11 November, 2021
The story begins in England, UK.
Mr. Akai, our founder, fell in love with anime when he was around 15 years old.
By the time he was 18, he was looking to represent some of his favourite shows in his day-to-day life, however, upon spending some time browsing, he quickly realised that the anime merch industry was filled with low-quality, lazy-designed, loud crap.
Instead of waiting for the right person to come along and make what he wanted, he decided to take matters into his OWN hands.
Using his creative background and vision for anime, TUKO was born.
1 December, 2021
The growth was speedy right from the beginning - only FOUR videos in and there were hundreds of thousands of people resonating with the message.
On Dec 1st, 2021, the shop opened for the first time. The designs were simple black & white t-shirts. Within hours, they went out of stock... The demand was high, but the supply extremely low.
Mr. Akai spent DAYS cutting vinyl, heat pressing onto blank Ts, packaging and shipping everything out by himself.
Quickly realising it's not sustainable, Mr. Akai went door-to-door to local UK manufacturers but none of them took him seriously. That didn't stop him.
He started calling people. Most UK manufacturers couldn't produce what Mr. Akai had in mind, but after a while - he managed to secure one.
1 June, 2022
Using his personal finance, Mr. Akai ordered 50 hoodies and posted a video online... it went VIRAL. However, manufacturers didn't take us serious and scammed us- keeping us waiting for 3 MONTHS!
The Tuko Army was loyal and understanding, waiting the entire time.
Eventually, we did a restock. Within hours: Out of stock again.
We continued re-investing the money and innovating on repeat.
Now
Fast forward to the present and TUKO has garnered millions of views, sold thousands of clothes worldwide and has a powerful team that allows Mr. Akai to bring his vision for anime to life.
However, somewhere along the journey, the mission changed.
Mr. Akai wanted to achieve something greater than clothes.
He was tired of anime getting misrepresented and so, set out to change this.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to change perceptions around anime, so that more people can enjoy the amazing stories and worlds anime offers.
To remove the stigma it has and bring casual anime fans together.
We are providing a way for you to represent your favourite stories, subtly.
Without looking like a 'weeb' but still being visible to other anime fans.
By representing anime to the world in a fashionable way,
YOU can change perceptions.
Thousands of you are already changing the stigma all around the globe as we speak.
This is more than just a clothing brand - it's a MOVEMENT.
TUKO is the only place where anime is done JUSTICE. Which is why we say:
"TUKO SOLOS!!"
-Mr. Akai