Born in Asakusa, Tokyo, Setsumasa Kobayashi's father is a shoe designer, and after training in Italy, he founded the shoe brand SEtt in 1993 and the apparel brand GENERAL RESEARCH the following year. After that, in 2006, he started <. . . . . RESEARCH>. Since then, Mr. Kobayashi has focused on what he is interested in at the time and has published research on NAVAL, RIDING EQUIPMENT, HUNTING JACKET, etc., with MOUNTAIN RESEARCH as the lead.