Students don’t necessarily dislike the idea of a uniform. Following the trends of popular TV shows like Gossip Girls and Meteor Garden (Taiwan), many appreciate the preppy uniforms associated with American and European private schools, as well as schools in Taiwan. However, Chinese students find their own uniforms to be mundane, and lacking style. Can you blame us? Others get to dress up, we have to dress down. Essentially, the only variety in uniform is color. Schools either have a green, red, white, or blue uniform.

Girls especially hate this uniform, as it obscures one’s personality so much as to sometimes make gender indecipherable: an adolescent girl’s worst nightmare!

Despite a generally strict dress-code enforcement, we do have our personal, day-to-day victories. In our quest to express individuality, we’ve come up with several ways to “beat the system,” with some of the more common ways being:

• Leaving a couple buttons undone, or zipper low on your jacket to give attention to other layers you may have. We’re generally limited to white t-shirts, but depending on the weather, we can sometimes add a vest or sweater.
• If the weather is cold enough, we can get away with another layer on-top of the jacket because classrooms don’t usually have AC / heaters. Cold days tend to be our more “fashion forward” days.
• Boys who are after an edgier, more unruly look rely on the international bad boy’s call sign: the Popped Collar. The popped collar is also a great way to hide longer hair, since teachers will usually force you to get a cut if your hair hangs below your collar.
• Accessories help. Scarves, belt, glasses, watches, and occasionally necklaces are permissible ways to express one’s individuality.
• Shoes! Converse, Nike, Adidas, Clark’s, etc… that one’s up to us to decide. If you’re a cool guy, you’re going to be wearing LeBrons or Air Jordans, while girls still love their Converse.
• And if your really feeling lucky, you can tell your teacher your uniformed suffer some irreparable damage, and that you are forced to wear something in the meantime. Worked once for me, but got sent home the second time…

Fortunately for younger generations, the powers-that-be are showing signs that they’ve picked up on our discontent. Word has it that students will be given incremental fashion freedoms. For one, students in certain districts will be given multiple options for uniforms. In some schools, students will be allowed to collaboratively design their own uniforms. Others are talking about a possible “no uniform friday.” Lucky!

Who knows… if our dress code is relaxed enough to permit us to where branded apparel like Nike, Adidas, Kappa this may turn into a lucrative market for sports brands.

On Friday, January 29^th, 360quan.com hosted their 90后潮流先锋榜 (post-90’s generation pioneering trends list) awards ceremony in Beijing. Actor Li Chen emceed the event featuring stars such as Jade Liu Li Yang and Yico Zeng, who came to receive their award and perform for the cheering crowd of Chinese teenage fans from all over China.

These same cheering teenagers and their peers voted on actresses, actors, artists, bands, brands, musicians, and works of art of various types for their influence and pioneering abilities in their respective industries. In collaboration with Mogo, 1626.com and YOHO!, 360quan.com invited their post-90’s generation members to vote within two categories, one for most ‘pioneering spirit’ and the other for ‘must have’ product or brand.

eno won the award for ‘must have independent brand.’ Among the list of ‘must have’ were: HP (notebook), Samsung (mobile phone), ONLY (women’s apparel), Adidas (sports apparel), New Fei Fei 新飞飞 (Netease’s 3-D online game), YOHO! (e-commerce site), Twice (jewelry accessories) and Mito Xiu Xi 美图秀秀 (image processing software).

Here’s who they voted for pioneering spirit: Jade Liu Li Yang 刘力扬 (singer), Xiao Song Jia 小宋佳 (actress), Lucky Monkey 跳猴乐队(fusion punk band), Shi Yan Fei 施艳飞 (up & coming actress), Chang Si Si 常思思 (up & coming folk singer), Zhang Xiao He 张小盒 (online character), Chen Chen 陈晨 (written work). And here’s who they voted for the pioneering spirits of the post-90’s generation (meaning they were actually born in the 1990’s): Yico Zeng 曾轶可 (singer), Li Chen 李晨(TV host), 杨紫 Yang Zi (pop star), BY2 (Singaporean music duo), Caffiene (band), Ai Shui Shui 艾水水 (TV & Film work).

360quan.com is China’s fastest growing social media network for post-90’s generation youth. With close to 25 million registered users, 360quan.com is devoted to providing an online home for people with similar interests, online clans, and super-connectors. The platform provides all the basics of an SNS, including personal space, blogs, music, videos, photo albums, games and other multimedia services and content. Their users have a distinct urban youth culture; they are the hip-hop artists, the make-up stylists, the snowboarders and the parkour clubs that  are leading China’s youth revolution.

Once again thank you 360quan.com and special thanks to our post-90’s generation fans!

]]> http://enovatechina.com/blog/post-90%e2%80%99s-chinese-youth-vote-eno-as-a-%e2%80%98must-have%e2%80%99-brand/feed/ 1 http://enovatechina.com/blog/is-china-the-new-haven-for-aged-italian-sportswear-brands/ http://enovatechina.com/blog/is-china-the-new-haven-for-aged-italian-sportswear-brands/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:59:45 +0000 Simon http://enovatechina.com/blog/?p=1439 Little known fact…one of the biggest sportwear brands in China isn’t worn by Kobe or by Beckham. Actually, Kappa isn’t endorsed by any sports stars but it since it’s acquisition by the Dongxiang group in 2002 the brand has seen increased sales of up to $486 million.

Kappa which was once a symbol of, as Graham Brown describes, rave culture cool in the UK and a mark of Italian sporting style in the rest of Europe. It is now known in China for it’s proud show of European heritage, bold colorings and fashion forward styles. Kappa can best be said to be a youthful but obtainable sports lifestyle brand which wears it’s European influences quite literally on it’s sleeve.

Whilst often lumped in with competing local and foreign sports brands, Kappa sets itself out from the pack by dubbing itself a fashion line, influenced by sports. The brand chooses to affiliate itself more closesly with youth style icons and websites. And even for the sports events it does get involved with, e.g. golf, it makes them a more stylish and star powered affairs. This is a smart move.

Many Chinese youth, especially in the run up to the dreaded gaokao (college examination), are not particularly involved in sports. They often dress to a more modest fashion tone so as to reflect a more dilligent appearance.

Kappa strikes the right balance of casual but fashion forward leanings. It’s less expensive than Nike and Adidas but more luxurious than Anta and Li Ning. A true blend of foreign and local.

Chinese celebreties attend a fashion event sponsored by YohoxKappa.

With the Dongxiang group acting as the vanguard in this market others have been quick to follow. Anta has acquired the brand rights to Fila and Li Ning to Lotto – both brands showing that if you can’t buy your own history, then you can at least buy someone else’s.

佰草集 aka Herborist’s parent company Shanghai Jahwa has a long and rich history dating back to the turn of the 20th century. As testament to Herborist’s strong showing in the domestic market it was awarded the title of “Shanghai famous brand” in 2005 and currently stands alone as the only local player in a highly competitive beauty market. So how has this local Shanghai brand managed to stand up and compete with the Estee Lauders and Sisleys ? Lets explore.

Herborist’s product range is not too dissimilar from it’s competitors, showcasing the usual creams, face packs and moisturisers. Where their strength lies however, is the specifically Chinese niche they have found  in a highly globalised industry whereby nationality and cultural references play a large role in marketing (Shishedo = Japanese purity, MAC = American sexiness, etc).

The brand cleverly distinguishes itself by “intergrating Traditional Chinese Medicine into the latest fruits of modern biotechnology”, as stated on their website. Imagery and even product innovation all make relevant nods to traditional Chinese, such as their nourishing and cleansing ‘Tai Qi Mud’, which promotes the Chinese aesthetic of balance through its yin-yang design and application process.

Their products are also well rounded out by the Herborist Spa, which opened in 2002 offering unique treatments to compliment their product range. These product and brand innovations, when coupled with a rising overall market trend for organic and natural products, have helped Herborist stay ahead of the curve.

Success

Although online consumer satisfaction is hard to guage with opinion differing wildly from person to person, confidence in Herborist products has recently been shown via an online vote of consumers’ favorite cosmetic brands. The brand was voted as having top products in no less than two different catergories.

More conclusive evidence of the brand’s success can be seen through the stock portfolio of Shanghai Jahwa. As the parent enterprise of Herborist, they were the first domestic cosmetic company to go public and over the years have showed consistent signs of improvement.

Other than Herborist, Shanghai Jahwa’s brand profile also includes:

• Chinfie – Luxury cosmetics line
• GF – Male cosmetics range endorsed by HK actor Tony Leung
• Maxam – Skin care for the mature lady
• Cocool -  Make-up for a younger market

With it’s extensive R+D operations and production infrastructures, Shanghai Jahwa, has been able to leverage the license for the complete market operation of Adidas personal care products in mainland China. Furthermore, the company has also established a joint venture with Sephora Cosmetics (part of the LVMH group) within China. Through this agreement Herborist has been able to establish itself as the first Chinese cosmetics brand carried by the Sephora in all it’s overseas markets, earning the brand a small amount of international recognition.

Whilst previous local competitors, Yue Sai, were added to L’oreal’s ever expanding brand list specifically due to Chinese commitment to “local” brands (“I will stick to Yue-Sai, no matter who owns it”), the Herborist brand is unlikely to be bought out anytime soon. The combination of good brand identity and marketing, as well as well nurtured business infrastructure and production are what make this brand successful. All too often local brands can lack one of these vital pieces and even with a small amount of success, they run the risk of being bought out by a larger conglomerate to help bolster one of these ailing factors. The depth of it’s operations and it’s baby steps into an international market are both good indicators of the continued success of the Herborist brand.

Chinese Design

今天谈论一下设计，中国风格的设计。

我们在中国，但我们还没有在优秀的中国风格设计里生活。这是个很困难的过程，让我们通过一些图片来共同体会一番吧。我会把图片按生活中的事物到中国化的设计来一个梳理，顺便发几句牢骚。

01 佛教本来是没有这个形象的弥勒佛的，佛都是无性的或双性特征的，在中国内陆，我们的祖先就创造了这个可爱的佛，这本身是一种设计，客户是所有认为原先的佛教过于严肃的人们，这种中国化相当高深，关键客户很买账，佩服呀。

02 把狮子这种古中国人没有见过的野兽描述的这么可爱活泼，我们现在又有几个人有这么强大的想像力？我们被现实震撼的太厉害了，只知道看图片，不喜欢没有插图的书，这会让我们越来越没有想像力，创造出的东西都好像有别人的影子，看看，这狮子每刀的刻画都是国人的想像力呀。

03 我相信这图很可能是日本人拍的，我更相信这里的风格是源于中国，那原创禅味谁也偷不走。

05 我常拍这些非常古老的图形和物体，我会觉得一次次被唤醒。

6 我相信东方的情怀加西方先进的图形表述会让古老的中国更加的酷。

8 那个刚刚逝去的时代带给我们很多的欢乐，但是现在看来，我们对传统的感觉其实有很多都断了层。

11 为什么这些图形能唤醒我们的历史记忆，能让我们感慨，难道只是因为我们熟悉？

12 西方人的意识中国龙的外表：西方的龙都是邪恶的化身，看，这条龙看起来够狠够坏了吧，所以这是按西方人理解的东方龙，我在想：我们会不会也有这么多对西方事物的误读呢？其实误读也是很有意思的事，至少我们自己没见过这样精神的龙。

14 文字和图形有这么多中国的基因，用好可是非常高难度，看看上面的设计，应该很容易感觉到他们鲜活的DNA吧！

15 我不知道他要表达什么，可能只是这个姿势适合放两吧枪吧，很多设计都没想法只是凑巧，但为了好像有想法，会有很多臆造的解释诞生，我们最好只相信自己的知觉。

16 其实这画非常的西化，至少技法是这样。不知道为什么，还是很浓的中国味道。

17 等到我们周围的设计都像这个图上这么生动的时候，我们的整体设计力量就非常强大了，他没有作的有多么的好，我只是感觉到设计者在用心做事，仅此而已，足以感动大家。

18 这是个强大的设计，骨子里那么的中国！

A User Submitted Viral Video

For the past couple of years Adidas has endeavoured to build the popularity of running in China. In 2007 it launched its ‘funrun running community’, with the aim of bringing together young people who shared a passion for running. The website was massively successful, with users not only connecting with fellow runners from around China but also creating and uploading their own content (e.g. videos) to help enrich the online community.

Despite this successful campaign, Adidas were unable to emerge as leaders in the running market and now face stiff competition from local brands such as Li Ning and Anta.

Although not on the scale of the previous funrun.cn campaign, Adidas have remained a presence in the market with their ‘gepaoqile’ [pleasure in each run] website. This time Adidas have used a modest platform on Baidu.com to house their ‘funrun’ community, making use of Baidu’s popular question and answer interface. Enquiries by members such as, “What are the disadvantages of wearing a leg strap when running?” receive answers from both community members and Adidas running experts.

Users also comment on the monthly topic, this month’s being “reasons you like running”. One member posts:

I like running because it’s pursuing my opponents;
I like running because I can bravely move towards my goals;
I like running because it can please body and mind;
I like running because I can temporarily cast off worries.

Music for the sole

As a means of better connecting with youth, Adidas instigated a ‘funrun music’ competion via their online community. Participants were invited to compile a playlist of their favourite running music along with a short piece describing their selection in relation to running. Prizes were awarded to those whose songs selection and writing topped a Baidu ranking system based upon user feedback. Winners received various Adidas merchandise, ranging from sneakers to t-shirts.

As regards user’s choice of music, there seemed to be a strong emphasis on lyrical content over tempo or rhythm of the music. One user justifies here choice of ‘Starlight’ by Taiwanese pop group S.H.E, quoting the encouraging lyrics and saying: “by relying on this kind or bravery and stamina these three girls can have an undaunted path, the fearless [nature] of the song makes one’s blood boil with excitement.”

S.H.E. – Starlight

Although the competition was about running the most popular playlists were still comprised largely of slow/mid tempo ballads and love songs. This best serves as a reminder to brands that pop music still reigns supreme amongst Chinese youth, regardless of context or purpose. Music, not necessarily idols or musicians, can’t be used as a  definite indicator of lifestyle or interests amongst Chinese youth.

However, many Chinese companies are relying on innovative ideas and unique design thinking to make their brands stand out in China and on the world stage. We at enoVate want to examine these brands and acknowledge the innovative steps being taken to improve their brands.

The first company in our innovation series is Li Ning. Li Ning is at an awkward stage in their brand development and positioning. In the Chinese market, where they do 99% of their business, they trail global sportswear giants, Nike and Adidas. Like many famous international brands in China (McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, Amway) Nike and Adidas have established their international image and brand philosophy within the minds of Chinese consumers. This translates well to Chinese consumers of whom many prefer more “global brands” to local Chinese brands.

It is a commonly held perception that Li Ning views Nike as the cooler, more mature older brother in the sportswear scene. Similar logos and slogans play into this view as well. In a BusinessWeek report on Li Ning, Abel Wu, head of Li Ning’s footwear division brings to the table this thought: “We don’t have as strong as brand as Nike and Adidas [so] our thinking is that as a local brand, we need to have an international image.”

But how is Li Ning trying to accomplish this?

Li Ning has turned its sights to the mecca for creative sportswear art and design: Portland, Oregon. Located in a two-story building in Portland’s Pearl District, Li Ning’s creative Portland headquarters are headed by Alan Hardy, a former senior designer at Nike and design director at Converse, Inc (now under the Nike umbrella). By positioning themselves in Portland, Oregon, Li Ning is giving itself access to innovative companies and designers that it might not have found in China.

Li Ning feels that solidifying a global image will help it’s brand in China.  The 2008 Beijing Olympics propelled Li Ning into the global sportswear vernacular. But Li Ning is taking further steps in this direction by partnering with leading global artists to display innovative product and design campaigns. Famous graphic designer KAWS designed a nifty Olympic Track Jacket and another famed graphic designer James Jarvis held a Li Ning sponsored event in Beijing showcasing his distinct designs. Collaborations of this sort mark Li Ning’s entrance into a more fashion conscious “Hypebeast” type market.

Li Ning x KAWS

Li Ning x Jim Jarvis
Li Ning is also embracing local creative Chinese design teams for innovation and product designs. Local graphic design agency Jellymon has recently been working with Li Ning on various graphic design and photography projects displaying hip, new youth targeted products made by Li Ning. Our streetwear and youth lifestyle brand eno is also brainstorming and developing innovative concepts to help Li Ning connect with a fashion forward youth audience. And recently, to celebrate Earth Day, Li Ning teamed up with renowned Hong Kong illustrator and toy designer Tim Tsui and Hong Kong based Milk Magazine to produce large, life-like statues made entirely from wood.

Li Ning x Tim Tsui x Milk Magazine

Li Ning x Jellymon

All of these collaborations display innovative approaches to attracting youth markets to Li Ning. We applaud innovation at enoVate and hope Li Ning continues with their innovative ways.

[a Joey Dembs x enoVate production]