CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, July 18, 2019 | 15 BUSINESS Tailor­made menswear gets a makeover Simplified services allow customers to upload body measurements and place orders using their mobile phones By XU JUNQIAN in Shanghai over 572 billion yuan in 2018, up 7 [email protected] percent year­on­year. While it still accounts for about one­third of the The office of startup Match U is total apparel market, it is projected located on Shanghai’s Bund, which to enjoy a higher­than­average is lined with some of the world’s growth rate and surpass 612 billion most prestigious banks and finan­ yuan by 2023. cial institutions, and sits in an area Everbright Securities estimated that has nurtured some of China’s that China’s tailoring market finest bespoke tailors. would be worth 200 billion yuan by The founders of Match U are try­ 2020, almost twice that of 2016, ing to leverage China’s decades of and about 80 percent of the busi­ experience in apparel manufactur­ ness would come from the mid­ ing and leading artificial intelli­ price sector. gence technology to create a new In Beijing, a similar team has its approach to tailoring. eye on the market too. “Match U offers tailor­made Online business, Smart Shirt, shirts and menswear, but the term which was launched in May, was ‘tailor made’ has been redefined,” introduced to China by four young said Wei Xing, co­founder of the Chinese people with similar aca­ company established in 2016. demic background in aviation to At a cost of 199 yuan ($29) to 399 the founders of Australian brand yuan, consumers can get a made­ Decent Shirt. to­measure cotton shirt after After managing the Chinese uploading a few key body measure­ factories for the Australian ments on their phones. Aside from brand, the founders decided to the conventional options of small, bring the concept of C2M (custom medium and large, the style choices to manufacture) to China, target­ offered include collars, cuffs, waists ing those aged 20 to 30 in bigger and front plackets. It takes one to cities. two weeks for manufacturing and In the first month following its delivery after the order is placed launch on a WeChat mini program, over the phone. it sold hundreds of shirts, which “Traditional tailor­made is was better than expected as the strongly associated with luxury. small team spent nothing on Customers are paying as much for advertising, according to Hu Shiz­ the products as for the meticu­ he, a 26­year­old co­founder of the lous, personal services and the company. exclusive, well­decorated spaces Looking ahead, Hu told China where such services are provided. Daily that they want to become the We have removed all the unneces­ country’s best online tailor­made Smart technology is used to show the visual effect of suits at a tailor’s shop in Shanghai. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY sary parts and are targeting office brand for men. workers and fresh graduates,” “Being the best does not neces­ said Wei. “I don't think we are in competi­ sarily mean being the largest, or Together with four tion with any particular brand. the richest, but a model that is con­ co­founders, the Shanghai Jiao Instead, we are creating a new cate­ sidered the prototype in the indus­ Tong University graduate made gory,” said Wei. try, which latecomers want to several entrepreneurial forays But she admitted that the pricing follow, and consumers aspire to,” before settling on “accessible of their offerings has put them in said Hu. menswear tailoring”. the same field as fast fashion For Match U, the future plan is “We have spotted a gap between brands like Uniqlo and China’s more concrete: to combine offline the supply and demand. On one homegrown menswear giant Hei­ and online markets by working hand, manufacturers and brands lan Home. with conglomerates like Wanda are struggling to keep consumers “The market for menswear in and Suning. in an increasingly competitive mar­ China has been underestimated for The company has developed an ket. On the other hand, the young a long time. It’s not like men don’t AI body­measuring cabin, which consumers are always looking to need to look smart or have the consumers can walk into, turn find the next perfect shirt or dress,” financial capability to spend, but around and have their measure­ said Wei. it’s in our traditional mindset that ments taken with the precision of Today, the company is in partner­ there is not a market for them. If a Savile Row tailor within min­ ship with a dozen apparel factories there is any difference, it is that utes. The machines, which cost across the country, which help pro­ they are less willing to spend time 100,000 yuan each, will be placed duce not only shirts, but also jeans on selecting styles and brands, in cinema halls and shopping and jackets for the company’s 1.5 which means higher brand loyalty,” malls to help attract new custom­ million members. said Wei. ers for the business. Sales this year are expected to Consultancy firm Euromonitor Staff of startup Match U work at the reach 800 million yuan, four times International estimated that Chi­ company. GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY Tang Xiaofan contributed to that of 2018. na’s menswear market was worth the story. Suitsupply hoping to sustain double­digit growth in China By XU JUNQIAN in Shanghai While the United States is now its While De Jong believes in free largest single­country market with advertising such as word­of­mouth, Dutch entrepreneur Fokke de 45 stores, De Jong believes it’s just a the company is also known for its Jong has built his menswear brand matter of time before China surpas­ bold, if not controversial, visual into a $400 million fashion empire ses the US in terms of sales. campaigns that have touched such and won over a galaxy of celebri­ “China is now one of our top five topics as religion and same­sex love ties including Bruno Mars and markets. Chinese consumers have over the years. Leonardo DiCaprio over the past the style consciousness of the It was the first fashion brand to two decades. French and Italians, and the spend­ show two men kissing in an advert Looking ahead, however, the ing power of those in the US,” said in its 2018 Spring Summer cam­ 46­year­old founder and CEO of De Jong. paign. According to the BBC, the Suitsupply is pinning his hopes on In 2018, sales from the company’s brand lost 12,000 followers on Insta­ sustaining, if not accelerating, the Chinese stores increased by 35 per­ gram after the post went up. company’s double­digit growth in cent year­on­year, 15 percentage “If you do things like that, there China, a market where men have points higher than the average are always people who don’t like it. been said to be “unsuitable for annual growth rate of China’s But it’s not important. What’s suits”. domestic luxury market estimated important is that the people you “The reason why Chinese men by consultancy firm Bain & Co. want to reach like it,” De Jong said in don’t look good in suits is not “Maybe 10 years ago we would response to the controversy. because of their bodies, but because have found it extremely difficult to In fact, such images, especially there hasn’t been enough attention sell a suit in China, where every­ A Suitsupply employee gives dress tips for men during a workshop those shared on social networks, paid to creating a good fit,” said De thing was about logos and brands. have been and will continue to be organized by the company. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Jong when he visited China to dis­ But right now the timing for us is one of the most robust engines driv­ cuss the opening of a number of new perfect,” said De Jong. ing the growth of the menswear stores in the coming years. While he argued that there is no De Jong said he reduced costs by make the products the way we want. market. Men today need the Since entering China in 2015, the one­to­one competition in today’s cutting out intermediaries in the China has people who are eager to “Men today need the right fitting Amsterdam­based company has world of luxury and fashion, the production process, locating stores learn, great quality of work, and the and styling as much as women, as right fitting and opened six stores in the country, majority of Suitsupply’s clients are in cheaper “destination like” places, world’s best manufacturing,” said the number of images every man styling as much as including those in Shanghai, Beijing coming from higher­end brands, and spending as little as possible on De Jong. sees every day on social media may and most recently Shenzhen. Glo­ which have long dominated the marketing and advertising. The company’s first brick­and­ be more than what one person saw women, as the bally, it has expanded its presence menswear market. As one of the first in the luxury sec­ mortar retail space was situated at a in a year decades ago. It increases number of images with 110 outlets, including ones in Essentially, the strategy of the tor to adapt to the high­street model highway exit between Amsterdam awareness and eventually translates Paris, New York, and one near Savile company is to compete in the mid­ of vertical integration, Suitsupply and Rotterdam, where customers into action,” he said.