Dialogue With La Symer: On The Eve Of The "Hydrophilic Economy", The New Brand And The Chinese Swimsuit Revolution Behind It

When referring to the "swimsuit" in the context of consumption, you may think of the sexy bikini on the long coastline of tropical countries, or the scene limit "uniform" in the hot spring swimming pool.

It is a typical "category without brand ”The existence of is always in the form of split or conjoined suits, scattered in a limited number of channel corners.

Even from the perspective of industry, swimwear is a vague existence.

China Swimsuit As mentioned in the Report on Market Development Status Research and Investment Prospects Forecast (2022-2029), the swimwear industry in China is generally small in scale and low in industrial concentration, and the market share of leading enterprises does not exceed 5%. In addition, research shows that the style of domestic swimwear products is monotonous and homogenized, and product iteration has remained in the "micro innovation" of fabrics and patterns all year round.

Not to mention that most swimwear on the market at present only occupy both ends of "fashion aesthetics" and "simple functions". The field of sports swimwear suitable for water project scenes is mostly targeted by low-quality white brands below 80 yuan and overseas swimwear brands from Australia and Southeast Asia.

However, these cold facts did not extinguish La Symer's enthusiasm.

At the beginning of the 2024 New Year, La, a sportswear brand designed for outdoor water sports and mainly for female users Symer is officially launched. Behind it is Liu Longxin, the manager, who has accumulated five years of market insight, polished the product and supply chain for two years, and a swimsuit track with new variables.

With the vitality of La Symer as the window, the Chinese swimsuit market and even the entire industry have found new inspiration.

The "story" of the market

It should be pointed out that the above-mentioned embarrassing situation of the domestic swimsuit industry does not come from the supply side disability.

After years of development, the swimsuit manufacturing industry in China has basically matured, and three leading global core industrial bases, Jinjiang in Fujian, Yiwu in Zhejiang and Xingcheng in Liaoning, have been formed. Among them, the swimsuit manufacturing scale of Liaoning Xingcheng alone accounts for nearly 1/4 of the global market.

The problem is more from the demand side - the overall market of water sports in China is small and scattered, and the corresponding related equipment can only survive in a narrow way. Even the swimwear with a high market share in the field of equipment can hardly compete with the perennial downturn in the market. The weak domestic consumption atmosphere makes the Chinese swimwear industry always lack some luck in the process of breaking through to branding.

Fortunately, the current Chinese swimsuit market has changed.

"Water sports have a natural charm. Almost all people can find happiness from 'playing with water'. Moreover, the relatively affluent growth environment of the younger generation of consumers gives them more sense of security. They have enthusiasm and ability to explore more challenging water activities, such as surfing and diving. In addition Under the strategic leadership of "Green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", the ecological environment of domestic cities and wild waters has been significantly improved in recent years, which also creates conditions for the flourishing of various water sports and recreational projects such as paddles, canoes, etc. "

Liu Longxin pointed out that based on the powerful momentum of the times provided by Guochao, today is a good time for the development of China's water sports, and the latest market research is also supporting his judgment - according to relevant data, the scale of China's water sports industry is expected to reach 145.06 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 15.9% over 2021.

His keen insight into the demand side stems from Liu Longxin's professional background of providing strategic consulting and brand marketing for the world's top 500 consumer enterprises for many years, as well as his love for water sports.

As early as 2019, Liu Longxin participated in water sports as a player and became the first batch of enthusiasts to go deep into the field. Over the past five years, he has witnessed the gradual evolution of the population structure in the field towards youth and diversification. In the meantime, the epidemic situation is the watershed of industrial upheaval.

"The general passive home state during the epidemic greatly improved the time for people to contact social media. In addition, the free atmosphere of water sports itself fully stimulated the public's desire for outdoor activities. Therefore, the content of social media water sports ushered in an outbreak during the epidemic."

Benefiting from the achievements of early market education, the number and activity of major water sports clubs in the post epidemic era increased significantly, and the sales scale of swimwear was also expanding synchronously.

Data shows that the number of people participating in sports in China is growing at a rate of 39%, and it is expected to reach 500 million in 2025. Among them, the number of participants in beach, skateboard, sailing and other trendy sports is increasing; Accompanied by this, the market size of China's swimming supplies has reached about 40 billion yuan, which is expected to continue to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 6.3% by 2026.

The Chinese consumers in Kaimeng have actively pressed the accelerator for industrial development, and the industrial end has also undergone simultaneous changes with the soaring demand. However, the factors that drive Chinese swimsuit manufacturers to seek change are much more complex.

Although under the halo of the "world factory", China's swimwear industry once rose rapidly with the golden age of export, it is an indisputable fact that today's domestic garment factories are suffering from shrinking foreign trade due to the objective factors of global industrial competition and remodeling in recent years.

"Now, the shift of manufacturing links to new economies such as Southeast Asia has become a major trend of the entire clothing industry. The industry's competitive bidding has compressed the profits of domestic suppliers, and overseas orders have sharply decreased. However, the domestic market still has the advantage of super large scale, and the big market opportunities of the swimwear industry in the future can only occur in China." Liu Lanxin said frankly.

And according to the field survey, Liu Longxin found that the Xingcheng swimsuit cluster, which was once mainly engaged in export business, had begun to prepare for industrial return.

"Most swimwear manufacturers have shifted their business focus to the domestic market, including manufacturers' attempts to build their own brands. However, due to the lack of product creation and a series of operation capabilities facing the end market, these supply chain transformation brands are usually not very successful. At least for the moment, it is still more rational to cooperate with domestic professional swimwear brands."

With both supply and demand conditions ready, Liu Longxin led La Symer into the game. Of course, in the heavily armed market competition environment, in addition to opportunities and dreams, brands also need to show enough creativity and strength.

The "story" of the product

"To make a professional sports swimsuit suitable for Chinese female users" is a natural and doomed product goal.

Rationality lies in that female users are the core customer group of new water sports under the light outdoor wave. Research shows that the current user portraits of paddles and their derivatives are mainly women; In addition, women have been at the top of the consumption chain for a long time, and these users are also the main consumers of related products and services in the field.

In addition, female users also carry their own traffic. Taobao platform data shows that among swimwear products represented by bikinis, women's presentation index is significantly higher than men's in categories and the whole industry.

More than that, compared with most male users who only focus on basic functions, women's evaluation dimensions of products are generally more comprehensive, which gives more room for products to play, but the difficulty lies in this.

Liu Longxin found that the demand of domestic female users for swimwear is unique and complex.

Under the influence of long-term cultural concepts, the design style of overseas swimwear brands does not match the high requirements of many Chinese women for fit and wrapping; Now many domestic "net red swimsuits" are blindly pursuing visual effects, resulting in the developed swimsuits being too fluffy and elegant.

"Most swimwear models on the market are basically only suitable for taking photos, and once moving, they are easy to get lost, which deviates from the essence of professional swimwear in sports scenes."

Moreover, because of the large difference in the individual figure of users, it is difficult for traditional swimsuits sold in sets to be "tailored". "The use of swimsuit suits to achieve a wide range of body sizes actually increases the difficulty and cost of design, but also limits the combination of consumers. Not to mention that the return rate of online swimsuits is not low, and the return and exchange of such elastic clothing will also affect secondary sales."

It can be seen from this that the swimsuit has to cross the huge R&D threshold just to achieve the "fit" in the standard sense. If you want to achieve further "comfort", the product should make more efforts.

"Many girls want swimsuits to be soft, breathable and environmentally friendly, and some girls want swimsuits to be sun proof," Liu Longxin said.

For Liu Longxin, behind every demand point is the pain point that has not been solved for a long time in the swimsuit track. Complex product demands are challenges to brands, but they are also opportunities. Therefore, after analyzing one by one and making targeted breakthroughs, La Symer's swimwear products have emerged in response to the situation.

In terms of model, La Symer Taking full account of the body characteristics and wearing preferences of Chinese women, the shape and structure of the swimsuit are optimized to ensure sufficient stability and wrapping degree of the swimsuit while eliminating the discomfort caused by wearing the swimsuit for a long time. The design team has also made a lot of improvement and treatment on the details of swimsuit for various risks of light walking in outdoor water sports scenes.

In terms of materials, La Symer has abandoned the traditional swimsuit surface accessories and selected new materials that are more suitable for outdoor water sports. The fabric is high elastic and soft, and the lining is more skin friendly. And it is widely used through GRS, OEKO TEX certified environment-friendly and sustainable materials are marching towards the high requirements of sports comfort and environmental friendliness. The use of new technologies to improve the comfort of wet wear has also been included in the material upgrade plan.

In terms of supply chain, La Symer has established a deep strategic cooperation relationship with the manufacturers of Xingcheng Swimsuit Base, cooperated with each other, closely followed the whole process of development and manufacturing, and initially realized the "small order quick reaction" mode of small batch and fine processing.

Backed by an efficient and lightweight supply chain system, La Symer can provide consumers with a higher degree of freedom of collocation under the existing single volume scale, that is, consumers can purchase the upper and lower body of the swimsuit separately, or choose different models with different wrapping degrees and different sizes for the upper and lower body of the swimsuit.

To test La Symer Liu Lanxin has carried out extensive product internal testing in the core channel of the category, and has continuously collected feedback from users on whether the products meet the preset; As a male, Liu Longxin even carried out "violent fitting" in person.

"Many products popular with female users are made by men, which is not directly related to the gender of the manager. In essence, it still needs a solid and comprehensive brand management ability." Liu Longxin said frankly.

But it seems that the obsession with products will naturally stimulate the experience spirit of designers, which may also be a kind of consciousness of product managers.

　　 "Story" of the brand

The national trend is the core engine, and the high-quality new talent group that pursues freedom and relaxation is a constant momentum. It can be predicted that the outbreak of minority sports track and related product market is a deterministic trend in the future. As a new player, positioning determines the initial competitive order and market effect of the brand.

For La Symer Lululemon It may be a direct reference system.

"Since Lululemon can transfer the high barrier advantage of developed countries to China, and then lead the domestic market in the same field, La Symer can also forge the advantage of high dimension and low dimension in advance by continuously building a thick brand, and then extend to a wider population and market. "

The key to building a strong brand is to return to products from beginning to end.

Liu Longxin said that La The materials of Symer's swimsuit are almost the top match in the mass consumer market. "Our swimwear products are priced at 200 to 300 yuan, which is the middle price range in the field. From the perspective of material and process application, La Symer is far better than most low-end products on the market for less than 100 yuan. Even compared with luxury brand swimwear for thousands of yuan, we have no gap in product quality except brand premium. "

With the high potential energy of the product and considerable price advantage, La Symer has enough potential to explore a wider range of people and regions. But even so, La Symer also does not intend to focus on the brand positioning of "big brand replacement".

Perhaps it is because in the vertical market, even relatively mature overseas brands do not monopolize users' minds, and domestic brands do not need to be the shadow of overseas brands.

Rather than emphasizing cost performance, La Symer emphasizes the concept of creation. In addition to the personal, comfortable and free wear mentioned, there are more surprises behind La Symer.

For example, "beauty".

Aesthetics is a higher and more subjective field, and people always inevitably pursue popular aesthetics, which requires that products have the ability to insight into consumer preferences and quickly keep up with new design trends.

In terms of appearance, Liu Langxin, with his inherent aesthetic ability and design experience built in his career for many years, endowed La with Symer's unique image style; On this basis, Liu Longxin also joined forces with the authoritative popular trend information platform, with the help of the cutting-edge big data and artificial intelligence technology, to instantly discover the fashion trends in the field, and dynamically and accurately capture market preferences.

On the specific operation level, La Symer uses intelligent tools to achieve "one click drawing" and super efficient generation of styles and color schemes, which gives perceptual aesthetics rational insight and operability support.

The goal of the next step is "regular service".

Liu Longxin mentioned that the adaptability of multiple scenes is the trend of research and development of clothing categories at present, which is also one of the secrets of Lululemon's breakthrough from the field of minority sportswear to the daily clothing market of the public - leggings, which once only appeared with yoga mats, has become a lifestyle trend item by carrying exquisite craftsmanship and aesthetic upgrades that conform to ergonomics.

"Water sports is originally an 'amphibious' project, and participants need to go ashore half the time. So for swimwear, it is not only suitable for water sports, but also suitable for shore leisure. It is better to appear in other sports scenes. It would be better if it could be used as a daily wear accessory."

La Symer has always been paying attention to all new technologies in different clothing fields.

In the past, abdominal shaping and sports comfort could not coexist in swimsuits. Because it is usually difficult to increase the tension locally for clothes such as swimwear that apply single elastic fabric in a large area. Many girls also give up participating in water sports out of anxiety about their bodies. However, in recent years, the design concept of yoga clothes, as well as its innovation in cutting and sewing technology, have had a huge impact on the entire sports clothing field, and also promoted the progress and upgrading of many technologies.

　　 "The new technology and concept allow us to have more play methods in structural segmentation, zonal patch, plastic pull and other aspects of swimwear. In addition, through our experiments, some soft support technologies and hot-melt adhesive materials used in trackless clothing can also be widely used in swimwear. The combination and superposition of these new technologies can make our wearing experience of swimwear completely different from that of traditional swimwear products."

With the combination and improvement of these technical details, combined with six styles of freedom, classic, leisure, sports, one-piece and long sleeve, La Symer swimsuit covers all the mainstream swimsuit styles in the market, trying to meet all the needs of Chinese women from conservatism to freedom.

In the near future, La Symer will take the water sports field as the center, continue to extend to other female dominated sports scenes, and finally go to the streets with thousands of styles.

The "story" of the industry

In the product field, today's La Symer is ready to go. According to the logic of the consumer market, the next step is to ignite the market with the help of fancy marketing rules, which is not difficult for Liu Longxin, who has profound marketing experience.

But at this stage La Symer mostly operates brand stores based on platforms such as Taobao and Xiaohongshu. As for external cooperation, the brand prefers to link professional talents and authoritative industrial institutions in the field. November 29, 2023, La As an exhibitor, Symer appeared at the "Liangzhu 2023 National Tide Industry Conference on Science and Technology", and deeply interacted with both ends B and C to show the professional image of the brand.

"Compared with saturated marketing, it is more scarce to do a good job in a professional product to meet the needs, which is also more important for consumers and the industry."

In fact, the long market research and product polishing in the early stage have reflected the steady rhythm of La Symer, and Liu Lanxin himself is not persistent in the short-term outbreak of the brand. “La Symer does not follow the old path of new consumer brands to exchange money for traffic. For all partners, I will give priority to evaluating whether the value concepts of both sides are consistent. "

Compared with extensive capital investment, like-minded market partners are more valuable to La Symer. "I have made long-term preparations to accompany the brand to grow together," Liu Longxin said.

If he had to tell a "story", Liu Longxin would prefer to join the plot of industrial co creation.

"China is not short of manufacturing strength, but of unique products and product based brand building ability. Today, more and more entrepreneurs are filling this part of ability with ideas and enthusiasm."

Liu Longxin observed that new players in the field of swimwear in China have begun to establish a sense of research and development, and they are also more willing to pay higher creation costs for products. "Even if the single quantity is still small, the profit of domestic swimsuit orders is still higher than that of exports, so the cooperation of domestic suppliers is also higher, which is undoubtedly a good thing for domestic swimsuit brands in the beginning."

At present, La Symer's cooperation mode with suppliers is essentially production collaboration, but in the future, it may move towards brand co creation.

"I can provide new product ideas to the supply chain from the brand perspective, help them see the subtle changes in the consumer end earlier, and change and improve the existing process level. In the future, China will have its own unique product process and brand concept, and then the globalization of Chinese brands will be more convincing."

Forget the story

Thoreau, who lived well, once sighed when he experienced life in Walden Lake: the distant life makes people see the truth. Liu Longxin may have received a similar call.

In 2022, Liu Longxin left the first tier cities non-stop by chance to become a resident "islander" of Hainan Island, and began a one-year "tide watching" career. Three years ago, the enlightenment of surfing enthusiasts, the surfboard that has been hung at home, the market discovery ability shaped by professional habits, and the design talent all over the body, were rapidly fermented in the unprecedented calm island life, and finally created La The birth of Symer.

At the beginning of the product, brand and industry story, La Symer's story is "no story".

Based on the actual needs of marine sports enthusiasts, provide sports equipment with better performance; Manufacture environmentally sustainable high-quality durable goods without too much design, packaging and marketing; Respect users' feedback, and accumulate brand value in a solid and long-term way

These practical ideas have woven into La Symer's brand concept in the future.

As for La Symer's brand name comes from Siren and Mermaid, which represent the mysterious sea in ancient myths. The free, brave and independent mermaid image in these two legends is Liu Longxin's expectation that Chinese women can fully display their personality and charm in water sports, and also represents his love for the natural home.

Even though La Symer, full of marine culture, is a little strange to most Chinese people rooted in land civilization, Liu Longxin does not intend to give it a more earthy name.

After all, La Symer is born of the ocean, and is born of Chinese users' yearning for marine culture.

"In fact, many users in the aquatic sports circle are elites in the brand marketing field. It seems too crafty and not sincere to cater to the 'correct answer' in the brand strategy."

Finally, La Symer's slogan is set to "As free as the ocean”; It is also a westernized expression, but it has an unexpected appeal to the introverted and even slightly repressive oriental civilization.

For Liu Longxin, this is the declaration of "brand by me"; For everyone who wears La Symer with a certain desire, they will eventually be "as comfortable as the sea".