How Chinese brands are moving from cheap knock-offs to global luxury contenders
From tacky to tasteful: Long gone are the days when “Made in China” was synonymous with cheap tat and shoddy knock-offs. Now, Chinese retail brands are on the verge of global credibility.
Crowds lined up at the Iconsiam shopping centre in Bangkok this month not for Louis Vuitton or Prada but for a dopamine-fuelled buying frenzy at Pop Mart, the Beijing-based collectibles giant that opened its largest global flagship in the Thai capital. Across town at Centralworld, a pop-up from premium bag brand Songmont – a cult favourite in China – is enjoying a similarly warm welcome at its first overseas outpost. Its €500 “Gather” handbags aren’t in the same league as Hermès or Chanel but they’re a far cry from the fast fashion of Shein or Temu. For the mid-career professionals queueing up, the brand’s Beijing roots are part of the appeal.
Though Songmont wears its Chinese heritage lightly, it is leaning into pan-Asian storytelling. The ancient silk road (rather than president Xi Jinping’s revival plan) features heavily in slick marketing campaigns pairing idyllic pastoral scenes with the products’ minimalist design. One video shows smiling seamstresses in colourful, artisanal clothing working on the sunny steppes of what could be Inner Mongolia.
The arrival of Chinese retail brands with better products, richer narratives and accessible luxury pricing is happening both across Southeast Asia and across segments. What stylish women are carrying around Shanghai is now considered cool and covetable by their peers from Jakarta to Singapore. Meanwhile, men are opening their wallets for Chinese technical- and active-wear from the likes of Benlai and Beneunder. Both are strong on simple wardrobe staples – a potential concern for the Lululemons of the world. Even the mighty Uniqlo could need to limber up for a rare bit of competition.
Chinese entrepreneurs and creatives now talk obsessively about intellectual property as a genuine asset to be developed and protected. Meanwhile consumers across Asia are fully aware that a lot of the international brands that they buy are made in Chinese factories, despite the lengths that some firms and industries go to disguise it. After decades of outsourcing to China, it’s hardly surprising that the best technical and manufacturing expertise is found there.
Of course, only time will tell whether these Chinese brands have staying power. Songmont’s influencer-fuelled buzz might fade away along with the queues at Pop Mart. But there are hundreds of other brands in China queuing up to go global. Brand China is cresting and we’ve already seen this play out in social media, skincare, electric cars and even coffee. The only thing that has gone out of fashion this year is the daft talk about “peak China”.
Frankly, it’s only a matter of time before US shopping malls and European high streets start to see a similar influx of new retail tenants from China and increased competition for prime real estate. For a sign of what’s coming down the track, watch out for the veteran Chinese sportswear label Anta – a classic case study of Brand China’s long march from ridicule to respectability. For the best part of this century Anta has built up a huge network of pretty lacklustre stores in second- and third-tier cities around China. Good business domestically but Chinese kids weren’t setting off for school or university in the US with a pair of Anta shoes packed proudly in their suitcases. Previously, China’s answer to Nike and Adidas had to buy global credibility the old-fashioned way – by acquiring Western brands such as Arc’teryx and Salomon. Not any more. Now Anta is launching shoes with famous US athletes and getting ready to open its first standalone US shop in, of all places, Beverly Hills.
If Chinese basketball trainers and leather handbags do take off in the US, they will be a lot harder than Tiktok or BYD for the White House to ban or shut out on national security grounds.
