Reporter | Zhou Fangying
Edit | Lou Shuqin
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Interface Fashion learned that the international trend sports brand STARTER has recently completed a $40 million C round of financing, this round of financing is led by QY Capital, the old shareholder Sequoia China, Disu Fashion, M31 Capital followed the investment, Gao Hu Capital as the exclusive financial adviser.
Born in 1971 in Connecticut, USA, STARTER has always had close ties with American sports, hip hop music, street culture and other fields.
As early as 1976, STARTER signed non-exclusive licensing agreements with several professional sports leagues and began manufacturing and selling professional sportswear with the logo of a sports league or team. The moment in the history of American basketball player Michael Jordan leading the Chicago Bulls to lift the championship trophy for the fourth time was wearing the costumes THAT STAR made for the Bulls. NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL and other well-known professional sports leagues have been the object of cooperation with the STARTER brand. The brand pioneered the licensing system for the sportswear industry.
The good times are short-lived, and STARTER's financial situation and the aforementioned licensing partnership are "urgent". It was sold by the founders in 1999 and acquired by the sports brand Nike Nike in 2004 along with the holding company. In 2007, Nike sold STARTER again to iconix Brand Group, a brand management company. The latter has many brands in the fields of fashion, sports, home textiles and so on.
While experiencing the transformation of the company's structure, STARTER's design and development direction has gradually shifted from sports to more diversified music, trends and street culture, and has cooperated with MANY TREND BRANDS SUCHES, SUCH AS SUBREME, A BATHING APE, KITH AND SO.D. Subsequently, in 2012, the high-end street trend branch starter Black Label was launched.
In terms of products, STARTER has launched classic products such as "SATIN JACKE", "HALF-ZIP JACKET", logo hats, etc., and has also set off a wave of "hat anti-wearing". These historical stories are also material for STARTER's attempts to create memory points when promoting its products in the Chinese market.
Image source: STARTER
In 2017, Black Ant Group reached an agreement with iconix Brand Group's Chinese subsidiary to obtain the exclusive license of STARTER in the Greater China region, but it was not until 2019 that STARTER officially began to exert its strength in the Chinese market. In July 2020, Iconix Brand Group abruptly announced the sale of its entire China operations of its brand STARTER to an anonymous buyer.
Interface Fashion found that the operating entity behind THE CURRENT WEChat and Tmall flagship stores is Xiamen One Startup Sports Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiamen One Startup Sports"). According to Tianyan, the holding company of Xiamen One Startup Sports is New Dynamics HongKong Holding Limited. At the same time, Xiamen One Launch Sports was also the pledgee of Shenzhen New Power Sports Co., Ltd., and the holding company of the latter was Black Ant Group. Therefore, it is very likely that Black Ant Group has taken over STARTER's business in China since the authorized cooperation.
Black Ant Group undoubtedly has a deep background in the consumer field, and its founder Chen Feng is the founder of Richu Capital and glasses brand Mujiushi. Black Ant Capital has also invested in Urban Revivo, a fast fashion brand founded in Guangzhou.
It is worth mentioning that since STARTER entered China, it has received two rounds of financing of RMB100 million and US$30 million in 2019 and 2020, with investors including Sequoia China, M31 Capital, Disu Fashion and Yunjiu Capital.
Up to now, STARTER's official website shows that it has opened nearly 70 stores in China, covering mid-to-high-end shopping malls in first- and second-tier cities. STARTER pricing is on the mid-range, ranging from $300 to $1,000. Among them, the above-mentioned star jacket products are priced higher, between 800 yuan and 1300 yuan.
This price band is also similar to the price band of li ning, ANTA and other popular national tide sports brands, and the latter two are also working in the direction of fashion trends. Interestingly, Li Ning also reached a partnership with Iconix Brand Group in 2016 to exclusively manage the business of American professional dance sports brand Danskin in Chinese mainland and Macau.
According to Gao Hu Capital, Keith Cheng, the current CEO of STARTER brand, was once the general manager of Fila Fusion and the commodity trader of Adidas Clover, and at the same time, the product, sales and brand teams are also from domestic brands. Teams with local experience can help STARTER grow further in the Chinese market more locally.
STARTER has clearly accelerated the localization process under the independent operation of the Chinese team in recent years. In addition to the joint cooperation between the main body of the brand itself and international brands such as Coca-Cola, STARTER has also cooperated with Jay Chou brand PHANTACi, local music label Sunrise Club, singer Zhang Yanqi and so on in China to launch a joint series.
Fashion clothing is becoming a new target of much attention in the consumer track. Interface Fashion has reported that in the second half of 2021 alone, local trend brands such as 919 Hydrogen Warehouse, bosie, and BEASTER have newly received financing. The above-mentioned brands have established brand memory points through the concept of "no gender" and the logo similar to the smiley smiley face symbol of the fashion brand.
However, building a brand's memory point is only the first step. How to transform such memory points into long-term brand recognition and retain the freshness of consumers is always a problem that all fashionable clothing must face. After all, trends are always updating iterations.