The world's online business reporter Zhu Zhicong
"Runaway Lolita" continues to run wild.
Founded in 2014, this young brand focuses on the trendy, comfortable and fashionable women's sportswear category. This year's Tmall 618 started only 2 hours, sales have exceeded the sum of the whole day in 2020, and the pre-sale amount has increased by more than 11 times compared with last year.
"The core of the brand is the product power." At the Tmall 618 new brand private meeting on June 10, brand founder Chen Nunyang said, "I hope that one day, 'Lolita' can truly become a national brand." ”
She is a standard post-90s generation, known as "Lolita face, devil figure" at the beginning of her popularity.
In the past 7 years since his establishment, Chen Nunyang has insisted on releasing fitness videos to narrow the distance with fans; while optimizing products and operating brands, he has constantly observed and thought about the characteristics and trends of Gen Z consumers.
The two identities of "internet celebrity" and "brand founder" are the two labels that often accompany her. In the eighth year of entrepreneurship, Chen Nuanyang laughed and said that he was no longer the girl who would "run away" in the past, and the brand was never satisfied with the status quo, but to "eliminate the old self and let the new self stand up".
We chatted with Chen Nuanyang about her "change" and "unchanged".
Chen Nuanyang shared his entrepreneurial experience at the Tmall 618 new brand private meeting on June 10
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > start: "don't love to be constrained" fitness girls</h1>
The entrepreneurial story about Chen Nuanyang is circulating in all corners of the Internet.
She brings her own traffic, aura and heat are never absent. From the "Taobao Cangjing You", famous for her Sen-style outfit, to the sweet-looking and hot-bodied "Taobao Li Xiaoli", Chen Nunyang's label has been constantly transformed, and her entrepreneurial path has also crossed the ebb and flow of the graphic era, the short video era and the live broadcast era, all the way to the spotlight.
She was originally a dance student at Hangzhou Normal University, and the motivation for throwing herself into the fitness industry was also quite dramatic: because she was plagued by sleep problems, she tried to get a fitness card, thinking that "I can always fall asleep when I get tired."
Around 2014, she posted fitness dynamics on Weibo and accumulated the first core fans, laying the foundation for Chen Nunyang's entrepreneurial path.
She has also faced other options. As early as college, Chen Nuanyang was already a part-time model for many magazines and was expected to enter the professional modeling industry. But this decisive, fiery girl said that she "did not like to be evaluated and constrained" and refused to cater to the popular "white and thin" aesthetic.
In any case, the modeling career has cultivated her awareness of beauty, and the messages of fans have also prompted her to start thinking: Girls love beauty, and the existing women's fitness clothes are mostly monotonous and boring styles, can you design some easy to wear and good-looking fitness clothes, so that more people can pay attention to fitness and enjoy fitness?
In 2014, the "Runaway Lolita" came into being, and Chen Nuanyang tried to fill the market gap of "women's gym clothes with a sense of design". A year later, the brand's sales exceeded 100 million.
Hangzhou has one less flat model, one more sweaty fitness blogger, and a young start-up brand.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="101" > growth: "change and change" in 6 years of entrepreneurship</h1>
At the beginning of its establishment, "Lolita runaway" was just a small team.
The purchase, picking and delivery of goods are almost all completed by Chen Nuanyang alone. She contacted the appropriate foreign trade factory on 1688, called various OEM companies, and also shared the upper body effect in the Weibo dynamics to bring goods to her brand.
Running a store is not easy. From design styles and PS drawing to commercial promotion and brand operation, everything must be learned from scratch.
It was a time of toil, but it was also the purest. Chen Nuanyang still remembers that a Guangxi girl added her WeChat, actively liked each dynamic, and did not forget to tell her: No one in their village wore such a beautiful fitness suit, and every time she got a new product, she felt that she had become "the most fashionable cub in the village". Some fans send her crabs every seafood season, insisting that "it is very delicious, you must try it."
"That's when I got closest to them." Chen Nuanyang sighed.
Along the way, "Lolita of the Runaway" has successfully opened up the situation in the sports shoes and apparel category, and has won the first place in the list of Internet women's sports brands for many years. Up to now, the cumulative sales of single products on the whole network has exceeded 60 million pieces, and the small team of two or three people has expanded to more than 100 people, and has also reached a stable cooperative relationship with a number of factories to form a mature product supply chain.
Chen Nuanyang was invited to participate in several e-commerce conferences, and in 2018, as a Taobao public welfare representative, he donated a runway to mountain schools.
Of course, she has not forgotten the original intention of the brand: "I hope that more girls will wear beautiful, high-quality sportswear that can bring confidence." ”
The original intention has not changed, but what has changed is the market that constantly creates waves, and the business strategy that suits the conditions of the times.
In 2021, the rampaging Lolita and Alibaba's smart factory "Rhino Intelligent Manufacturing" jointly developed a number of sportswear using new fabrics, further optimizing the production process and being seen by the outside world as a measure to actively embrace the wave of digitalization.
There is also a personality that has changed.
Chen Nuanyang laughed and said that she was no longer the girl who would "run away" in the past, and now she is embracing life with a more peaceful and stable mentality, which not only has the impact of career development, but also one of the results of her years of fitness.
"Liquid Lycra" exercise pants developed in conjunction with Rhino Smart Manufacturing
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="103" > the future: refusing to please, valuing "surprises" and "innovations"</h1>
"They have a lot of circles, they have what they like, they have their own personality."
As an entrepreneur, Chen Nuanyang is young enough. But a younger group of consumers is making a ferocious entry, with each merchant trying to grab their appetites and preferences. As the brand manager, Chen Nuanyang opposes taking the initiative to "cater" to them, in her view, Gen Z consumers have a strong and clear judgment ability, blindly pleasing will only receive the opposite effect.
"It's not easy for you to fully understand what they want — but we can create something that surprises them."
Innovation, breaking points, breaking the norm, this is the most important thing.
Generation Z is never willing to be buried by stereotypes, and "Runaway Lolita" does not lack the genes to show herself and show her personality. As one of the earliest domestic sports brands to enter the market, it can be said to have witnessed the rise and prosperity of the women's sports consumer market "from scratch".
The road to breaking the circle of the brand is also a road that constantly breaks the inherent impression.
Recalling the name of the brand, Chen Nunyang said that the name "Runaway Lolita" is to fight against gender stereotypes: Who said that girls must be thin and weak? Bodybuilding is also a kind of beauty, loli can also run wild!
"Lolita" is her style preference, and "Runaway" is her unique personality. The name is full of contrasts and a little rebellious. This spirit of self-confidence and self-reliance has always been implemented in entrepreneurship: even now that new domestic brands have risen, Chen Nunyang still believes that the biggest bottleneck of "Runaway Lolita" is not in the market and competition, but in breaking through the self and surpassing the limit.
"Our greatest enemy is ourselves." "We destroy the old selves and let the new selves stand up," she said. ”
Chen Nuanyang
New product development and iteration have been put on the agenda: the sizeless series of products launched in March this year adds the scientific and technological attributes of "liquid lycra" to further adapt to the various needs of users. The social assets accumulated by the brand quickly realized, and this group of products ushered in a sales explosion in 618 this year, and the monthly sales of light sports and leisure underwear without size alone have exceeded 30,000 pieces.
Within the team, "Lolita of the Storm" also planned a "three-step" ten-year strategy for itself: taking advantage of e-commerce and striving for the first place in network sales; brand upgrading, striving to become a national brand; advanced manufacturing, and striving to achieve international quality.
I asked Chen Nuanyang, in the current situation where various "Internet celebrities" are lined up and fitness and beauty bloggers are competing on the same stage, how do you deal with the increasingly fierce competitive pressure? Or what kind of image would you rather be remembered?
She laughed and said that she still hopes to be recognized by everyone as the founder of the "Runaway Lolita" brand, "I am just a founder who loves fitness." The girl, who has 3 million followers, is increasingly fading her "net red" aura, and is more focused on polishing product design and growing brand voice.
Perhaps because of the rapid decay of Internet celebrities, the power of the brand lives on.
Edited by Li Danchao