Teaming up with elementary school students for co-creation design projects (Feiler Japan)
JAPAN
Feiler Japan’s co-creation projects see elementary school students creating and selling original handkerchief designs. The projects serve as a bridge between community and region, encouraging learning through co-creation to develop the next generation of civic-minded citizens.
Project 1: Elementary school student co-creation design: “Shibuya in My Pocket”
Feiler Japan began co-creation projects with elementary school students in 2023. In the project’s inaugural outing, Feiler worked with fifth and sixth grade students from the Shibuya Municipal Jinnan Elementary School in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo. Aiming to foster imagination and ideation in line with the ongoing Shibuya Future Study municipal project, the students were tasked with using Feiler handkerchiefs to design a new Shibuya omiyage (Shibuya souvenir).
Design and marketing leaders from Feiler Japan visited the school for talks a total of five times throughout the project. Discussion topics included branding and manufacturing, urging students to imagine designs that would be most fitting for products representing the Shibuya area.
Eight teams of students expressed their versions of designs that would capture the spirit of Shibuya and delight the owner with fond and fun memories of the area with each use. Feiler’s design team received designs representing the iconic Shibuya Scramble Crossing and other local landmarks, the official Shibuya flower—the Japanese water iris—images of famous cafés and sweets, rainbows representing Shibuya diversity, and more. The Feiler design team then compiled the collected submissions into a final design.
Initial student submissions and the final product design, titled JINNAN SHIBUYA MIYAGE
The final handkerchiefs, woven from chenille yarn by German-trained master craftspeople, went on sale in September 2024, promptly clearing through stock. The students learned about customer interactions and sales-appropriate wording from the sales leaders overseeing the project and got to try their own hands at the techniques at sales locations in Feiler’s Ginza store and locations around Shibuya Station.
Students who participated in the project expressed satisfaction at having been able to see the development of a product through from design to sales, learning about aspects of businesses they’d never considered before.
Project 2: Hopes for marine protection, expressed on a single handkerchief
The second co-creation project was hosted in 2025, in collaboration with elementary school students at the municipal Odaiba Gakuen joint elementary and junior high school in Minato City, Tokyo. With the waters of Tokyo Bay visible from the school windows to provide further motivation, the students embarked on the “Blue Sea Project,” utilizing recent studies on development of edible seaweed and other marine topics to express their hope for protection of clear seas and marine resources.
As during the prior Jinnan Elementary School project, students were divided into eight teams to produce various concepts, with elements from each group’s creation incorporated into a final design. Backed by their original project characters Ruby the Clownfish and Koko the Sea Turtle, students expressed their hopes for marine conservation through the project’s medium of handkerchiefs.
The final product line, dubbed ODAIBA GAKUEN BLUE SEA, is planned to debut on Thursday, November 6, 2025 with a portion of sales revenue going to initiatives supporting marine conservation education and outreach.
Feiler Japan will continue to engage in collaborative student activities supporting creativity and education.
Submitted student designs and finalized ODAIBA GAKUEN BLUE SEA products
Project member comments
Taking on challenges for the future of the Feiler brand
Feiler celebrated its 50th year in Japan in 2022. In reflecting on this tremendous milestone, with gratitude toward the many customers who have supported us this past half-century, we know that striving for the growth which will see us forward for the next 100 years depends upon continuing to be an indispensable presence in the lives of our customers and to greater society.
The two projects featured in this article are an expression of that drive. While these projects may be small, they embody our spirit as a company, contributing to society and communities via tangible activities. We hope to continue similar projects moving forward.
Yoko Yoshino Feiler Japan
Each Feiler design carries its own name and story. Through these projects, in interacting with their community and environmental conservation, the children are weaving their own stories too.
In experiencing different stages of commercial product production from design to sales, the children get to interact with our world here at Feiler, perhaps becoming fans of our products and, ultimately, even considering careers in design, PR, the fashion business, or related industries.
In addition, the staff involved in the projects have reported coming away with a renewed sense of pride in their work. Even members not directly involved, and those from partner companies, expressed their admiration for and interest in the projects, promoting them as enthusiastically as if they were their own.
We are delighted by the response these projects have received and hope to continue to share that delight to our customers and society as a brand, delivering new sparks of happiness to daily life.
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