NPC: After The Rise Of Local Fashion Brands, We Need To Broaden Our Understanding Of Chinese Youth Culture.

As the first batch of local brands in China, Li Chen NIC, the principal man of NPC (New Project Center), has summed up the experience of the past ten years as "Nothing greatcomes easy" (which travels to the sky), which has naturally become the theme of NPC's participation in the New York fashion week of China.

This "reality" is the core of the trend brand to have cultural and market penetration.

In 2009, Li Chen NIC, who was still host, founded NPC with famous artist Willber Pan, focusing on the emerging trend market in China.

Relying on the successful operation of the physical stores and e-commerce business, currently in Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi'an opened a total of 6 physical stores, annual sales volume of about 56000000.

Outside Willber Pan, Li Chen's NIC is the cooperation tacit agreement between the two people. With the development of NPC, Li Chen NIC takes on a more pure role as a businessman.

In the next few years, he hopes to make more changes in the brand supply chain, data intelligence, store operation, content operation and so on, and "build the foundation system of NPC platform".

After doing business for ten years, he also has a broader understanding of the trend and Chinese youth culture.

From a commercial perspective, Li Chen NIC also has a more thorough observation of the local trend market.

"Now, looking back at our attempts in commercialization, the essence of the trend is not changing. It is a group of young people from the street who express themselves through clothing, music, sports and art, and have always been in samsara. It is possible to say that the same thing is always changing."

Li Chen NIC said.

"I think the youth culture of China must be rooted in our hearts and belongs to us five thousand years. It may not feel like a young man, but it doesn't mean we don't have it. Because it's a gene, a deep instinct, and because of the Internet, our generation has a different world view, so the" Chinese youth culture "that we will understand and deliver will become mysterious and the world.

"Building the center of the world trend" is Li Chen NIC's vision for the future of the brand. In his brand planning, he will complete a comprehensive brand upgrade in 2019 and open up new businesses, including developing the trend content plate and passing on the youth cultural content from the perspective of NPC.

"If I want to talk about the future blueprint of NPC, I hope to build a home for young people to learn, live, play, and realize their dreams."

Li Chen NIC said.

On the eve of preparing for the New York fashion week, Li Chen NIC and BoF revealed in detail the themes and highlights of NPC's fashion week this year, how the local fashion brands overcome the problem of acclimatization in the international market, and how to maintain the vitality of the fashion brand after commercialization.

BoF:Business of Fashion

NL: Li Chen NIC

BoF: what is the effect of NPC in New York fashion week?

NL: just at the start of the NPC 10th anniversary node, we hope to stand on the bigger stage to introduce the trend culture of China to more young people in the world, and at the same time, it is a challenge for NPC.

This time we have the concept of "Nothinggreat comeseasy". The small theme is human moon landing, the palace culture of the Imperial Palace, and the gathering of the representative of the national tide of NPC. I think the youth culture of China must be rooted in our hearts and belongs to us five thousand years. It may not feel when we are young, but it doesn't mean that we do not, because it is the gene, the inner instinct, and because of the Internet, our generation has different world outlook, so the "Chinese youth culture" that we will understand and deliver will become mysterious and the world.

BoF: do you want NPC's deep understanding of the trend and youth culture in the past ten years and how to present it on the international stage?

NL: ten years ago, when we were doing NPC, we didn't have such good external conditions, and there were not so many people paying attention to the trend of the street and the street culture. After ten years, China and the world have already been earthshaking. In many areas, Chinese brands have made more young people see and use in many countries. I think it's time to do some cultural output, tell the world, how do our generation young people think about it, so we set many themes combining ancient and modern, combining Chinese and western, including the final integration.

BoF: this NPC is working with five brands across the country. What are your selection criteria and what kind of cooperation do you want to achieve?

NL: first of all, they are all good friends of NPC. I am all looking at brands that they grew up bit by bit. ANBBRAND is the first batch of brands sold by NPC, and May of Umamiism has known him since his first season product. Phantaci, like us, has a halo of stars, but has also persisted in the street culture of Taiwan for more than ten years.

In fact, apart from Umamiism, it is a brand that has been operating for more than ten years. The mission of NPC is to help young people turn creativity into products and realize their dreams. Although we have done a lot of thankless things over the years, we have also made a detour. But I still believe that there are many young brands in China doing better than us. We should lead more excellent brands through the strength of ourselves to do better and better. So this is just the beginning. I believe we will achieve our mission with more brand names in the future.

BoF: what is the current business status of the brand? Can you disclose some data about sales volume and sales growth?

NL:2018 is a year of adjustment for us. From the inside to the outside, from the store to the staff, although 18 years are the most flourishing year of the tide of the country, I remind you to be careful. The first thing to do is to be stable and not to be washed away, and that the 20 years of 19 years are the real challenges and opportunities for us.

In 2019, we will continue to do some work that we can not see. We hope to build up the basic system in three years, because if NPC is a platform, we should do more in the future.

BoF: as the first batch of local fashion brands, how did you change your understanding of the trend?

NL: in fact, I have not changed much, but NPC has tried many kinds of changes in the process of commercialization over the years. Many of them are the accumulation of experience and lessons. Now, actually, the essence of the trend is not changing. It is a group of young people from the street who express themselves through clothing, music, sports and art, and have always been reincarnation.

BoF: what do you think will happen to the market in the future?

The trend of the global market is getting bigger and bigger. Especially in the past few years, the luxury and fashion circles will be dominated by the street culture. Of course, it is possible that they are making the right to speak. The trend of street culture is just what they want to borrow. In the next ten years, what we do is very promising. But I am not optimistic that the trend of China's brand building is too bad. It's all a little bit of a workshops. Maybe a global competitive environment will lead to great losses. So I particularly hope that we can unite and integrate resources so that we can have a new look and development. NL: I have a very deep feeling this year.

Do BoF:NPC have specific plans for overseas markets? What do you think is the biggest problem that brands encounter in the development of overseas markets compared with the domestic market?

NL: there must be, or else I will not go to New York.

The difference may be the comprehensive quality of the team. In fact, the overseas market is sometimes better than the domestic market. This is my personal view, but it is my personal view, but you have to understand the local culture and know their needs. Many times, Chinese brands abroad are the same. It is our own cognition that can be improved. For example, we go abroad to a certain city, which is internationalized to us. But after arriving at the local level, we have to consider the localization first. This is just like the fact that many international companies come to China for the final development, and I think the New York fashion week is also a test. In the future, we must go to more countries and cities to do our good business.

What is the development plan of BoF:NPC in the next year or even five years?

NL:NPC's vision for the next 5-10 years is to build the world's trend center. It sounds great. Ha ha, but it needs to be implemented step by step. First, we have cultivated the brand and shop for ten years. I think there will be a comprehensive upgrade in 19 years. Secondly, we will open up a new business in the next 19 years to create the trend of young people. I will probably return to my best program production and video shooting, bringing together more interesting young people's cultural content to convey our spiritual culture to more people.