Five Important Trends brought by the Eight Fashion Giants at the CIIE

From November 4 to 10, 2020, the third China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the CIIE) was held in Shanghai. Luxe.CO’s special report team went deep into the scene and successively presented the latest ingenuity and technological innovations prepared by major fashion and luxury brands for the CIIE.

In the consumer goods exhibition area, we visited the booths of the eight fashion giants, including American sports brand Nike, American sports and leisure brand SKECHERS, French sports goods retail group Decathlon, Japanese sports brand ASICS, American luxury lifestyle group Tapestry, Japanese fast-fashion brand Uniqlo, Spanish fast-fashion giant Inditex, and Austrian artificial crystal brand Swarovski. From them, we summarized and sorted out the five keywords representing the new trend of fashion consumption development: sustainable development, personalized customization, technological innovation, joint cooperation, and immersive experience.

Sustainable Development

—— Nike

The American sports giant Nike has an area of approximately 480 square meters with a “Move to Zero” workshop inside and many miniature sculptures of the "Victory Goddess" are displayed. At the scene, the brand invited artists to use recycled scraps to recreate these sculptures, collage the brand logo, and spell out different words on the base to vividly interpret the brand's sustainable concept.

It is reported that these leftover materials come from old clothes and shoes recycled by the brand, and some of them are finished products that do not meet the standard.

Besi, many succulent plant installations with used clothes as the base and used shoes as "flowerpots" were also displayed on site.

—— SKECHERS

SKECHERS' sustainable initiatives are mainly concentrated in two areas: shoe boxes and recyclable cotton fabrics. At present, 94% of the brand's shoe boxes are recyclable and use 100% recyclable packaging liners. Clothing made of recyclable cotton fabrics will also be on sale soon.

—— Decathlon

There was a special exhibit on Decathlon's booth: a household stepper made of environmentally friendly materials, "Do you know what the raw material of this product is? Takeaway box!" the booth staff introduced.

—— ASICS

The concept of sustainability runs through the entire ASICS booth. According to the staff, the sportswear of the Japanese delegation in the Tokyo Olympic Games brought by the brand comes from old clothes provided by the Japanese people. In the sustainable concept exhibition space in the center of the booth, two environmentally-friendly processes of the brand were introduced: Solution Dye technology, which can save water consumption in the clothing production process, and FLYTEFOAM technology, which uses sustainable and environmentally friendly materials to make running shoe midsoles.

—— Uniqlo

According to the staff in the Uniqlo denim series exhibition area, the brand’s parent company Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. established the "Jeans Innovation Center (JIC)" in Los Angeles in 2016. Through innovative water-saving technology, the water-saving rate of jeans produced can reach 99%.

—— Inditex

According to the staff, 60% of the latest works of the Zara Studio designer series displayed on site are the Join Life series adhering to the concept of sustainability. The exhibition site also brought a variety of environmentally friendly raw materials used in the Join Life series, including recycled cotton, polyester, wool, and environmentally-grown cotton and flax.

Besides, the set of glassware displayed in the new Zara Home collection is hand-made by artisans and 100% recycled glass is used as raw material which makes each piece unique.

Personalized Customization

—— Tapestry

The Coach Create customized experience continued its high popularity in the CIIE last year. Two machines were placed in the booth to provide free personalized tag printing services for the audience. The audience can choose four uppercase English letters or 6-7 lowercase letters to imprint according to their personal preference, and there are also a variety of colors to choose from. The workbench on the other side displays a variety of printing patterns on the leather products of the store, as well as the C-shaped logo in various colors and small metal pin decorations.

"Many of our customers believe that the store experience is irreplaceable, and they enjoy this process very much," Mr. Yann Bozec, President Tapestry Asia-Pacific & CEO and President Coach China told Luxe.CO. "In the future, we will continue to insist on putting digital development first, make full use of data resources, promote scientific decision-making, improve efficiency, and quickly respond to market demand. As for the offline market, with the rise of the emerging middle class, third- and fourth-tier cities are developing rapidly, the layout has already begun, and the regional layout and investment will be further accelerated to achieve further expansion."

—— Uniqlo

The most popular UNIQLO booth is the UT series DIY custom area where visitors can their favorite printing patterns to print on T-shirts on site. The whole process only takes a few minutes. According to the staff, this customized service has been launched in two flagship stores and online in Shanghai.

—— ASICS

ASICS has set up an interactive experience device on site: an all-in-one machine for activity detection. Visitors only need to walk from one end of the device to the screen at the other end and enter their age and gender to get a report. This report includes data such as balance and walking speed to give suggestions related to body muscle training.

—— SKECHERS

SKECHERS set up a 3D foot measuring instrument on-site. After the visitors test their feet here, they can know which shoe last is more suitable for their foot type.

Technological Innovation

—— SKECHERS

According to the staff, this year's exhibition area focuses on displaying the technological content of the brand and enhancing consumers' on-site experience. For example, the "MEMORY FOAM” exhibition area introduces two "space capsules" where visitors can half-lying into on-site, and there will be music after closing the "door". The sound and faint fragrance would allow visitors to experience the slow rebound technology of memory foam in depth.

In this CIIE, SKECHERS launched the innovative "rechargeable heating" down jacket for the first time in the Asia-Pacific market. This down jacket uses automatic heating technology to cope with multiple low-temperature environments.

—— Uniqlo

The most eye-catching feature of the booth was three giant high-end lightweight down jackets with a height of 2.7 meters and a weight of only 4.5kg. According to the staff, the actual weight of the same down jacket sold is only 235g, which is equivalent to the weight of an apple. The core secret of lightness is that it abandons the inner design of the traditional down jacket, which means that the weight of the two layers of fabric in the down is reduced. The design of this product was selected by Fortune list as one of the 100 greatest designs of modern times in 2020.

Several black technology display areas on the scene demonstrated the hard-core technology principles behind the products to industry insiders and ordinary consumers in a vivid way:

• The visual HEATTECH technology laboratory displays the moisture absorption and heating effect of the product, and shows the heating effect of the product before and after entering the glass cabinet that simulates the human epidermal humidity environment;
• The 3D weaving machine developed by the brand and the Japanese textile machinery giant Shima Seiki Manufacturing Co., Ltd. debuted in China for the first time. A dress being prepared at the scene can be completed in 1.5 hours with a thread of 8 kilometers long.
• In the “breathing” AIRism fabric display area, visitors can experience three small experiments on-site to experience its significant functional advantages in terms of smoothness, moisture absorption, and air permeability.

Also, the staff at the denim collection site showed us the high-tech HEATTECH denim fabric developed in cooperation with the Japanese Toray Group. This fabric has the characteristics of the high elasticity, moisture absorption, and heat generation.

The most innovative aspect of Uniqlo's best-selling non-ironing shirts is the strap stitching method at the joints between the shoulders and sleeves. The staff introduced that many consumers did not feel it when wearing them, but this special technology is the core secret of keeping the shirts wide.

Joint Cooperation

—— ASICS

ASICS has brought a variety of designer collaboration shoes, such as shoes with Velcro and multiple logos, shoes cooperated with new designer brand Kiko Kostadinov and British designer brand Vivienne Westwood.

—— SKECHERS

SKECHERS displayed many joint series, including well-known IPs such as Sailor Moon, One Piece, and Hello Kitty. The limited joint series in cooperation with the trendy brand CHINAMARKET TOWN also came with coloring pens, allowing customers to create freely on shoes.

—— Uniqlo

At the CIIE, Uniqlo and the famous minimalist female designer Jil Sander launched the new season of the joint “+J” series for the world premiere. This is also the second cooperation between the two parties after 11 years.

Immersive Experience

—— Inditex

The fragrance series launched by Zara in cooperation with the British salon fragrance brand Jo Malone London was also unveiled at the CIIE. In particular, three test paper tubes made of test paper were set up to hang from high altitude to provide the audience with an immersive taste experience.

—— Swarovski

It was Swarovski’s first time to participate in the CIIE, and a group of huge containers was placed on the booth. According to the staff, these containers with dazzling metallic luster and many collections of crystal works designed by the brand founders on display were all airlifted from the Austrian headquarters to Shanghai.

As the world's first man-made crystal brand, Swarovski has specially created the dazzling "Crystal Library" and "Rainbow Space" this time, and its mirror effect attracted many audiences to stop and take pictures.

The Swarovski booth also set up a dazzling man-made crystal VR headgear, after which the audience can embark on a virtual tour of the 21st century "Crystal Workshop".

—— Decathlon

Decathlon’s booth was paved with a large area of green “turf” and divided into multiple scenes. For example, the space setting for displaying inflatable kayaks is lake blue, trying to simulate the lake environment. In an “outdoor space”, there are two tents, outdoor tables, cooking utensils and other products that open and close in seconds create a strong camping atmosphere. Next to them are "a family of four" standing on the "white snow" wearing ski suits.

Besides, many brands have held new product launches in China, Asia-Pacific, and even the world at the CIIE. In addition to the above-mentioned +J series launched by Uniqlo and the “rechargeable heating” down jacket launched by SKECHERS, the products also include:

—— Tapestry

Tapestry's three major brands Coach, Kate Spade New York, and Stuart Weitzman brought their respective global and Chinese debut new products:

• Coach’s world premiere of Alie 18 mini handbags and oak products, echoing the trend of Chinese consumers’ preference for small-sized handbags.
• Kate Spade New York launched the Disney Clarabelle Cow co-branded wallet for the upcoming Chinese Year of the Ox, and the Nicola Twistlock series specially launched "China Red" color for Chinese consumers.
• Stuart Weitzman brought the latest 2020 autumn and winter series.

—— Decathlon

Decathlon launched the world's first KAYAK500 inflatable kayak at the CIIE. This kayak uses a unique "brushed" airbag structure and it is easy to store because it is only as large as a backpack.

—— ASICS

Following the release of three sunburst red shoes with the help of virtual reality technology "cloud" in March this year, ASICS announced through the CIIE four new sunburst series products specially built for the Tokyo Olympics: tennis shoes GEL-RESOLUTION 8, basketball shoes NOVA SURGE, football shoes DS LIGHT X-FLY 4, and table tennis shoes ATTACK DOMINATE FF. This is also the first time the brand has introduced basketball and table tennis products into the Chinese market.