The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Two more Chinese streetwear brands have recently received funding, continuing a run of capital pouring into the segment recently.
SoulSense secured more than $10 million in Series A Plus funding from Skywalker Capital, while retailer, 919 Simple Life, raised ten million yuan ($1.56 million) from individual investors and Qingsong Fund, according to tech and investment media platform, 36Kr.
SoulSense is positioned as a DTC brand for young consumers, which has created a loyal community of streetwear enthusiasts though its combination of content, in-person events and e-commerce. Its sales strategy adopts the drop model; most products are sold in limited quantities and never reproduced once they sell-out.
919 Simple Life, meanwhile, focuses on physical store operations, positioning itself as a streetwear bazaar. It offers extremely affordable fashion and lifestyle products for the mass market, more akin to Dollar Tree for streetwear. At present, 919 Simple Life has a presence in Sichuan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, and plans to increase its number of stores nationwide to 100 by 2022.
Streetwear in China has boomed in recent years. According to data from Tmall, China’s largest B2C e-commerce platform, streetwear growth was 60 percent higher than the average growth of apparel categories last year.
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With consumers tightening their belts in China, the battle between global fast fashion brands and local high street giants has intensified.
Investors are bracing for a steep slowdown in luxury sales when luxury companies report their first quarter results, reflecting lacklustre Chinese demand.
The French beauty giant’s two latest deals are part of a wider M&A push by global players to capture a larger slice of the China market, targeting buzzy high-end brands that offer products with distinctive Chinese elements.
Post-Covid spend by US tourists in Europe has surged past 2019 levels. Chinese travellers, by contrast, have largely favoured domestic and regional destinations like Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.