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JUN IMAI / KAIDO HOUSE - EP.76
JUN IMAI / KAIDO HOUSE - EP.76
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About this episode
June Imai, founder of Kaito House, joins the Right Hand Drive Guys to discuss his journey from Hot Wheels to launching his own automotive lifestyle brand. The conversation dives into his unique approach to die-cast cars, collaborations with notable figures, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. June shares insights on the cultural differences in car collecting between the US and Japan, as well as the significance of exclusive merchandise. With exciting upcoming projects, including a collaboration with DGK, this episode highlights the fusion of car culture and creativity.
Topics:
kaito house
die-cast cars
collaborations
entrepreneurship
cultural differences in collecting
nismo licensing
upcoming projects
car culture
skateboarding
In this episode we sit down with Jun Imai the mind beind the Kaido House brand. We talk die cast, DGK collabs, GTRs in Japan and more.
Socials @RHDGUYS
Merch http://RHDGUYS.COM
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Welcome back to another episode of the right hand drive guys podcast.
The show for guys who like right hand drives.
As always, I'm Bobby.
This is Aaron.
Yo, yo.
And this is episode 76.
And today we have another guest.
And we've actually been waiting on this one for quite a while.
Oh, yeah.
We first met this man in Japan at Fuji Speedway.
And we honestly had no clue who he was.
Right.
Like, yeah, he was just a cool down to earth guy with a GTR that got invited to this track day.
And little did I know I owned some of his die cast cars and a bunch of his merch.
Yeah, yeah.
And so the man that I am talking about is June from Kaito House.
He is the owner and creative designer for all of those dope car culture die cast that you'll see.
And he also is the guy that gets away with using the Nismo logo on all of his merch.
Oh, yeah.
That's a big deal.
Yeah.
Bigger deal than most people realize, I think.
Yeah.
So, you know, he was willing to throw down some time for us, which we're super grateful for.
And yeah, let's see what we can learn.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, let's do it.
All right.
This is June from Kaito House.
All right.
And we're back with June from Kaito House.
How's it going today, man?
Good, man.
I always get it.
It's Friday, every day's a fun day.
So, here we are.
So, are you currently in California?
Yes.
Yeah.
I'm in LA.
I was in Malaysia all last week and a weekend.
So, I've been spending this whole week just trying to get back to LA time.
It's always hard coming back from Asia.
You know, despite me going over there, it seems like once a month at least.
But it's always a rough week upon return, you know?
Yeah.
You're a hard man to track down in that sense.
It does seem like you just nonstop just keep going.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is, we get a pretty packed travel schedule this year, especially just in terms ofevent appearances or just marketing opportunities.
This is that.
Also some meetings.
I'll be going to Japan and actually in exactly one month.
Be back out there again.
So, yeah.
After that, just slow down just a little bit.
Fall and picks up again, really fast.
So, come on, man.
You don't got to give us the hyper-envy over here.
One month till Japan.
That's awesome though.
But, do you, are you able to make some time for funwhile you're on these business trips at least?
Always, always.
Because they're always title-hops trips.
Because of that, it's like they're always fun.
This next event coming up, we're going to be driving from Yokohama to Hama Matsu,which is kind of like on the outer end of Shizuoka.
So, it's a good three hour drive.
I'll be taking a car.
I haven't driven yet.
I purchased it back in December.
Haven't had the chance to drive it yet.
So, I'm looking forward to that.
And driving up with a couple of friends, so it should be a good time.
Is that the 34 that you had gotten?
Yes, it's the Silver Series 2.
34.
Nice.
So, being my, it'll be the first time I get to drive that.
The black car that I've been driving for the past two years,that's actually going on the container next week.
To come here in a way.
So, yeah, super pumped for that.
That's going to be really weird driving that car out here.
You know, it's like, I've been, that's kind of been like my go-to for the past two years in Tokyo.
And now it's on its way to LA.
It's super weird actually.
Yeah, and I see a few of my other GTR buddies.
There's are starting to trickle in on the containers.
And yeah, everybody's really excited.
And, you know, I think it's pretty wild that you're able to really spend so much time with it in Japan.
And then, yeah, to be driving in on the streets of LA, that's going to be kind of surreal in that sense.
It is really surreal.
And I think that's one of the great things about the program.
Top-right has for us.
And to be able to experience it.
And, you know, even like, take part in the track day.
They organized for us.
They're in Audis Alon.
Yeah, I mean, I think about the memories built with that car.
It just makes it that much more special.
And, you know, like, let's be honest, it's like they don't have like the cheapest prices on these things.
But at the same time, it's like, I mean, the experience is priceless.
Oh, for sure.
When, as customers and clients of Top-right, I think we can all agree that.
It's like, you know, these cars aren't cheap.
But I always say, you know, you only cry once.
It's when you pay for after that.
It's like, you know, after that, it's like, who cares, right?
It's like, hey, the money, you get to have these amazing experiences.
Yeah, it's going to cut.
You know, you're spending way more than someone who like got us somewhere else.
And they're just waiting for the ship versus all of us who've been out to Japan several times to drive.
By cars, it's like, that's amazing, amazing program.
Yeah, now it really is.
And it allows you to kind of check off bucket list items that otherwise would have kind of beenunattainable to you had they not offered that.
Totally.
So, you know, we know who you are.
We are just hoping, you know, for our listeners who are new to what you do,if you could just give us a real quick kind of who you are, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
So, Juni, my, I'm the president, founder, chief creative of Criter House,which is an automotive lifestyle brand, just put it in the most generalist terms.
Primarily focused around diecast lifestyle, if you will.
You know, just me and a nutshell, formal, formal background is an automotive design.
Spent 14 years at Hot Wheels from just becoming like, you know, entry level,10th designer all the way to director of the brand before I've departed in 2018.
And since then, I've also dabbled in the tech industry before I went in full time intoCriter House, which is my own brand. And been official since 2021.
And we've had a steady path of growth in the past three years. We're celebrating three years this year.
And yeah, it's been, it's been awesome. It's been an awesome ride so far.
Congrats on that three years. I mean, to some people, it's like, oh, that's just three years.
But when you're a guy coming, you know, from maybe a more corporate style world, you could say,to running your own business and kind of creating it from the ground up. I mean, three years feels like
a long time when you're in that position. It does because when you break free from, you know,
the world of corporate, which, you know, especially not just corporate, but working for a legacy company,like Mattel's been around forever, right? I spent good 14 years with them. And, you know, everything is
more or less kind of groomed for you. And there's always like somebody who does something, right?
It's like when you're in a position like for me in creative and design, it's like I had a set role,whether it was, you know, being the, you know, one of the designers all the way to when I became thedirector of that organization, there's still somebody who takes care of something, right? It's like,
you know, as a designer, it's like, okay, you just design the cars. Fine. There's someone else who
sculpts it for you. There's someone else who engineers it for you. There's someone else who creates
a packaging for you, right? There's someone else you have, you know, a PN who takes care of the
scheduling for you, right? So it's like, you had this one role and you had the chance to do that
really, really well. Versus when you make that jump into entrepreneurship, it's like you have to
wear every single one of those hats, right? And I think that's something that, you know, I underestimated
when I jumped into this. It's like, you don't have that other person or that, that team
retakes care of all that stuff for you, right? It's like you're doing all that. In addition to
things that you may not know or may not do very well, like finances and things like that.
That was, I think that's one of the big challenges that I faced. But certainly it's like
the motivation of everything else is what keeps you going, right? And for me, you know, if you're to speak
on kind of like, what are the, you know, what are the things that made me make that jump fromcorporate world into entrepreneurship? As a creative, I mean, there's several things, right?
I've always wanted to be my own boss and have my own brand. Like I've had this vision since
going back to high school, right? Which was a long time ago. But yeah, even back then, it's like,
man, I want my own brand one day. I want it in the car space just because I've been, you know,
I've been a car kid car guy all my life, right? It's like, because I was a little kid, I was just
drawing cars all day. And I was like, man, one day I want my own like badass brand and I'm going to do
my own thing. And I just want to have fun every day and, you know, build cars, do cool designs,
you know, just like really kind of like bring this brand up. And I've had that like just in the back
of my mind this whole time, just throughout my, you know, corporate career at Mattel. A lot of people
don't know. And this is, this is kind of an important part of entrepreneurship is that between
Kind of House 2021 and Mattel Hot Wheels, I left in 2018. There's a good,
three and a half year period in between where I actually worked in technology. And that was one of the
things that kind of guided me in this path to entrepreneurship because I went from working froma legacy company like Mattel, very corporate, very structured to a tech startup.
And it wasn't just a tech startup. This was an AI startup. The first AI Motorsports brand,
it was called Robo Race, was based out in London funded by a very, very successful investor whocreated several companies and several brands, Robo Race being one of them, which was our main focuswas to create these AI powered or AI control, I should say, race cars that are funded and campaignby individual companies, right? So it was a very, you know, B2B operation, you know,
working with investors, companies, universities, etc to kind of build AI, build this AI program,and, you know, mashed it into this Motorsports organization was just crazy, right? I mean, it is like,
looking back at it now, unfortunately the company didn't kind of, you know, flourish,but I would argue that in the space of AI, it was like easily five years ahead of its time.
Right. Because when you think about AI now and kind of how it impacts our world, it's like we use
it all the time now, right? It's just part of everyday life versus five years ago. It wasn't so much,
it was still kind of new, the concept of AI was still very new. You know, I think you have that
company come out five years later like I think it would have been very successful. But that jump
from corporate world to technology startup, like that was a huge like leap of fake. And I think that
leap just, you know, taking that safety net out is one of the things where it's like, well,you've got to do everything you can now to survive in this company and to make the company survive.
So I think that really helped me build the kind of the building wants of kind of house.
Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe if you had gone straight from corporate to developing Kido House,
maybe it would have been more of a challenge without that, you know, kind of in between.
Yeah, it would definitely have been a challenge just because there's the one thing that I really,I don't think you learn in that kind of corporate environment is the element of risk and taking risk.
I think we all take risks every day, right? It's part of our number life, but then just, you know,
getting comfortable with the with the element of risk is something that you don'tnecessarily build as fast as when you just like go work for like the startup crazy startup that,you know, might not be there next week. So I think that kind of helped grew me into what
I needed to to to learn if you prepare for to launch Kido House, right? Because that was 100% risk, right?
Right. Yeah, for sure. I could see that. And so one question I had was,
has anyone high profile, so to speak, come to come to you, Kido House, for an exclusive collab?
Yeah, we get approached all the time now, whether it's an individual or whether it's a company or brand,and there's two ways. One is, can we get some cooperation, whether it's a collaboration or a product
with Kido House, or can Kido House or myself, just me as a personal person, can we arriveand become part of something, right? So there's that. Yeah, so we've had definitely had high profile
people involved with our brand. You know, we can't give away who's coming up next, but we've certainly
had some very, you know, successful collaborations recently. I think back to maybe our, when we kind of
first launched like year one, going into year two, we collab with Suncang and Daniel Wu ondiecast products, all the way to even as of recent, we've, you know, partnered with Daniel Shiharaand also Larry Chen, two very prominent figures in our world, right? And doing cool collaborations
with them. And well, I think one of the things that is appealing about the Kido House collaboration
is we kind of create this alternate universe in the diecast space. And I think that's something that's,
it's a unique difference, a different general factor of our product is it's not an exactreplication of something that's out there, or a replication of somebody's vehicle. And in the case
of let's take Larry's orange band project, for example, which is now out in the market. I think it's
pretty much sold out no matter where you go. That was kind of like an interpretation of his orange
band project, his Z in an alternate universe of what could this car look like in an alternate universe,right? And that's one thing that's really that we're big on is Kido House, that's his ultimate
universe. Yeah, you have your car. I'm not interested in replicating it, right? But what could it look
like in a Kido House universe? Like what would that be? Yeah, that's really fun. It's really fun,
and it's a very artistic angle as opposed to like, hey, you're awesome. Can we just like label
slap your name on something? And you know, we're just going to use your face and market the hell out of
it. Like we're not about that. We're more collaborative. It's like, what do you want to do? Like,
what can we do that? Maybe this crazy idea you have in your head that might be very hard to
realize in the real car. Well, let's just try it out in diecast form, right? There's no risk there.
Yeah, that's true. That's true. And I think that's really, it's interesting. It's also very inviting
for people. So, and a lot of people are catching on to that, right? We're very welcoming in that sense.
We invite people to, you know, just have fun with our brand and create this ultimate universe with us.
Yeah, that is awesome because us as car guys, right? We have that we obviously have this
creative part to us. And that's why we're doing these things. And so when you're giving guys the
opportunity to take it one step further into that like, Kido House world and really use theircreativity, I'm sure that's a ton of fun when it comes down to the design of these different,yeah, yeah, for sure. I know Aaron had a pretty good question. Yeah, yeah. So Kido House is a,
you know, crazy brand all over the world, right? What is the major difference between, you know,
your fans and customers in the USA compared to, you know, fans and customers in Japan or in,you know, in another Asian country? Yeah, that's a really good question. So each, oh, well, you know,
what does it call region, right? Each country, each region. I think their approach to flex is
different and flex in the collector community is huge, right? And it's, you know, I'm just being
very honest, right? It's like we do a lot of limited edition stuff, a lot of exclusives. And one of
the appeals, one of the appealing, you know, factors to like something that's very exclusive is like,I got it, right? This is flex. It's a, it's a social media moment or to the community like,
oh, man, I got it, right? And it's not even that. It's like, I got it, but it's like, what number did
you get? Right? Because it's like, our limited edition number. Like this stuff matters, right? And it's like
to kind of the non collector world, people like, look at like, have what, like, you guys are crazy.
But it's like, it's very interesting to see how like each regionapproaches the elements or the characteristic of flex, right? Like say, for example, in the US,
like flex is a big thing. It's like, I got it, right? Like I got the piece, right? But then it's like,
you think about like a country like, you know, like Japanese collectors in, in my experience,to them, the flex is like, maybe not so much about the exclusive. It's like, you know, look how much
I got this for. Right? It's like in the sense of like, I got it for like this amazing deal, right?
It's an interesting concept. But then like when I like reach out, a lot of when I like think about
our collectors, let's say like in Southeast Asia, it's like, look how much I spent on this.
I spent like, I spent a shit ton of money on this. And this is like, this is my moment, right?
It's like, it's like a flex. So it's really interesting. Like I think that's kind of one of like
the interesting ways that I've found. And I'm not, and this isn't like a blanket statement, but like in,
I can collectively say like I've experienced this, you know, consistently in these regions, right?
But there's I think one unifying factor in, in the collector world, and I'm speaking in thediecast world, is that anything JDM, A-ZN Japanese, like Japan, I feel, is still kind of theepicenter in terms of like the validation for unhide them, right? Especially in kind of our world,
like is, you know, we're like we love GTRs, like we love anything that's JDM model, right?
You know, Chaser, whatever, right? Whatever it might be, it's like, you know, if it's from a Japanese
brand or if there's, you know, a history to it that makes it originated from Japan, it's just thatmuch more collectible, right? So one of one of the examples I use is in this, in we had an event in
Tokyo in February, shortly after that, I ran to you guys at all this month. We did an event in Tokyo,
we did a drop, a really rare drop, where we dropped those R33 GTR, it had thismagic paint on it, so it's, you know, paint, like color shift from like paint to orange, crazy painton this car, it was really limited production, but the fact that we dropped it in Tokyo,and the fact that it had like a Tokyo sticker on it, it just made it that much more collectible,like everybody wanted it because, I mean, it's, it's a kind of how it's exclusive, but just because
we dropped it in Japan gave it that much more credit, if you will, right? It was like this validation
moment for that item, people still chasing that thing, and it's crazy because it's like becauseit was dropped in Japan, it's like everyone's like, I gotta have it, but it's like for us event cars,it's like a lot of that, it's like, well, you kind of have to go to Japan and get it. Yeah, which creates
even more demand in that sense, the exclusivity, right? Yeah, so there's that, I think, you know,
we're doing this event next month in Japan too, so we're kind of, we're kind of want to see whathappens there, so I get that statement still holds true, but, you know, case important, it's like,Daddy Ved, we did in Japan, everyone flew in from all over the world to get that call.
Yeah, I saw pictures of the lines outside the Kaito House booth, it was, it was pretty wild for sure.
Yeah, yeah, we get the line for sure, but, you know, so that's, that's one of the reasons why we tend to,you know, when we do events and stuff for the collectors, if we can't do it in Japan, then we at leastbring kind of like the JDM element into it because it creates all that excitement, they love it,they can't get enough of it. Yeah, that makes sense, and like you said, it is like if, if, right,
if you can get in a part in America by an American brand, but a Japanese brand makes it and originated it,you're going towards a Japanese brand every time you're right, it's still kind of that epic centerof this culture at least. Right. And, all right, so this is something, you know,
I think like I'm going on two years of my closet being full of Kaito House stuff, you're probablyabout to get a cease and desist from Haines because you've pretty much taken everything out of my closet.
And so, you know, the biggest thing is, you know, you go on eBay, you go on Etsy, you go on thesedifferent sites and you can find Nismo gear, right? You can find these different things and, you know,
you, but these people are low key, you're like out here with it. So, that's like a huge question that
we had, like down to the hat that I'm wearing, like how are you getting away with using the Nismo logo?
That's a good question. So, I get away with it because Kaito House is an official licensee
of Nissan and Nismo. Wow. So, yeah, we have an official license from Nissan and Nismo to do these
licensed, officially licensed products with Nissan. So, the hat you're wearing is officially licensed,
you know, down to all the every piece of Nissan Nismo merchandise that we produce is officially licensed.
If you look at the tags that come with the apparel or if you get any of our Nissan pins and you lookat the back of the packaging, if features are OLP, OLP markings, which is the official license productmarkings from Nissan. Every piece of, you know, Nissan Nismo merch that we produce and create.
And so, it's officially licensed. So, it's been approved every step of the way. There's a
multi-step process to approve the product. And of course, we do right away, we pay a royalty on
everything. So, yeah, that's why we're able to just be very open with it. It's not a, you know,
behind someone's back operation. This is officially licensed and we're building. We're now building our,
you know, officially official dealers who will be carrying the product as well. Let's start to grow
and we're also getting ready to launch our summer in 2024 Nismo product launches. Well,
I actually learned a jacket right now. Sneak peak. Sneak peak. That'll be right on that website.
You can see the back. You can see back a little bit. Yeah, that looks good. Yeah, we're changing it
up a little bit this, for the summer. We got some really cool pieces coming down. So, I'll be
launching soon. And what I noticed is just from, you know, the, you know, I have a lot of it,
right? And so, what I noticed is every piece is quality like this. The shirt that I have on,
it's not just a basic gilding shirt that you guys printed Nismo stuff on. It's like a quality,
soft shirt. And I noticed that with everything that I've gotten from you guys is that it's not just
slapped the logo on it and get it out there. You can tell that it's thought through and there's
research done on what products you're actually going to use, which I can appreciate.
Yeah. I'm glad you noticed that because we seek to strike a balance between,
you know, I don't want to say affordability because let's face it, Nismo stuff isn't.
Nismo is a premium brand, kind of houses a premium brand. Yeah, we still need to make sure we're
not making like, you know, $200 t-shirts, right? There's a happy place somewhere. And that's something
that we've worked really hard on to when it comes to our product. All the apparel is actually made in
LA. You know, the garments are picked, the t-shirt materials are picked. You guys are met Chris
Marion at some point. Chris runs a strategy for Kite House. He's also one of the people who's really
behind the scenes on the apparel operation for Kite House. And he's really selective on, you know,
what shirts we use, with jackets, what materials, the embroidery, you know, it's really, you just,you know, has the right eye for that. So we're really happy to have that. But yeah, the t-shirts,
you know, it's like, I think a lot of companies will just kind of pick like the cheapest t-shirtpossible. It's like, we don't do that. It's like, we picked the one that kind of like, we feel the
Nizm-Low or Nissan fan is going to appreciate, right? But, you know, they want something, you know,
soft touch, something stretchy, you know, not like super baggy loose streetwear fit. But it's like,
it's got to be kind of work for like the majority of our customers. So yeah, I'm glad you noticed that.
Oh yeah. All right, I know you got one. Yeah, yeah. So you kind of touched on a little bit earlier.
You know, you have some big collabs coming up. You can't really speak on. But are there any upcoming
collabs or projects you can clue us in on? Yeah, so we just, we just, um, gave a sneak peek on our,
one of our holiday collaborations in Malaysia. So we hosted this special dinner event,
myself and my partner for Minigetee. We hosted dinner to, uh, kind of our global dealers and
fans and distributors. And we've got this really amazing collab coming up with DGK. I don't know if you
guys. Yeah, there's it all back in the day. So I myself, I'm an skater my whole life. Um, so my dream
is actually been to have some kind of skateboard, skateboard collaboration with a brand at some point.
Of course, growing up as a skater, you dream of having like your own pro model. You know, that,
that, that, the opportunity that shit to sell the long long time. You remotely even have my name
printed on the board. But, um, I'm very, very fortunate to, uh, you know, have this collaboration. So
they approached us late last year on, um, on a collaboration, kind of how some DGK. And that is
well underway. We're going to have a whole capsule drop, uh, shirts, hoodies, jackets,
all kinds of merch like sticker packs. We got an animal pin in there. There's a die cast component
in there. And what's really the big thing for us is, of course, is like, you know, we got this like
line of skateboard decks with a kind of house in the DGK. But it's also the opportunity to
bring kind of house into different channels, right? So like, you think about like some of the retailers
that carried DGK now, we're going to have kind of awesome there. So it's a really big moment for us
to go to break into retail now. And yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's an amazing opportunity.
Can't wait to share what the collection looks like. You might be able to go on Instagram and see
some of the images that we pulled up in the presentation, but, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,it's combining skate culture with kind of house and, you know, kind of like our, you know,our roots and go skateboarding and like our interest in Gatie and Carr as well. It's, it's,
it's right up our alley. Like it's, I feel like this is like natural progression of like, you know,
skaters who got into cars and then they got into cars, but then they got into like GTR. Yeah.
We kind of have like this comment thread and it's like, I think this is really going to like call itus. Yeah. Yeah. So comfortable. Man, yeah. Like so to, to rewind it a tiny bit, you know,
being entrepreneurs ourselves, like I can only imagine, you know, like you said, 2021,you're starting Kido House, right? It's, it's you grinding left and right, you know, figuring out
the pieces of the puzzle and now DGK is hitting you up. Like man, that is like full circle. Like when
you said that, I got goosebumps like dang. I'm gonna, I'm gonna grab a deck because I got one
right here. Hold that thought. Because we're here, right? It's like, wow. Absolutely. We appreciate it.
I'm gonna show you some of the guts. But yeah, when you think about like dream projects, right?
I mean, oh wow. Wow. Yeah. What? That is wild. Yeah. That's sick. Those are real sick.
Yeah. Oh, with the SBK, that is so true. Yeah. Well, it's, it's inspired by, but it's not,
you know, it's not licensed. Right, right, right. So, do with the Fuji, is that Fuji in the background?
Oh, yeah. It's inspired by that. Yes, dude. You better make a bunch of those because that's gonna sell.
Oh man, that is awesome. Yeah, and he's gonna be awesome. So, can't be dissapeared. That's so sick,
dude. Yeah, and I'm sure you'll see even if it's not like a pro deck, I'm sure you're gonna see
a couple of those DGK guys whipping those out on special occasions. Oh, for sure. Yeah, we had,
we did a photo shoot about two weeks ago for the product and we used a bunch of our carsfor the photo shoot. And we had a Ryan Correll who was one of the pros skaters for DGK. He came out
for the shoot and I was just so prompt to, you know, see, see pros riding this and that's gonna be soyeah, man, this is really awesome to hear because it is nice to see guys in this space actually kindof start checking off some of those goals that they had shoot, you know, 20 years ago, right, andto have it realize is, man, that's, that's awesome. And so on the entrepreneurial side, right,
you know, obviously we all kind of take inspiration from somewhere we have to.
And kind of the last question that we had for you was if you had to pick and shout out one personwho has inspired you, whether it's creatively, entrepreneurly, like whatever it may be, like who is thatfor you? Ooh, that's a tough question because creatively I do have this one person who just for,
you know, since my education, I went to art center and you're in Pasqueena, California,which is one of the most well-known automotive design schools. You know, this person has inspired me
since my design, you know, kind of my design student days, even up until now. But I think there's,
there's someone who inspires me the most who just, you know, inspires me all around, right, not justfrom a creative perspective, which is, you know, trying to be a bit of person, you know, trying to bejust, you know, a good person in the industry, you know, being helpful, being resourceful,you know, this all of the above. And it's somebody I consider as my, as my big brother.
And that person is Kenji Sumino, who's the president of Grady Performance Product. Kenji, yeah.
Yeah, you might have met him at the, he was there at the track day with Top Rank, or I'm surethere's many other instances you might have met him. But Kenji, I look at him as my big brother and
my inspiration, who just every time I go to Grady and like, you see what he's doing, it's like,that is so freaking cool. And it's like, you know, in terms of like dedication, work ethic,
all around like one of the nicest people I've ever met. And that's one of the things that,
for me, it's like, I'm always like, I'm just trying to be like, that's a person, right? It's like,
I'm so busy and so caught up in my own world and like, kind of like, like shit, right? It's like,
sometimes I'm like, you need to be more like, you know, just kind of reach out and be helpful.
And that's Kenji. Like, he's always like, always help you. He always helps me out. I'm in a jam,
whether it's just like, you know, my car, like I have a problem with my car.
They had this crazy idea, you know, like the wagon, my 510 wagon, which, you know, is arguably like,the car that's really started, Cardo House, it's like the foundation of the brand. It's like,
it wouldn't be where it is to stay without Kenji, right? He orchestrated that whole build with the
engine and everything getting that thing back up and running, all the modified,modifications that are done to that car. It's like, it's thanks to him, right?
Yeah, like he's just always just been my inspiration as a person. And that intent kind of
lends to me being more creative. Right. And pushing, like you said, you know, the helping people,
the giving, the creative, right? When you can find somebody like that that kind of inspires you,
like on a multi-faceted way, then you know that's like the person for you, right? Like you said,
it's like your big brother. Yeah. And all of that, well, still, like year after year leveling up,
just completely blowing away what he did the year before. And it's like, I've seen him,
like just do these like, seal a build, like by himself. I've got a car on Jack stands and that,
you know, like hasn't like touched the ground in five years. But with him, it's like, oh, like that
was like a shell like three days ago. See what's our, why do you do that? You know, it's just like,
it's amazing what he did. Yeah, that that is cool. Yeah. And he's obviously helped push our culture
in this industry in a certain direction throughout, right? All of his years of just dedication to it,
which yeah, shout out to Kenji for helping us all level up at one point or another. And so, all right,
the last, the last thing, right? We're, we're really hoping and we're wondering, are we going to
be able to see you in Japan for either ours meeting or Tokyo autosolone this year? Yeah, I'll definitely
be out there for autosolone for sure. ours meeting, when is that like October? Yeah, like last week
and in October? Last week and in October. Yeah, I mean, I love to make that. We, you know, as I said,
like fall tends to become a very busy time for us at Kataos, just because, well, in October, so wewe've actually got something really special we're working on right now. I'm not going to reveal
what exactly it is, but there's there's several parts to this that are going to come togetherright around October. So that is, that's a tough time. I've always wanted to go to our stage in Japan,
but it's there's always like this kind of this element of chaos right now.
I think that you know, yeah, but this particular project that we've been working on, the holidaysare kind of around the corner, right? It's like you got Halloween, Dad duty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, between that and then, you know, like Nismo Festival is also right around the corner,for the first weekend of December. So yeah, hard-defeated all-in, right?
Yeah, all of the fun is always in the books. Awesome. Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing you there again
and maybe you'll be able to get the silver one on the track again this year.
I'm going to have to because that's my only car left at the top right now. We got the black 34
and also my Ken Mary is coming over to in the same container. Oh wow, the two for one.
Yeah, yes, I've got a 40 footer. I think it a 40 footer for two cars.
Better create some room somewhere. You guys got some room over there for some cars. Yeah, bring
them over there. You're away. Yeah, that way, man. Parking is definitely a premium. We definitely
appreciate you, June. We know that you're a busy guy, but we had to get you on here no matter
how long it took just because, you know, as soon as we met you, I mean, like we said, we justmet you. You're just, you know, a regular down to earth guy, right? We had no clue who you actually
were. You were just like a cool guy to talk to and tell you finally, you know, introduced who you
were and we really found you, you know, pretty inspiring and we figured, hey, we better get this guyon here. Yeah, thanks, you know, thanks for having me and it's always, you know, we all have the
responsibility to continue to, you know, grow the culture and, you know, just build awareness andand have fun and spread good vibes, right? So happy to participate in this and and let's do this again
soon. Yeah, we're going to be keeping an eye out for all these drops. Now you're going to have my
browser pinging. Just waiting to see what's going to happen, man. We're excited. Yeah, but you enjoy
your Memorial Weekend, man. And again, it was really good to talk to you. Likewise, man, thanks for having me.
DGK, are you for real? Dude, dirty ghetto kids. Come on, man. Like, like, dude, those decks are going to be
hanging on my wall. I'll skate, but no, you're not even getting them just so you know, there's no way,
dude, there's going to be 897,000 people. I know. Panging it, having their AI bots,
I'm going to get them supreme. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a whole different level and there's
that's exactly why I wanted to have Mon here was just like, I knew like the path that he's on islike on a different level. I feel like, you know, especially compared to, you know, I mean, a
three-year-old company. Are you kidding me, dude? Right, right. Like three years old and you're already
having collapse with Larry Chen, Gready, DGK, DGK is hitting you up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Nismo, dude,
I mean, that's a huge when Nismo's a giant, you know, I mean, in the fact he's one of three people,he had said off air, he's one of three people that has actual licensing with Nismo. That's like,
yeah, that's a whole different thing. So yeah, I mean, if you haven't checked out kaito house.com
or kaito house garage.com definitely show Jun some support. You can tell he's a super genuine guy.
Your money is going towards continuing to develop these things, which is huge. And yeah, I mean,
man, I'd hang out with that, dude. Yeah, cool, dude. And that's just how he was when we met him at Fuji.
So yeah, check him out again on Instagram at kaito house. And of course, you can always check us out
at rhd g us. Share this one. Share this one with your buddy who's into die cash. Share this one with
your buddy who's into GTRs. Like this is a good one. So definitely, we appreciate your support.
If you're looking for the merch, we got some new stuff on there. rhd g us.com. But for episode 76,
June from kaito house. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Peace.
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