About Legit Design
Legit Design is a Japanese fishing tackle company headquartered in Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, registered in October 2015. It was founded by Iitaka Hirofumi (Representative Director, President and CEO) and Onikata Takeshi (Senior Managing Director), two rod developers who had worked at rival manufacturers before partnering. Iitaka spent roughly 25 years in the tackle industry in planning, development and design at domestic and overseas makers, managing production through both proprietary and OEM channels; Onikata developed high-end models at a domestic manufacturer and competed as a tournament angler, including wins at the Bassers All-Star Classic. The company name reflects the slang sense of "legit," meaning the real thing, which it uses to describe the honest bass-rod form it builds toward.
The bass-rod range is the core of the business and is split across freshwater bass and saltwater game models. The design approach treats lightness and sensitivity as a starting point rather than the goal, weighing casting behavior, lure presentation, hook-set, line flow through the guides, grip comfort and durability as parts of one system. Blanks use carbon from 24-ton mid-modulus through 46-ton high-modulus material, selected per model and reinforced with aramid fiber for impact resistance.
WILD SIDE, the first line, launched on the Japanese market in 2015 and was positioned around a 30,000-yen price to sit between budget and flagship rods. It reached US anglers later through Arundel Tackle, and the catalog has since grown to include the higher-grade WILD SIDE HP, the Torzite-equipped Variant, travel Multi-Piece builds, the affordable Stand Out line and the kids-scaled Child Side.
What Legit Design is known for
Legit Design is known for the WILD SIDE bass-rod line, a casting and spinning range of roughly 59 models priced near 30,000 yen that sits between budget and flagship tiers. The rods are built around carbon from 24-ton to 46-ton modulus with aramid reinforcement, Fuji ECS reel seats on casting models and Fuji VSS on spinning models. Recognizable sub-builds include solid-tip (ST) models with a 30-ton carbon tip for detecting soft bites, glass and glass-composite (G/GC) cranking blanks that bend parabolically, and dedicated frog, bait-finesse and big-bait specials. The company is also identified with founders Iitaka Hirofumi and Onikata Takeshi, both established rod designers before 2015. Beyond bass, the SKUAD line covers Japanese saltwater lure disciplines including boat ajing and seabass, chinning, light and slow jigging, tairaba, tachiuo, and tip-run eging.