Changes in China
11/12/2024
Vincent Djen, director of Cheng Kung Garments (CKG)
The director of apparel manufacturing group CKG says China is now an exciting market for international and domestic sports clothing brands and, increasingly, for apparel recycling.CKG is celebrating its fiftieth birthday in 2025. What was the company like 50 years ago?
My parents started the company in Hong Kong in 1975. The garment industry then was like a cottage industry, with lots of small manufacturers doing different parts of the work. My mum and dad made padded and puffer jackets, which has always been our specialism, but sometimes the orders would be just to sew in the lining and then pass the pieces on for others to put it all together. Some factories would make the complete garment, but back then, in the 1970s, most did not. Fabrics were mostly imported from Japan. It was hard work and Hong Kong wasn’t rich back then and everybody had to work really hard, but the skill levels and workmanship were amazing. My dad still talks about that, about how some of the workers were so skilful that the machines could not keep up with them. There is a lot of talk now about the negative aspects of the industry but I can tell you that this industry, whether through fabrics or garments, really helped lift the living standards of a lot of the families around us. We are still in contact with some of the workers from that time. People developed their skills and maybe became a factory floor-manager in Hong Kong. Then, maybe in the 1980s, some of them began to come to mainland China to teach their skills to workers here and watched while some of those workers, in turn, became line managers and floor managers before returning to their home towns and opening their own factories there. This industry has created wealth and has created whole new communities.In what ways is CKG different now?
At first, it was just my mum and dad and they had people working with them, but not for them. They took some classes and learned a lot about the industry from other workers and other companies, and also from their own mistakes. Some things have not really changed. We still have our headquarters in Hong Kong and still try to offer great service to customers and great communications so that, if something happens on the production line, our customers know we will be open and try to fix it. We run good factories and make good products. But the company has grown and we have two factories in total, one in Shanghai and one we have just opened in Anhui province. Now we employ around 30 people in the office and, including the people in all the factories, between 150 and 200 in total.When did CKG begin to emphasise its commitment to sustainability? How successful has the company been in making this commitment something positive for the business in terms of results and commercial achievement?
The industry began to change in the late 1990s or early 2000s. That was when the industry here began to think about environmental impact, workers’ rights and important things like that. Our customers taught us a lot. Clients encouraged us to move to waterless dyeing, asking us if we were open to new things. We saw it as a fun trend and decided just to go with it. We have always been interested in new things. My parents have a bit of an engineering background; I do too. When I was little, I used to like taking things like phones, cameras and radios apart to see what they looked like inside. Part of our business now is in recycling clothes and I see this in the same way, taking things apart. It’s fun for me. There is a commercial opportunity there. It is an opportunity that is growing, not very fast and I wish it was growing faster, but it is growing and we are on the right track. I like the combination of making clothes and recycling them. I would say the idea of recycling clothes has opened up my mind. It’s a different angle and it is helping me understand the industry more.Many people in major companies believe there are too many certification programmes and that it costs too much time, effort and money to keep up with them. You said recently that the right certifications can drive growth. What are the right certifications? How can they drive growth?
It is a big cost but when you work with certain brands, you need certification or you cannot work with them. This means certification can open doors. We need to work with the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) because we make and recycle outdoor garments and work with a lot of synthetic materials, including recycled polyester. It brings in orders. We are also working with the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) because we also use wool in some of the coats we make. So, yes, there are all these different standards but I think it is just a question of identifying the ones you need the most for your core products. It’s hard to do everything. We work with very little organic cotton so we don’t have GOTS certification, for example.How important is it for China to become a strong contributor to sustainability efforts in the global textile and apparel industry?
It is very important because China has a huge manufacturing base and our domestic apparel market is now at between 60% and 70% of the US market in terms of annual sales revenues. We are a huge market, we have the technology, the know-how and the supply chain to help, and we always like to collaborate on sustainability. People here, especially older generations, have a long tradition of saving and reusing things and I think this will help recycled fibres become popular, although natural materials are very popular here too. The desire not to let things go to waste is still very strong and people are now coming up with new business ideas based on this. You can already see that local brands are becoming interested in textile recycling and in low-carbon materials and are embracing this trend. This is a big change. Chinese brands are now publishing their own environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports and are embracing this. This is good because, of course, we have a textile waste problem too and we need to resolve it. That’s why this is now part of what we do at CKG. We want textile waste to become the feedstock for new products.When did participation in sports and outdoor activities become popular in China? What drove this change?
Chinese people have always liked exercise. Even ten or 20 years ago people were jogging and there were gyms, even in smaller cities. It has always been there. Since covid-19, though, interest in the outdoors has really boomed. The trend we have seen elsewhere of people choosing to spend on experiences rather than just buying physical things has happened here too and outdoor trips, and activities such as camping, fishing and hiking have become popular, and brands in China are responding to this trend.You said earlier this year that many Chinese people like sports clothing so much they have started to wear it for business activities too? What brought this cultural change and what difference is it making to CKG?
People like comfort. More brands here are starting to make products with quick-dry functionality or more breathability, offering garments that are comfortable to wear in hot weather. The technology is available and brands have identified this as a way for them to have differentiation and are now offering clothes for outdoor activities that look great in any setting. This applies to local brands and international brands that are popular in China. It’s common now to see people in Shanghai wearing soft-shell jackets to work, or to see women wearing yoga pants in the street. It’s part of this global trend of going casual and it is growing quickly here. Entrepreneurs are wearing athletic shoes to important business meetings. It’s cool to do this; it shows sophistication and gives you a new cachet. The new luxury brands are Descente and Arc’teryx and this is at least partly for fashion reasons. The difference this is making to us is that it is creating more demand. We are making garments with more hang-tags to help communicate all the different functionality.What are the factors that have made some outdoor brands so popular among Chinese consumers? What are the most important things that you believe brands from North America and Europe should keep in mind when they bring their collections to China?
They should start with their best products. That should be the core. International brands can test the market because they can see if their products are popular with Chinese visitors to their stores overseas, or among Chinese people living there. If those customers like a product, it will also be popular in China. That happened with Everlane. That brand wasn’t even here, but it was popular because people bought it when they went abroad. If any brand sees this happening, it will be a signal that they may have a market in China and they should find a good local partner and come and see.CKG director, Vincent Djen, says the textile industry has helped raise the living standards of many families in China.
CREDIT: WTP
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