The suit giant bought a surf-lifestyle brand — ten years later, every store is gone

WTW (Double T) was launched in February 2011 by BALS — the company now known as Francfranc — as a lifestyle shop built on the concept 'URBAN.SURF.NATURAL': furniture, interior goods and apparel with a Californian, sea-side flavour. The first store stood in Aoyama; in time there were six, including Futako-Tamagawa, Horie in Osaka and Ariake Garden.

In April 2016 Aoyama Trading — Japan's suit giant behind Yofuku no Aoyama and The Suit Company — bought all of WTW's shares from BALS, a diversification move beyond business wear. The brand kept running under its own operating company.

Ten years on, the bet ended. The online store stopped selling on 25 January 2026; the physical stores closed one by one through February — Ariake on the 10th, the Aoyama flagship last, on 11 February. No reason was announced and no successor named: after fifteen years the brand wound down completely.