Shantou Underwear Holds Up The World

40 years ago, when Shantou was listed as a special economic zone, it had only 1.6 square kilometers in Longhu area. The only residential area is a small fishing village built with huts. Zhang Weisheng stood at the gate of his home, overlooking the long lake, covered with barren beaches and surrounded by sand dunes.

Shantou had no industry before the reform and opening up. When Zhang Weisheng was in the fifth grade of primary school, his family couldn't afford to pay for his tuition. He began to sell fish and fruits on the street and run a sweater factory. "You can sell what you can earn."

In the 1980s, an overseas Chinese from Gurao town in Shantou invested in a textile enterprise and began to produce knitted underwear. Taking advantage of the special economic zone, most underwear made by Shantou people has been sold abroad.

Following Gu Rao's feet, other towns in Shantou, such as Chendian and simapu, have successively opened underwear factories.

In the era of Chinese people's thought was not open, Shantou street, everywhere posted giant women's underwear ads. A slender female model is wearing a cotton underwear made by Shantou people, with a pose, and a striking advertising slogan "XXX underwear processing".

By the end of 1990s, underwear factories were everywhere in Shantou. Walking in the street, "dada Da" machine sound, from all directions, from morning to night.

Zhang Weisheng also started the underwear business at this time. He and his relatives who came back from Hong Kong built several factory sheds and set up several machines, which was the original workshop. With the booming of machines, foreign trade orders from Hong Kong come one after another. Within a few years, Zhang Weisheng built a factory with his own money.

Zhang Chun still remembers that when he was 18 years old, his father brought him to the Canton Fair to discuss business with foreigners.

"The small exhibitions at that time were all foreigners with backpacks on their backs." They carry us dollars in their bags and go to underwear stalls to discuss orders with Chinese people.

Zhang Chun and his father are very busy. There are too many foreigners asking for goods. "In order to get the goods early, they will hand us 5000-10000 US dollars on the spot as intention money."

Over the past three years, almost all of them have been shuttling through the streets of Shantou. Shantou's small fishing village has become a foreign house, hotel, office building and tens of thousands of underwear factories.

However, looking at Shantou underwear factory industry, a year production of hundreds of millions of underwear, "but there are few famous brands."

"Can only be processed on behalf of others"

Shantou's underwear industry is also distributed: Chendian people's underwear is mostly sold at home, accounting for 60% of the domestic underwear market. Most of the underwear of the Guyao people was sold to foreigners.

Shantou people made underwear, the first to implement "three to one supplement": processing with supplied materials, processing with samples, assembling with supplied parts and compensation trade. As described in the description, at the beginning, Shantou people were all processing for others.

Wal Mart and metro are major customers of most underwear factories in Shantou. The underwear they want is simple in style, simple in workmanship and huge in order.

A Wal Mart underwear, factory price more than $1, across the ocean to the other side of the ocean, the price at least 6 times.

The factory has almost no right to speak. In the peak season, customers will rush to deliver goods. When the market is not good, some customers will try their best to pick the wrong and haggle, and half of the underwear for $1 will be cut off for you. It's not up to foreigners to decide how much they will eventually earn. "

In the year of the Asian financial crisis, Shantou's underwear factory collapsed. Some factories don't have the habit of collecting deposits. Foreigners place orders but don't pay for the goods. There are millions of dollars worth of finished underwear in the warehouse.

Zhang chunjia's factory suffered relatively less losses because of its perennial insistence that "if you can't see money, you can't start the machine.". But she also raised an eye. In this year, she moved her underwear to the Internet. She opened an Alibaba international station store, and began to contact new customers. Under the guarantee, the transaction was completed.

"Load a basketball"

After decades of business, Zhang Weisheng believes in one thing: "to make money, make money from the rich."

"People who are used to wearing underwear for 400 yuan will not generally bargain, but those who buy underwear for 20 yuan at the stall will pay the price back to 15 yuan with their dues." Zhang Chun remembers his father's words, so their underwear has been on the high-end line.

"People in Europe and the United States have a lot of money, so at the beginning, we set the market in the developed countries in Europe and the United States." In 2005, when Zhang Chun came back from studying in Canada, his brother had already set up an underwear brand in the United States. At that time, in the domestic market of Shantou underwear, such brands as manifen, Qiulu and Meibiao had begun to show up in the domestic market.

However, in the eyes of foreigners, Chinese factories are always processing on behalf of others and cannot become their own brands.

It is difficult to enter the market in developed countries such as the United States, France, Italy and so on. "It's mainly because the brand is too new. Many people are used to wearing old brands."

Big brother Zhang and his underwear market are almost blank. "A few years ago, in addition to foreign brands, few brands would make large underwear."

But there is a market for large underwear. There are two types of women wearing oversized underwear: obese people and slim, but bulky people. "For both types of people, it's hard to find the right underwear."

At that time, a British customer asked Zhang Chun, "can you make underwear in more than 30 sizes?"

The two brothers and sisters counted ABCDE in their hearts And then realize that the market is really big.

What is the concept of oversized underwear? General underwear, 6-9 sizes, size from "32A", to "38d". Zhang chunjia's underwear is more than 70 yards at most, and the cup size is "J".

***After the underwear is made, it can hold a basketball on one side.

After the large size underwear was pushed out, a steady stream of customers came to Zhang Chun's international station to place orders.

Own brand is popular abroad

"French women like underwear with lace. Bright colors are more popular. The more sexy the style, the better." Zhang Chun said that French women have led the trend in wearing underwear.

Americans who seem to be open prefer plain and conservative underwear. Among Zhang Chun's customers, Americans account for the majority, and they don't have much demand for the design.

In recent two years, the domestic popular elements such as "underwire underwear" and "sleeping underwear" have not sold well in the field of large underwear. "The underwear with steel rings has a large supporting force, and the hardness is strong enough to support the big chest."

This tests the skill of the workers.

The most difficult part is the process of pressing the cup with a sewing machine. "The cup is too big, our workers' hands are too small to hold, but we can't bend it." Therefore, before each lathe worker takes up his post, he needs to constantly practice how to hold the cup and which posture will not bend the cup.

It's hard to store the large underwear. "Ordinary underwear, a box can hold more than 20 pieces, large underwear can only hold 10 pieces." In the first few years of making large size, Zhang Chun's customers sometimes reflected to her that the underwear sent over was crushed.

Later, Zhang Chun adjusted the fabric several times and used the cotton material which can also rebound after being pressed and bent.

A few years ago, some Australian customers saw Zhang Chun's private brand "Parfait" on the international station, and they placed an order directly without asking.

Zhang Chun was surprised. Usually, before the first transaction, customers would ask a lot of questions and bargain. The other side told him, "Parfait" is very popular in Australia now, and Australian women like this brand.

Only then did Zhang Chun know that his own brand was popular abroad. A piece of Parfait underwear is sold for at least $90 in an offline shop in Australia. But because the style is fashionable, the quality is good, so often out of stock. "Nowadays, Parfait is famous in the circle of designers of large underwear."

After this year, half of the off-line customers were sold. But on the international station, the turnover of e-commerce customers is at least 100% higher than in the past. Customers who originally placed an order of 1 million in two months can now place an order of 4.5 million.

"We are locked in the epidemic situation at home, but began to hoard underwear." Not only that, originally, there were few orders from India in the shop of international station. This year, an Indian customer ordered two cabinets of large underwear at one time. After reading the news, Zhang Chuncai knew that many textile enterprises in India had closed down because of the serious epidemic situation.

From now on, we have a brand name of "pure home" for foreigners