Metersbonwe , Giordano, Yichun, Jeanswest, Baleno, Semir ... Are you familiar with these names? For many people born in the 80s and 90s, these brands are memories of their student days and are full of "memories." Going back 20 years, these brands are all in their "highlight moments" and can be seen in the most prosperous business districts across the country. And now, how are they doing?
Jeanswest: The popular giant was abandoned by the times
In the eyes of many people born in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Jeanswest is a familiar brand.
Jeanswest was founded in 1972. It is one of the local clothing brands founded in Australia. In the 1990s, it was acquired by the Rising Sun Group founded by brothers Yang Zhao and Yang Xun in Hong Kong and entered the Chinese market. At that time, the goal of the two brothers was to "make JeansWest a GAP in China and build a Chinese brand in the casual clothing market." In 1993, JeansWest opened its first store in Shanghai, relying on its overseas background and A Hong Kong company, JeansWest has rapidly emerged in the Chinese market and has become a "big crocodile" in the casual clothing market. It is understood that at the peak of its development, Jeanswest had more than 2,500 stores across the country, with sales approaching HK$5 billion.
However, as the times evolve, the early dividends in the market gradually disappear. After 2013, Jeanswest, which had been expanding before, encountered an inventory crisis and a wave of store closings continued. More than 6,000 employees have been laid off, more than 1,300 stores have been closed, and performance has declined by 65%. This is the true portrayal of Jeanswest since 2013... The declining performance and continuous losses have pushed this former giant into the abyss of bankruptcy.
In January 2020, JeansWest Australia announced that it had entered voluntary administration and entered the stage of bankruptcy and liquidation. This ending is very sad.
It is undeniable that in the face of huge changes in the market, Jeanswest managers have not kept up with the trends of the times and have not improved their business philosophy. Eventually, Jeanswest lost its appeal to its core consumer group. The reputation of "King of Jeans" has faded away and has been forgotten in the corner of people's memory.
Baleno and Giordano: stuck in the "mid-life crisis" at the age of 40
Giordano and Baleno were both founded in 1981. Now 40 years old, they have witnessed the glorious years of JeansWest and Metersbonwe, as well as Uniqlo. , Zara, and HM have come from behind, and have also witnessed the strong return of , Li Ning, , and Jai Alai. However, the most cruel thing is that Giordano and Baleno have to witness their own decline.
Just like the relationship between KFC and McDonald's , where there was Giordano, Baleno will inevitably appear not far away. The two brands together will set off a bloody storm of "fashion world".
In addition to Baleno, are you familiar with Living Geometry (SK), Interactive Zone (I.P.ZONE), and Ebase? They all once belonged to the Baleno Group. Baleno Group can be said to have pioneered domestic casual clothing. When it was most popular, you could see a Baleno or Giordano store every few minutes on the pedestrian streets in Beijing and Shanghai.
The glory of Giordano and Baleno stayed in 2011-2013. In 2011, the number of Giordano's stores reached a peak of 2,671; in 2013, it set a sales record of more than HK$5.8 billion. However, by the end of 2016, Giordano had 2,397 stores, with an average of more than 50 stores closed every year. In 2012, the number of Baleno stores reached a historical peak, including 4,044 stores in mainland China. Subsequently, its performance began to decline year by year, and stores were closed again and again. According to statistics, as of August 2018, Baleno has only more than 1,000 stores in mainland China, and approximately 3,000 stores have been closed in six years.
It is undeniable that after 2010, Giordano and Baleno, the two "big brothers" in the clothing industry, have become increasingly languid, and many people even thought they had disappeared. They are gradually sinking to third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities. Although they are no longer energetic, their "life" is still there. The editor searched Dianping and found that now, in Beijing, there are dozens of store information for these two brands respectively. However, because there are too few reviews and most of them are from a few years ago, there have been no recent updates. It is not yet known how the current stores are doing. .In addition to Beijing, Baleno has stores in commercial pedestrian streets in many cities. However, nowadays Baleno can be said to have become a "tourist check-in" brand, and urban youth seem to no longer shop in stores.
Today's Baleno has become a "tourist check-in" brand. China Business Network Tang Yan/photo
Metersbonwe: repeatedly punished and negative news continues
Metersbonwe was founded by Zhou Chengjian in 1995 in Zhejiang Wenzhou . Now 26 years old, it has experienced ups and downs on the road to growth. . Metersbonwe once relied on the saying "Don't take the ordinary path" to become the fashion enlightenment for a generation of youth. At that time, Metersbonwe was a representative of domestic trendy brands and an out-and-out leading apparel brand, with a market value of nearly 40 billion yuan. At its peak, it had 5,220 stores across the country.
From 1995 to 2003, Metersbonwe's stores were spread all over the country, with thousands of stores, and it became the most commonly mentioned fashion brand in everyone's mouth. The endorsements of Aaron Kwok and Jay Chou have made Metersbonwe even more angry. In 2008, Metersbonwe was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. At that time, Zhou Chengjian became the richest man in China's clothing industry with a wealth of 17 billion yuan. However, since 2012, Metersbonwe has stepped down from the "altar". Behind the decline in performance is the company's endless negative news.
In recent years, Metersbonwe has been punished many times for various reasons. In December 2020, Metersbonwe was punished for producing and selling substandard products as qualified products. This time, it was only two months after the last punishment. Tianyancha information shows that since 2016, Metersbonwe has been punished more than ten times for producing and selling substandard products, false product advertising content, environmental pollution and other issues. Four of these included the production and sale of substandard products passed off as qualified products. The editor of
noticed that there were more than 200 complaints about Metersbonwe on the Black Cat Complaint Platform. Among them, false publicity and product quality issues have become areas with high incidence of complaints.
Nowadays, Metersbonwe's brand value and reputation are slowly weakening in the minds of young consumers. When the editor recently visited the MECITY store of Metersbonwe's brand in Xilongduo Shopping Plaza in Beijing, he found that there were not many customers on weekends and the store was a bit deserted, in contrast to the lively scenes of some nearby stores. However, the editor noticed that MECITY seems to be more popular among young people than the Metersbonwe brand. "The quality of the clothes is pretty good, and they are suitable for daily wear and various styles in the workplace." "They are often discounted, and the styles and quality are very good, suitable for urban white-collar workers," consumers commented on Dianping.
MECITY Beijing Xilongduo store was a little deserted on weekends. China Business Daily Tang Yan/Photo by
In the comment section of the previous article "Metersbonwe became the person subject to execution and lost to the times or to itself" reported by China Business Daily, many netizens left messages that expressed the beauty of the situation. The answer to the decline of Tesbonwe also expressed regret: "I don't know when it started. Entering a store in Meibang or Yichun has always felt like a very low-level thing! The reason is unknown! I think back to when I was in high school. "My legs are still a little shaky when I enter a store like this. I am afraid that the salesperson will look down on me!" "People who wore these brands in the past have grown up and are not suitable for wearing them anymore. But now young people know more foreign brands because of the developed Internet. I will buy foreign brands.” “The price is getting higher and higher, but the quality remains the same. I just bought it.” “The decline in performance and the failure of the market can’t lose my feelings for the brand as a person born in the 1980s! There is no eternal king. A clothing name carries the story of a generation. It’s worth coming!
Semir: Continuously transforming and upgrading to find opportunities in crisis
Semir Clothing was founded in the same year. Wenzhou's Metersbonwe has become a popular leisure brand well known to consumers born in the 1980s and 1990s. Compared with the embarrassment of "big brothers" such as JeansWest and Baleno, as well as the frustrations of "elder brother" Metersbonwe, the life of the 25-year-old Semir is relatively easy, and this is inseparable from its own efforts. As a Generation Z (generally referred to as the post-95s generation) in China's clothing industry, Semir has been constantly innovating and making breakthroughs in order to better communicate with "peers of the same age".Even so, transformation has become a key word in the development process of Semir Apparel to a certain extent.
Semir Apparel Chairman Qiu Guang and , who used to be Metersbonwe agents, after founding the Semir brand, they followed Metersbonwe's market actions closely, whether it was clothing styles, consumer positioning, or finding people. Semir has adopted a similar model in terms of foundry manufacturing and opening of franchise stores. Even in choosing spokespersons, Semir does not lose to Metersbonwe. Nicholas Tse, Twins, Han Geng, Kim Soo-hyun, etc. have all been guests of Semir.
In 2011, Semir's number of stores reached more than 7,000, and it entered the A-share market that year. Subsequently, its market value surged to 44.89 billion yuan, becoming "the number one stock in China's apparel industry." However, like Metersbonwe, Semir's status was also greatly shocked after international fast fashion brands entered the Chinese market. Some media reported that Semir closed down in the three years from 2012 to 2015. 943 stores.
Compared with Metersbonwe, Semir is smarter. When affected by factors such as the intensified external competitive environment, Semir adjusted its development strategy, digesting inventory while transforming its management model. During the transformation process, the children's clothing business unexpectedly became a new growth point. Avoiding direct competition with foreign fast fashion brands, Semir once again ushered in a golden era with its children's clothing business. However, unlike the children's clothing business, the development of casual clothing represented by "Semmer" has slowed down in recent years and the business has been cold. During the wave of store closings in the first half of 2020, Semir closed more than 700 inefficient stores, more than half of which were "Semi" stores. It can be seen that the development of the casual wear sector is facing a bottleneck and is going through a period of transformation.
For Semir today, although life is not smooth, it is not difficult either. The editor recently visited two Semir stores in Xidan, Beijing and found that the stores are conducting New Year promotions. The "50% off" and "69% off" labels in the winter clothing area are very eye-catching, attracting some customers to purchase goods. However, the editor's first impression after entering the store is that the display style of this brand's store is similar to Vero Moda and Only, and the recognition is not high.
Semir stores are conducting New Year promotions. China Business Daily Tang Yan/Photo by
Some experts said that as a long-established clothing company, Semir Clothing needs to continue to innovate in the new wave of the times, so as to find opportunities in crises.
Yichun, Karma: No longer the "youngster" he once was
Whether it is good news or bad news, in recent years, there have been very few reports about Yichun. This is not a good thing for the clothing brand, because it means that it gradually disappears from people's sight and is forgotten by people.
Yichun, founded in 1997, and KAMA, founded in 2003, are also the youth memories of many people born in the 80s and 90s.
Like the above-mentioned brands, Yichun was also a clothing brand that was common on the streets and in shopping malls more than ten or twenty years ago. According to the official website, in 2006, entered the Asian market as a pure group , operating in more than 20 countries and regions, and became the only designated casual wear brand for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. As of 2015, Yichun Group has 6,000 stores. In terms of channels,
Yichun Group started with offline sales, developed through the franchise store model, and followed the wholesale route. In fact, Yichun Group began to enter the Tmall and JD.com platforms as early as 2011. But two years later, Yichun Group stopped the e-commerce business of the "Yichun" brand and withdrew from online sales. At that time, the industry believed that Yichun Group’s offline e-commerce business was due to fierce conflicts between online and offline. In an interview with the media, Yichun Group stated that it wanted to increase its investment in e-commerce and continue to make its online mall bigger and stronger. Subsequently, Yichun Group launched the online brand A21 on Tmall and JD.com platforms.
However, A21’s online performance has been relatively weak since its inception. Official data shows that A21’s highest monthly sales on the Tmall platform exceed 25,000 orders, while Metersbonwe’s highest monthly sales on the official platform exceed 90,000 orders, and Semir’s exceeds 100,000 orders. On social platforms such as , Weibo, , and Xiaohongshu, it is rare to see Yichun or A21.The editor of
recently visited and found that in the bustling Xidan business district in Beijing, which can be said to be a place where "every inch of land is valuable", there are also Yichun and Kama stores, and the area is quite large. However, unlike the prosperity and liveliness of surrounding shopping malls, the independent stores of these two brands appear a bit "lonely". Most of the people shopping in the store are middle-aged consumers, and there are also many "tourists". The editor noticed that Yichun stores are currently conducting New Year promotions, and the "buy one, get one free" billboard for winter clothing in the store is particularly eye-catching. Some consumers said they came here "for a bargain." In the Karma store not far from Yichun, even though the clerk shouted enthusiastically, they failed to attract customers into the store. I don’t know since when, Karma has had a “plastic surgery”. Whether it is the decoration style or the iconic logo, it is completely different from before and has become a lot more fashionable. But at the same time, the editor also sighed: " This is no longer the Karma I knew."
In Beijing’s Xidan business district, where land is at a premium, its purely independent stores stand out. China Business News Tang Yan/Photo by
After undergoing plastic surgery, Karma became more fashionable, but she can no longer regain her former appearance. China Business Daily Tang Yan/Photo by
It is undeniable that with the progress and development of society, and in the context of consumption upgrading, more consumers are increasingly inclined to personalized, branded, and quality consumption. This also Promoting market changes and pattern evolution in the apparel industry. If you don't advance against the current, you will retreat. For those brands that live in the memories of the post-80s and post-90s generations, if the product design cannot be updated and cannot keep up with the changes in the industry, the brand influence will continue to fade, and it will also be lost to the new generation of young people. "Abandoned". Nowadays, will you still visit Metersbonwe? (Tang Yan)
