for at least 10 years if they are properly cared for.

Towels are not consumable items, but rather, a favorite item. Just like leather goods or denim, the more you use them, the more they develop a unique taste and become irreplaceable for you. We make towels with the hope of delivering products that will be a part of our customers’ lives and livelihoods.

At the same time, making products that customers can use for a long time and reduce the frequency of replacement is a major pillar of our corporate philosophy of “maximizing safety and minimizing environmental impact.

Although we say that our towels can be used for a long time depending on care, it is up to customers to take care of their towels, and although we have provided information on how to take care of towels on our website and social networking services, we have not been able to provide any further support.

Also, laundry care varies greatly depending on each family’s circumstances. We have been providing customers with information on how to take care of their towels, but it may be difficult for them to realize what we have told them.

That is why we are finally ready to handle towel care on our end with the release of our towel maintenance service.

The best way to extend the life of a product is for people to care for it and become attached to it. If a slightly regrettable part of the product is improved and returned to the customer, the customer may become more attached to the product than before. This is the basis of our towel maintenance.

In this towel maintenance service, we enclose a medical record when we return towels to you. The chart includes a diagnosis of the condition of the towels and what kind of maintenance we have performed in response to the diagnosis. We also include an explanation of towel care so that you can maintain your towels yourself.

(▲) Sample of the enclosed chart

The reason why we are sending you these sheets is that we hope they will help you think about daily towel care through maintenance.

The most effective care we recommend is daily care, such as washing towels on a daily basis. We are sending you these sheets because we believe that some people will realize the importance of towel care through maintenance and will want to reconsider their own care at home.

We feel that we ourselves have much to learn by starting towel maintenance.

Until now, we have been sending out information on how to take care of towels, but we have not been able to learn how our customers actually take care of their towels. By taking care of our customers’ towels, we are able to learn about the actual situation.

Are the methods we are transmitting something that can be practiced in our customers’ busy daily lives? Is it something that can be implemented in the customer’s home laundry environment? Through towel maintenance, we will evolve the content of towel care that we propose to our customers into something that is grounded in reality.

And we would like to make our accumulated knowledge and experience into shared knowledge of society.

Thankfully, as we have been communicating about towel care, we have had the opportunity to form alliances with people in completely different industries who share our ideas.

For example, we supervised the development of a home washing machine equipped with a special towel care course by Panasonic, and we jointly developed a towel maintenance course with OKULAB, which operates a laundromat and laundry service. I feel that the circle of rethinking towel care is expanding beyond the industry.

As interest in sustainability grows and we strive to realize a sustainable society, what is important is the circulation of resources. By sharing our vision of the future with our customers and other people who share our ideas, we can create something new through chemical reactions. This is what is important.

What kind of changes will be brought about by starting towel maintenance? I am very much looking forward to that.

How will towels be changed by towel care? If you want to feel the difference, please give towel maintenance a try.

＜Editorial cooperation: Keiji Ide