ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has acquired master license rights to the CIMARRON brand in the Japanese market for the apparel and accessory tie-in merchandise. ITOCHU will be commencing operations in full scale via Caitac Family, Inc. (headquartered in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture; Masaji Kaihata, President & CEO; hereinafter “Caitac”) starting from the 2018 spring-summer season.

CIMARRON is a jeans brand established by Saez Merino in Spain in 1978. The brand developed fashionable and attractive collections targeted at the French market in the late-1980s and achieved great success. In the early 1990s, the brand launched the groundbreaking color stretch jeans combining cotton stretch denim, known as “second skin,” and piece dyeing and earned recognition as a pioneer in lady’s stretch jeans in the global market. It also enjoyed huge success in the Japanese market in the 2000s.

With the commencement of licensing of CIMARRON, ITOCHU will embark on a full-fledged release of the brand through its partnership with Caitac, mainly targeting women from their 20s to their 40s. Combining carefully selected fabric with the development of the latest patterns and a wide variety of colors on the basis of the characteristics of the CIMARRON brand featuring stretch denim and piece dyeing, ITOCHU will elevate the brand value and enhance the brand awareness by improving the fit, wear comfort and design, which can earn more popularity among the modern women.
The CIMARRON products will go on sale via major department and multi-brand stores and specialty storesnationwide from the 2018 spring-summer season. ITOCHU aims to achieve retail sales of ¥2 billion in five years.