About octo
octo began as a T-shirt specialty store in Bangkok in 2014. Since then, our team has brought planning, production, and retail together to create what people value and need.
Mission
Not only the people who buy our products, but also those who make and sell them, our partners, and our neighbors. We want octo’s work to make someone’s day a little brighter and inspire their next action.
Long-term Vision
To remain a place where new beginnings are always born.
As the factory-sale project shows, ideas from the frontline can become action and lead to a new beginning.
Vision 2030
Become Bangkok’s lifestyle company that takes fun most seriously.
We value an open culture and an active community while staying focused on results. With apparel as our foundation, we will keep challenging ourselves to create new value that enriches everyday life.
Values
Think of ideas that will delight someone, and enjoy the process itself.
Question yesterday’s way, raise your hand, and try first.
Take responsibility for your judgment, and find purpose in growth and appreciation.
Our Promises
We do not make promises we cannot keep. We take responsibility for the quality and delivery dates we commit to.
We keep improving our operations to make late deliveries exceptionally rare.
We entrust each person with challenges suited to where they are today.
We create work where becoming a little better than yesterday leads to someone else’s happiness.
We combine the freedom to think with accountability for results.
We respond to proven performance with greater responsibility and recognition.
Values in Action
Share ideas that will delight customers
Spread the fun to your teammates
Reshape work into something you can enjoy
Raise your hand for what you want to do
Try first, then learn
Question the way things were done yesterday
Take responsibility for your judgment
Be able to do more than yesterday
Turn your work into someone’s thank you
Founder Story
Starting a company overseas for the first time and facing a crisis that nearly erased our sales were challenges without ready-made answers. octo began with—and still depends on—the habit of thinking about what people need and making it real together.
01
I began working as a buyer in 2004, sourcing clothing and lifestyle goods in Thailand. After visiting again and again, I came to love the warmth of its people and the energy of the country, and began to imagine living here one day.
In 2014, I took on the challenge of starting my first company overseas and founded octo in Bangkok. What I wanted to create was a community filled with smiles.
02
Our first business was octo TOKYO, a T-shirt specialty store. I did not start it because I had experience in apparel.
We began by selling what people would value and need, using what we could do at the time. That idea remains the starting point for every part of our business.
03
In January 2020, soon after opening a new store and investing in equipment, the pandemic began. At the time, almost all our sales came from international visitors to our physical stores, and sales fell by 99%.
The financing offered covered half of one month’s operating costs. On the morning of April 3, I decided to return to Japan and place our last hope on creating work that could protect the company.
04
We had never made masks, so we began by asking what kind of product people would genuinely need, then produced it for Japan.
Everyone in our stores, screen-printing factory, and office moved beyond their usual roles and focused on production. I remain deeply grateful: it was the effort of our people that allowed all of us to survive together.
05
Even as AI changes what work means, the joy of reaching a goal with the people closest to us and our teammates will remain. Time spent with purpose becomes an irreplaceable part of life.
I want octo to feel like a community where people can challenge themselves wholeheartedly with others. From here, we will build a future where the work itself can become something people genuinely enjoy.
Keisuke Asayama / KEISUKE ASAYAMA
CEO, octo Co., Ltd.
Company Profile
octo TOKYO / WhiteSand / YellowMango
Bangkok Office
190-196, Soi Chan 16 Yeak 2, Thung Wat Don, Sathon, Bangkok, Thailand 10120
Google MapsWork & People
Our work spans stores, factory, and office. The roles are different, but when it matters, we work together and take responsibility for our decisions and results.
