China’s underwear market is at a booming stage. On Taobao, underwear and lingerie have always been a fast-growing category. It is understood that in Taobao’s bra category, the common bra market accounted for the highest proportion, sports bras and sexy bras exploded. Behind the erotic lingerie market, these erotic lingerie have driven the development of a town: Zhejiang County, North Jiangsu, a national poverty-stricken county, which produces more than half of all the Chinese lingerie, known as the “sweet underwear town”.
The very low cost of the lingerie industry was completely hidden in the township and free development. A few years ago, the local government noticed the potential of this industry. The Zhejiang County lingerie industry wanted to get rid of the low-end image. , began to upgrade production mode and environment.
Mason is a native of Nantou County, Taiwan. He has worked in Taiwan for many years in the lingerie business. This year is his 9th year of working and living in Zhejiang County, North Jiangsu.
In his heart, Zhejiang has long been the “second hometown.” When selling sexy lingerie in Taiwan, he first got the goods from Guangdong, and later found that Zhejiang was cheaper, he began to get goods here. Around 2011, he officially moved to Zhejiang, now Zhejiang, producing more than half of all the Chinese lingerie.
In addition to his simple rural life, he found a favorite and good job in Zhejiang – filming a product for a lingerie designer called “CosHall” and doing online shop visual design. “The most popular sexy underwear on Taobao in the past was the photo of the product I was looking for in Taiwan. Later, the surrounding manufacturers also started shooting in Taiwan.”
Every time he mentioned this explosion, Maison was very excited. He is the general manager of CosHall Garment Co., Ltd. In 1991, 187 was tall and tall, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and recently had a small shackle. “When this is the one who sold this fire, it is not fire to do this.”
When designing this explosion, Maxon was only 20 years old. He had no experience in cutting clothes. He was thinking about how to make it faster and more trouble-free. “Draw a straight line, cut the square the fastest, and dig a hole in the middle.” When the person got in, the skirt came out, and a little lace was added.
Maison designed the Taobao explosion. Image source: Maison
Later, Mason analyzed that this dress is good because it does not pick the body, suitable for most women, the overall material is transparent gauze, the chest is made of lace material and is elasticized. The quadrilateral skirts overlap to block the flesh and stretch marks, and are recognized as “entry-level” lingerie in the industry.
And it is cheap enough, 9 pieces and 9 packs, and also give 18 kinds of gifts, “like thongs, condoms, sex toys, etc., these things are very low cost.”
According to Maison’s statistics, this explosion has been done for three consecutive years. They sold more than 10 million pieces by themselves. Other manufacturers added at least 50 million pieces, and one customer purchased 4 million pieces a year.
Beginning in 2017, Mason and his county town of Dongwang, Zhejiang Province, suddenly began to be reported by the media. He counted several times, and he came to Zhejiang to interview his Chinese and foreign media before and after, more than 20. The media posted a label on the “Chinese erotic underwear king” and “after the annual income of 90 million”, and also opened a little mysterious coat in the “sexual underwear town” Zhejiang County.
Sexy lingerie town
Zhejiang County is located in the northern part of Jiangsu Province, China, and is a county under the jurisdiction of Lianyungang City. The total area is 1538 square kilometers and the population is about 1.02 million. In the past, Zhejiang was one of the poorest counties in Jiangsu Province.
The local specialties that the locals can say are nothing more than agricultural products such as “colored rice” and “bean worm (bean larvae)”. Many people do not even know that the lingerie industry has quietly become a local pillar industry in recent years.
Li Laigang, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Dongwangji Town, did not know that the town he managed had become one of the largest lingerie producing areas in China before 2011. He heard about this from the mouth of the local postmaster. The other party told him that the shipment of sexy lingerie in Zhejiang has been very large.
Later, Li Lai discovered that the erotic underwear industry was completely hidden in the township and free development. The local government only learned about it five or six years ago.
The production area of ??a sexy underwear factory in Zhejiang County.
A master who is cutting cloth.
According to the data provided by Li Laigang, as of the end of 2017, the scale of the Zhejiang County lingerie industry has accounted for more than 60% of the country’s total, and it is mainly sold to developed foreign markets and developed coastal cities. The wife of the staff of the Zhejiang County Government Office sent a set to her university roommates, and she felt that she was very proud.
In Zhejiang County, there are more than 600 sexy underwear manufacturers and sales outlets with a certain scale, and the annual sales amount is about 3 billion yuan. Among them, there are more than 35 enterprises with annual sales of 50 million yuan to 100 million yuan.
“There are too many family workshops with several machines and several people, and it is estimated that there are thousands of families.” Li Laigang felt that sexy underwear has driven more than 20,000 local people to work.
In 2014, the state proposed the concept of “characteristic town”, and Zhejiang County wanted to seize this opportunity to build a characteristic town with “sexual underwear”. At present, the “Zhejiang Yiqu Town” project, which covers an area of ??about 3 square kilometers in Dongcheng District of Zhejiang County, has completed the design of the project and will soon begin construction.
But even now, when you walk in the East Wangji Town, where the Zhejiang lingerie industry is the most concentrated, you can hardly see any signs about “sex lingerie.” There is no publicity at all on the street.
“Many Zhejiang people don’t know that they have this industry in their hometown. People who are not in this industry generally don’t understand it.” Maisen feels that this is related to the fact that many lingerie factories and family workshops are “hidden” in townships and many are family-owned.
People think that the traditional concept of “unfair” in lingerie is also a deep reason for the industry.
According to Wang Xu, who is in the local lingerie store Taobao, he took the goods from a nearby factory six or seven years ago and secretly took them home with newspapers. Others asked him if he was embarrassed to say what he was doing. “Now it is totally different. This industry is supported by the government. It is said that it is more proud to be a sexy underwear.”
There is currently no direct high-speed rail in Zhejiang. From Lianyungang Baitayu Airport, it is about 65 kilometers away from Dongwangji Town. It takes more than one hour to drive.
From the South Ring Bridge, turn east into Dongwangji Town, and follow the road through several restaurants such as dog meat shop, wreath shop, paint and paint wholesale, and walk about 500 meters to Maison’s “CosHall” garment factory.
It leads to the intersection of the “CosHall” garment factory.
Maison’s “coshall” garment factory.
If it is not according to the location of the site that he sent in advance, it is difficult to notice the 4-story cement wall plant that is not close to the roadside. This 2,200-square-meter factory has raw material warehouses, storage warehouses and cutting areas.
There are many small garment factories and family workshops around Maison’s garment factory. If you walk into a street-side store, you may see several women workers and several machines processing sexy underwear.
At present, the production mode of Zhejiang County’s sexy underwear industry is still dominated by family workshops. Maxon’s company has an annual turnover of 50 million. Most of the orders are packaged for home-based workshop processing. He directly manages only one 100 square meters. Small processing plant.
This small factory is housed in a bungalow opposite the 4-storey building, with more than 30 machines. The female workers are mostly between 30 and 40 years old. Due to the freedom of working hours, no girl workers can come to school while picking up and going to school, taking care of their family life. After school or during breaks, many children will play in the processing factory.
The female workers are taking the piece-rate wages. One is about 1 to 3 yuan, and the average can be 80 or so per day. The average monthly salary is 4,000 yuan, and the highest can get 7,000 yuan.
Li Lifen is 38 years old. She used to wear white shirts in clothing around Zhejiang. She stopped working at the garment factory and came to work at Maison’s processing plant at the end of 2017. She lowered her head and skillfully locked a leopard-print sexy lingerie, and chatted with the opposite workers.
She thinks that lingerie is “combined with a few pieces of cloth.” It’s very simple to do, and people who have no problems with their hands and feet can learn for a few days. But she “does not know where these clothes will be sold, and I don’t know who will wear them. When I do, my heart will be swaying.”
Mason directly manages the corner of a small processing plant.
Du Li is the youngest female worker in the factory, 23 years old, wearing a red striped sleeve overalls and processing a three-point black lace lingerie. She couldn’t see where the clothes looked good, and I didn’t know who to sell them.
“My face is relatively thin. If I am asked, I will not say that I am wearing sexy underwear. I will say that I am doing clothing.” After that, she threw the transparent lace bra with the shoulder straps in her carton.
And women workers who have long-term lingerie and are older, have a much more relaxed mindset. They even discuss the new style of sexy lingerie, what kind of people are suitable for wearing, and in the face of media interviews, they also show the “fruits” of processing without hesitation.
A female worker showing sexy lingerie. Image source: Visual China
If it is sold on Taobao, the customer service will face a variety of strange problems. For example, “The model has a big chest. Can I wear the effect of the model?” “Does the boyfriend like it?”
The questions about the fun tools are more straightforward and explicit, and often make the customer feel embarrassed. For example, “I will use the climax for the first time, will it really be useful?” “How long can the delay help last?” Is it the same as a real person?” There are also some customers who wear sexy lingerie and send them to the customer service to ask “good to see” and “sexual sex”. Worried about the customer’s bad reviews, the customer service is screaming.
Some people sent nude photos directly, and some girls were scared to turn off the page directly.
Taobao
To a large extent, it is Taobao that has made this small town in northern Jiangsu.
In 2003, Taobao was established. By attracting small and medium-sized sellers to enter the market for free, it became the first place in the domestic online shopping market within two years, occupying 70% of the market share of the Chinese online shopping market. In 2006, Maison, who was still in the first year of high school, soon joined the army of Taobao, and there were more rural leisure time. In Zhejiang, “opening Taobao shop is as common as eating a meal with the people.”
At that time, a Taobao shop allowed the sale of different products. Maison had sold slippers, warm babies, health products, cosmetics, etc. In 2008, he came into contact with sexy lingerie, first selling goods from Chongqing and Guangdong. “At the time, there were more than 300 active shops selling erotic lingerie on Taobao, and half of them were opened by local Zhejiangese.”
In 2009, the sales of several Taobao stores operated by Maison and his mother were close to 100,000. The supply of small foreign manufacturers could not meet the demand, so they invested more than 400,000 and opened a small workshop with only 7 people. At that time, there were no professional proofers and designers. They experienced the process of producing other people’s goods, “copying” other people’s styles, and slowly trying their own design.
“CosHall” is the corner of the raw material warehouse of the garment factory.
Maison claimed to be the “Tubal Road Tailor”. At the beginning, there was no experience in making plates. Many clothes were made by feeling. There are more problems, so try on them yourself.
He is very thin with a height of 187 cm. He picks up a sexy underwear and put it on his body. “If you don’t have a chest, you can put two apples, or try your fist directly.” The fabric is itchy and the chest will not squat. Le, have to adjust by trying on.
“I have more sexy underwear to wear than my wife.” Maison said. He felt that he really wanted to get the product done at the time, at least try to pass through 200 sexy lingerie, each one to try on two or three times.
Since 2013, Maison has hired a more professional proofing division, adding more than 300 models each year, and maintaining a total of 1400~1700 styles. At that time, his family’s shipments accounted for half of Zhejiang’s, and almost all Taobao stores selling erotic lingerie in Taobao’s stores were sold from his home.
According to the data of Ali, the sales of Taobao “Double 11” lingerie in 2017 increased by 23 times compared with 2013.
“CosHall” clothing store in the storage warehouse classified into the sexy underwear.
Everyone will also discuss who bought the goods.
As long as some people with experience can say something about it – the southern market is mostly a lot of traffic. The earliest market was in Dongguan, and then dispersed to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, indicating that these local service industries are developed. Most of the north is retail, but the sales in the northeast are very good. Some people say that it is because “the winter is cold, nothing to do.”
Many Zhejiang people also privately discussed the demand for lingerie and other products in Dongguan entertainment industry before 2014, which may also be the reason for the rise of Zhejiang lingerie industry.
Maison has also revealed some historical peaks to the media – that is before 2014: the sauna clubs in Dongguan and the ladies in KTV need to change clothes every month, and an area of ??about 300,000.
However, Maison feels that the impact on the business is not big now.
Dongguan has undoubtedly been a major consumer of lingerie, but he feels more influenced by the lingerie industry in Guangdong. “Our sales did not have much impact after the Dongguan incident, but people’s adoption of the “Wan-style service” did make ordinary people more curious about lingerie, and even bought it.”
After 2014, Mason began to shift its business focus from the domestic market to the foreign market. Today, 80%~90% of his products are exported to foreign countries. His customers are in the United States, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, and even the Middle East and North Korea, of which half of the exports are exported to the United States, followed by Europe. And Africa.
“Europe and the United States are really more ugly and better to sell. We look good when they look ugly, and the United States prefers bright colors and styles. Chinese people prefer to be subtle.”
When working with foreign clients, Mason will be exposed to many foreign underwear designers. He felt that the harvest was great, as if he saw another sky.
In addition to the basic requirements for comfort, “a piece of clothing to talk, to have a story” became his thinking when designing styles.
His favorite story is to imagine that this sexy lingerie is still there when I am 80 years old. “The scene may be a wedding night, a woman’s best day, the style must be pure enough, defensive and tempting, seemingly wrapped in the whole body but transparent.” He named the series “Bride” “.
The “Bride” series has a story that Maison wants to tell. Image source: Maison
Around 2016, the live broadcast began, and some anchors who played pornographic edge balls greatly boosted the sales of sexy lingerie.
Mason often sees the sexy lingerie he designed and produced on the live broadcast, “special fires for student, flight attendant, maid, uniform and role-playing.”
In order to step on this trend, they concentrated on the development of the uniform series, from the original dozens of models