Zhang Zhifeng: Pioneer of Local Luxury Brands

Influential Events

Since its establishment in 1992, NE?TIGER Siberian Tiger has successively established four major global design and marketing centers in France, Italy, the United States and Hong Kong, and has become the world's top fur club "Purple" The first Chinese member of the club". In 2007, the Danish prince ordered a dress made of cloud brocade from NE?TIGER as the first engagement gift; at the end of 2008, NE?TIGER chose Tokyo, Japan to kick off the global Chinese clothing tour. In the past 20 years, NE?TIGER has developed from a former foundry factory into the No. 1 luxury brand in China.

At the same time, NE?TIGER Siberian tiger has been working hard to discover, research and inherit the ancient Chinese textile embroidery technology. In 2008, NE?TIGER cooperated with Xuanhe Kesi Research Institute, the only company in the world specializing in Kesi research and development, and introduced the almost lost Kesi skills into the production of advanced custom dresses.

Zhang Zhifeng is a man with dreams. In the early 1980s, his business was booming and he was involved in more than a dozen industries. However, he chose to withdraw and focus on the clothing industry, which was not the most profitable. From OEM to self-created brand, Zhang Zhifeng did not choose a broad medium. The end market, but the Swagger points directly to advanced customization. As someone once said, "Haute couture clothing only comes from a lonely romance", and the creation of profits is far inferior to that of ready-to-wear brands. In recent years, international haute couture brands have frequently extended olive branches to mass brands, which just confirms this statement. Perhaps, Zhang Zhifeng is still a designer and a dreamer at heart. The accumulation of money is not the goal. What he wants to do is to grow his own tree in the wasteland of China, a local luxury brand.

The dream of a luxury brand started from a tailor shop

Time back to the early 1980s, Zhang Zhifeng, a high school graduate, took the scissors from his mother and opened a tailor shop in Heilongjiang. At that time, it was a period of explosive development of border trade. Zhang Zhifeng stepped out of the store and the country, and saw the reality of the outside world. He found that a product designed and made in China, affixed with other people's brand trademarks, can be sold for 5 times the price in the United States and 7 times the price in Europe, but the same product can only be sold by himself. profit. At that time, Zhang Zhifeng had already recognized the power and charm of the brand.

From OEM for others to building their own brand - this is the development path many Chinese companies have taken. And this road may be more difficult for NETIGER. A high-end fashion brand is recognized by the market, not just by working hard on materials, design and craftsmanship. Zhang Zhifeng clearly realized that "brands occupy not only the market, but also people's deep-seated awareness, and the advantages of this cognition are accumulated slowly and for a long time. The meaning of a brand is not just a name, It's as simple as a logotype and a few storefronts." In fact, NE?TIGER started out as a pioneer in many fields, and was later called a leader in the industry. Looking back on this journey, he said with emotion: "Such a long road is of course not smooth, and it is not for everyone. Come and persevere."

Zhang Zhifeng once said that it will take time for NE?TIGER to become a top international brand.

The main difficulty facing him at present is that "China's huge luxury consumer groups still have misunderstandings about luxury goods", who worship foreign luxury goods and sneer at state-owned brands. "Luxury is not only a 'expensive item with a high price', but also a 'item that creates pleasure and comfort'." In Zhang Zhifeng's view, only by truly understanding the concept of luxury and the culture advocated can we make a lot of money. The process becomes a momentary blissful process, and this is the true value of luxury.

What NE?TIGER is doing, and will continue to do, is to "advocate a positive meaning of life and never-ending civilizational progress", advocate its own unique attitude and way of life, and shape NE?TIGER's cultural connotation.

The revival of Chinese luxury civilization

Although the future is difficult, Zhang Zhifeng is full of confidence in China's luxury goods market. This confidence comes from his theory of "the emerging and revival of Chinese luxury civilization".

When the enterprise development entered the track, Zhang Zhifeng returned to campus and went to Harbin Institute of Technology to study management engineering to improve his management level for the development of the enterprise. When faced with the topic of brand building, he looked further afield—going to Fudan to study philosophy, going to Peking University history, and traveling to Europe and the United States. "After studying and combing through a lot of history, I found that luxury goods have existed in China since ancient times, and they have conquered the world long ago. Compared with the West in terms of cultural connotation and artistic attainments, silk is the earliest and One of the world's recognized luxury goods, ceramics, embroidery, brocade, jade, cloisonne, famous tea and wine, red sandalwood are also world-famous luxury goods. But in terms of the creation of luxury brands, China is far behind the West, but this is not It means that there is no luxury culture in China and the soil for the birth of luxury brands."

Zhang Zhifeng feels that the "luxury" that existed in ancient China has changed our way of life and values to a certain extent. These changes are deposited and intertwined in in the system of Chinese civilization. And all he had to do was wake them up. What makes him more firm is that China has become the world's largest luxury market. "Today's China is very likely to become the third level of global luxury in time and space."

Snatch the right to speak in fashion

"Passing the light" means that the person who has obtained the wisdom of Bodhi is like a bright light. While illuminating himself, he has the responsibility to light other lamps that are still in a state of chaos, in order to " Lights are passed down from generation to generation", "Eternal bright and splendid". Zhang Zhifeng expects NE?TIGER to be such a bearer of traditional Chinese costume culture.

From the four major embroidery products, cloud brocade to kesi, NE?TIGER has been exploring the treasures of Chinese clothing culture. This kind of excavation and inheritance can better separate the accumulation of Chinese elements of clothing and the presentation of real cultural connotations. In the 12th China International Fashion Week in 2008, Zhang Zhifeng launched the opening show of the "National Color Tianxiang Huafu Ceremony". Among them, the most shocking is the cooperation between NE?TIGER and Wang Jialiang, the fifth-generation descendant of the Kesi family who once made dragon robes for the Chinese royal family, and Wang Yuxiang, the master of Kesi. Two "national treasures" master craftsmen have carried out hundreds of hours of creation to reproduce the beauty and exquisiteness of Kesi craftsmanship.

The Chinese craftsmanship and aesthetics represented behind this are "creative and cultural connotations" that other international brands cannot replicate. This is also the "motive force of luxury goods" that Zhang Zhifeng said, and is one of the four key prerequisites for creating luxury brands. head. The second is "the vitality of the brand must be ensured with high-grade quality", "based on creating an international well-known brand, not just a well-known Chinese brand; finally, it is necessary to discover and meet customer needs on a global scale, because China The growth space for luxury goods is in the Chinese market, but the real foothold lies in the international market."

Zhang Zhifeng said, "Chinese brands need to stand tall, have the courage to break the fashion discourse power set by the West, dare to lead, and dare to set the rules and standards of the game."

1. Using seven kinds of Kesi craftsmanship The work "Peonies of Luan and Phoenix".

2. In the weaving workshop of Mr. Wang Yuxiang, a master of kesi, the craftsmen are focusing on the local weaving of peony.