Korean fashion brands that have entered the Chinese market are making their presence known by ranking high in sales during China's second-largest e-commerce event, the '618 Shopping Festival.' Experiencing the success potential of K-fashion in China, Musinsa plans to open its first offline store locally this year and also run an online business.
The 618 event is a discount event launched by JD Group (Jingdong.com), China's second-largest e-commerce company, to celebrate its founding anniversary on June 18. Major Chinese online shopping malls such as Jingdong and Tmall participate, with the event running from mid-May to mid-June. This year, buoyed by the Chinese government's 'replacing the old with the new' policy, the total transaction volume (GMV) of Chinese online shopping malls participating in the 618 event reached 855.6 billion yuan (approximately 163 trillion won), setting a record.
According to Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall on the 24th, Mistoholdings' sports fashion brand 'FILA' ranked second in sales among sports and outdoor brands during this year's 618 event. The first and third places in the same category went to Nike and Adidas, respectively, showcasing strong performance among global corporations.
FILA was founded in Italy in 1911, but after the Korea branch, FILA Korea, fully acquired the Italian headquarters in 2007, it transformed into a Korean fashion brand. Subsequently, in 2009, FILA entered the Chinese market through a joint venture with Anta Group, the largest sportswear corporation in China. Instead of directly operating in China, FILA entered into trademark agreements and delegated operational rights to the Anta Group.
The clothing brand 'MLB' by F&F also ranked 18th in the sports brand category during the 618 event. MLB was established in 1999 after F&F became the first in the world to obtain clothing licensing rights from Major League Baseball in the U.S. Its signature products include baseball caps featuring Major League team logos, and it entered the Chinese market in 2020. It is reported to currently own over 1,000 offline stores.
The outdoor brand Kolon Sports, part of Kolon Industries, ranked fifth in the outdoor institutional sector. Kolon Sports, a brand launched in 1973 and over 40 years old, established a joint venture with Anta Group in 2017 to enter the local market.
Gentle Monster, a rising luxury fashion eyewear brand representing Korea under IiiCombine, ranked fifth in the watch and eyewear sector. Gentle Monster entered the Chinese market in earnest in 2016 by opening offline stores in Beijing and Shanghai and currently reportedly has more than 20 direct-operated stores.
Additionally, the clothing brand 'Mardi Mercredi' by Piece Piece Studio ranked second in the new brand sector. Since its launch in 2018, Mardi Mercredi has grown by adopting a unique flower-shaped logo as its brand signature. It is notably recognized as a successful local women's clothing brand popular among women in their 20s to 40s.
Korea's largest fashion platform Musinsa is also planning a full-scale entry into China this year to promote Korean brands. On the 10th, Musinsa held '2025 Musinsa Global Partners Day' at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul, officially announcing plans to open its first offline store in Shanghai in the second half of this year. Musinsa CEO Park Jun-mo noted at the event, 'Recently, the number of Chinese visitors to Musinsa's offline stores in Korea has significantly increased,' and added, 'I see the potential for K-fashion's success in China.'
Along with this, Musinsa plans to launch the 'Musinsa Global Store' service on overseas online platforms in China. As of April this year, the number of brands on the Musinsa Global Store is approximately 2,000, and the monthly active users (MAU) of the mobile app are around 3 million.
Considering the vast market of China, Musinsa plans to actively utilize local logistics networks in collaboration with Anta Group during its expansion process. Anta Group is a multinational sportswear corporation, ranking third globally in terms of sales volume following Nike and Adidas.
Anta Group has adopted a national '5+N' logistics strategy. This structure involves establishing large logistics hubs in five key regions across China and building multiple small to medium-sized warehouses in surrounding cities to flexibly respond to online order demands.
Musinsa aims to actively target overseas markets alongside competitive K-fashion brands, with a goal of achieving an annual transaction volume of 3 trillion won globally by 2030. CEO Park stated, 'We are pursuing partnerships with the best partners regionally. From the local perspective, they will have the same experience as purchasing products on their local online platform.'