Developing the Next Generation Sustainability

With technology and expertise developed over many years as a sports wear manufacturer, the GOLDWIN Group conducts a range of activities to support children as the custodians of the future. In addition to supporting the dreams of children as they take on the world through competitive sports, we provide inspiration and opportunities for children to unleash their potential and shape a beautiful future. This includes outdoor activities in the middle of nature and art classes using materials found in nature.

We established the GOLDWIN PLAY EARTH PARK as an event where children take center stage to create new ways of playing with play equipment designed by five teams of architects. Using the five elements that make up the Earth—earth, water, fire, wind, and sky—as their theme, the events installed play equipment designed in collaboration with architects to allow entirely new types of play to unfold that stimulate children’s powers of imagination. Using these five elements, we also established a series of collaboration items under five brands, including THE NORTH FACE and HELLY HANSEN, and held a number of fun workshops mainly for children to think further about their relationships with nature in urban areas.

Event details
April 23 to May 29, 2022: Tokyo Midtown Grass Square
July 23 to August 14, 2022: Fugan Unga Kansui Park and Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, Toyama Prefecture

Since 2000, GOLDWIN has been a special supporter of the GOLDWIN FIS YOUTH JAPAN CUP, an alpine ski competition (organizer: National Standard Race) that lays the groundwork for youth to become alpine skiers, and expands the athlete population. Top finishers in this event earn the right to compete in the FIS WHISTLER CUP for children, and the opportunity to spread their wings on the global stage. From 2020, the GOLDWIN FIS YOUTH JAPAN CUP has become an official International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) event for U14 and U16* skiers for the first time in Japan, offering opportunities for Japanese skiers to compete with others from around the world.

In FY 2022, 321 competitors took part in the GOLDWIN FIS YOUTH JAPAN CUP held at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture from March 9 to 12, 2023.

We have held THE NORTH FACE KIDS NATURE SCHOOL, where children and their parents learn while experiencing nature, since 2014. The school awakens a sense of adventure in children, which develops experiences and knowledge through contact with nature, the joy of growing together with friends, and the curiosity to challenge their own limits. The school also provides time for many children to nurture their ability to live close to nature and connect this to their dreams for the future.

In FY 2022, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to hold two online schools and 11 field schools.

We have held the GOLDWIN Junior Challenge Golf Tournament since 2010 at GOLF CLUB GOLDWIN, the golf course in Oyabe City, Toyama Prefecture operated by group company GOLDWIN Development Inc. The aim of the tournament is to offer junior golfers, from elementary to high school, opportunities to not only improve their competitive golf skills but to also learn golf rules and etiquette through competition.

On August 24, 2022, 19 junior golfers gathered together for an 18-hole stroke play competition. Prizes were given to the top three finishers in each age and gender class.

PLAY EARTH KIDS is a project that aims to both investigate and create the future of children and the Earth through play. While respecting the imagination and energy of children’s perceiving the world and the environment through free play, PLAY EARTH KIDS offers ideas and methodologies that bring a fresh perspective on the world.

In FY 2022, we opened PLAY EARTH KIDS on the first floor of the Yebisu Garden Place Center Plaza (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) in November. It is our first editorial store carrying a wide range of kids’ items on the theme “nature, children, play.”

The store began selling the first products of GREEN BATON, a sustainable label that buys children’s clothes that no longer fit or are no longer worn and repairs them as one-of-a-kind items before putting them on the shelves for sale. The store also stocks original PLAY EARTH KIDS products that create play for children and enrich and expand their relationship with nature. In the Place du Château at Yebisu Garden Place, we built a large wooden playground that creates play with sound. We also organized sound-themed workshops here where participants could make DIY musical instruments and create products for listening to the sound of nature. And on the weekend, live concerts were held where children could join in creating the music.