Steel Ring Underwear Was Abandoned: Victoria's Wacoal Both Fell No Steel Ring Underwear Sales Ranked First

Underwear is the most important shirt of a woman's life. In the past, I admired the beauty of the gathering and emphasized that the "career line" is paramount. Who wears who knows, the price behind it is the oppression and even pain in the chest.

In the world, those who see the business opportunities behind consumers who are suffering from the gathering underwear are liberating the underwear from women and set off a underwear revolution.

Women who pay more attention to themselves have changed their concept of underwear consumption. They don't care much about the outside world's eyes, they pay more attention to whether they wear comfortably. Abandoning the thick steel ring sponge and looking for underwear that fits better with you are now a new trend for modern women to cherish themselves.

01

Underwear era

28-year-old Mo Yu was thin, and the steel ring underwear often made her feel pain in the center of her lower bust. When taking a nap at work, she was often awakened by the pain in her chest. "It's about to pierce me." Li Yu said that every time she wore a steel ring underwear, she felt a sense of oppression and felt the chest penetrated But angry, want to take off immediately.

The women who hate steel ring underwear make the choice of abandonment, which is finally transmitted to the performance of the underwear company. The lingerie giant Wacoal, which dominates Japan with gathered underwear, did not expect to shake its position not with its peers, but with Uniqlo, which makes clothes, and the latter became popular with underwear without steel rings. It now accounts for 20% of the underwear market. The share is almost the same as Wacoal.

With the decrease in market share, Wacoal's ability to make money is not as good as before, and its underwear business profit in fiscal 2017 fell by 13.8% year-on-year. In response to the crisis, in November 2018, Wacoal put sports underwear in the ski brand stores. Sports underwear without steel rings has the fastest growth in underwear category, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.8%.

In addition to Wacoal, Victoria's Secret, the US lingerie brand whose sex appeal is the biggest selling point, has had a hard time, with sales falling 8% in 2017. And two years ago it was still very beautiful, claiming to sell 600 underwear per minute. With the iceberg ahead, the giant wheel has to make a U-turn. Over the past two years, Wei Mi has focused on underwear with no steel rings and no chest pads, and even changed the brand slogan to "No chest pads, only sexy."

In China, the rimless underwear also caused a whirlwind. Mo Yu said that she first fell in love with underwear without rims four years ago and it fell in love. It was a new experience with no sense of existence and "don't want to take it off". As long as she didn't wash, she would wear this underwireless underwear. Today, she is a fan of Uniqlo's underwear without steel rims.

In the market, the products that highlight the business line still have a place, but the steel ring-free underwear with both shaping and comfort has become a new favorite. According to the "2017 Online Underwear Consumption Series Study" released by the First Business Data Center, sales of underwireless underwear occupy the top position by reducing the pressure on the chest, which is three times that of underwired underwear, and the transaction scale has exceeded 5 billion yuan.

Tmall and JD.com are now selling underwireless underwear. On the Tmall platform, this year's top 618 underwear sales are all without steel ring underwear, and Wei Mi, who takes the sexy route, is off the list. Since 2018, the sales of underwireless underwear on the Jingdong platform accounted for 65% of the entire underwear category, and the sales accounted for even as high as 69%.

Some offline underwear stores are now mainly underwireless underwear. In Beijing Changyingtian Street shopping mall, more than 60% of the Fendish stores under the brand of An Lifang are underwireless underwear. A cheap lingerie brand, Urban Beauty, in a store in Jimo District, Qingdao, nearly 80% of its underwear bid farewell to the hard steel ring.

Women who pay more and more attention to self-enjoyment have changed their attitude towards underwear. In the face of the consumer concept change brought about by this "gender revolution", the brands have to adjust the product structure. In the past two or three years, the Chinese underwear brands "Four Great Queens" Aimu, Manifen, Di Anfen and An Lifang have entered the field of underwear without steel rings.

An employee of Metropolis Li told AI Finance News that last year the company's new model, steel ring and non-steel ring underwear are equally divided, this year, the number of non-steel ring has increased significantly. The shopping guide of the city ’s beauty store recommends the underwear without steel rings to customers, and said: "Underwear with steel rings is not good for the body. Now everyone wears no underwear."

Urban beauty This underwear brand that looked for the sexy goddess Lin Zhiling in the 1960s is still working on sports underwear. In the first half of this year, it invested 15 million yuan and took up 75% of the shares. It joined forces with sports brand Kappa to establish a joint venture company specializing in online men's underwear and female sports underwear.

Some underwireless underwear brands are conveying the concept of independence and confidence to female users. The internal and external brands emphasize: "Respect physical feelings and proceed from self"; Forli Girl said: "Independent women must learn to respect and appreciate part of their bodies, regardless of their shape and size."

02

Once the "career line" supremacy

Underwear is the most important shirt of a woman's life. In 1910, American socialite Mary Phelps Jacobs laid the prototype of a modern bra with two handkerchiefs and pink ribbons. As an imported product, underwear has only officially entered China for 30 years.

Mold cup underwear was popular in Europe and the United States in the 1990s. It is made of an integrated hot-pressed mold cup and is made of sponge or filled fiber. Part of the mold cup bra combined with the steel ring can make the chest more straight and full. As the west wind spreads, it didn't take long for the Mould Cup underwear to whirl in China.

In 1999, Tingmei underwear was born. It is a shoulder-shoulder cervical spine health care product. After the improvement, it has a new selling point of "beautiful body training, change once worn". In the way of buying out the counter, it once won 2 million yuan in daily sales. Model Ni Hongjie became the goddess in the hearts of thousands of young men with her breasts, slim waist and hips, and various styles.

An Lifang, Di Anfen, Gujin and other underwear brands occupying mainstream department store counters are all focused on producing gathered underwear. Many styles emphasize the function of receiving breasts, so that the back straps of the shoulder straps are more and more. Wide shoulder straps, thick sponges and hard steel rings make up a set of bulky armor that binds the female chest.

In the advertising video of the urban beauty in her early years, the spokesperson Lin Zhiling tore off the black bow tie, opened the white shirt, and the breasts wrapped in purple underwear were fair and round, calling with a vocal voice: "Urban beauty, meet a better self". This marketing strategy was successful. In 2012, the city beauty ranked first in the industry with a retail value of 5.4 billion yuan, accounting for 2.8% of the personal clothing market.

Overwhelming publicity and ubiquitous products are deeply rooted in the aesthetic concept of curving beauty by gathering underwear.

In 2011, Hao Li, a graduate student, examined mammary gland hyperplasia. She found a prompt on Baidu, "Don't always wear underwear with steel rims." But she always wears, "After wearing it, the chest is straight and gathered. I consider the function of underwear, not health and comfort." Back, she pulled the steel ring, the underwear completely lost its gathering effect, loose chest fat ran to the armpits, belly, she threw the underwear.

Until 2014, the choice of underwear was still not many. That year, the C Cup girl was a sophomore. She bought underwear without rims to "shrink her breasts" and not to look like "the upper body is so strong." She found Taobao "not particularly formal underwear without steel rings". From the appearance, it looks like a special nursing underwear. Unsatisfied with the underwear she bought, she had many returns.

Some consumers who are plagued by gathering underwear finally embarked on the road of entrepreneurship, wanting to use their own efforts to liberate the bondage of underwear on women.

In 2012, Liu Xiaolu, who worked in a consulting company for 5 years, founded "inside and outside". She said that it felt very hard to work overtime until two or three in the morning wearing steel ring thick pad underwear. It is not others who gather together to please, but others. She vaguely felt that modern women's underwear should look different: comfortable and not burdening the body.

Daini said that starting oxygen came from her bad experience four or five years ago. She called buying underwear in a physical store "bearing humiliation". She remembered that the shopping guide of the underwear store always recommended thick steel ring thick pad underwear with a smaller size and a tighter bust, and helped her to all the fat around the chest, squeeze out the sexy "career line", and then face The mirror told her: "You are in the best condition."

"The store is beautiful for a second, and it takes ten years to go home." Daini tried Haitao, but the foreign brand cups are too large and the price is high. The original foreign trade order on the e-commerce platform is unavailable. Brand discounts. Friends have similar troubles. In 2014, Daini founded the Oxygen App, hoping to provide Chinese women with a variety of underwear options.

03

Entrepreneurs and capital are here

In the first few years of business, underwireless underwear was still very small. But Liu Xiaolu firmly believes: "No steel ring must be the future trend, but it will take some time to happen in China."

This time is coming soon, and 2016 has become a key year for the development of domestic underwear without steel rings.

The 20% annual growth rate of the underwear market has convinced entrepreneurs that Chinese women who have entered the fast lane of consumption upgrade urgently need more comfortable and younger underwear brands. This year, Mellin joined the army of entrepreneurs and founded the Forli Girl, a small-breast underwear brand.

At the end of 2016, Forli Girls went online for sale, only making French underwear without steel rings and no chest pads, focusing on A and B cups. In the same year, Crème opened a store on Taobao. The main concepts were "French underwear" and "light". The first two underwears on the shelves were without steel rings.

Fitness and fashion trend add a fire to the underwear without steel ring. In 2016, WeChat official account, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms continuously produced content about fitness, healthy eating, sports underwear, and underwear style. Among them are spontaneous Amway, as well as the precise placement of brands.

This is effective, Hao Li realized, "The so-called adjustment is only when it is put on, it is still the same as when it is taken off, then I don't need it." She finally moved to the camp without rims. Some consumers also said: "Originally, I have been pursuing cleavage, but now I find that it is wrong. Underwear can also be elegant and comfortable. I should liberate my chest and give it a freedom."

20-year-old Xiao Xiao "forced" his 47-year-old mother to make no steel ring underwear. After my mother received the goods, she was counted for a while. But after putting on, mother's attitude reversed 180 degrees. Now Xiao Xiao will always be reminded: "Buy me without traces, I don't wear the one with steel rings."

This year Liu Xiaolu noticed that the underwireless underwear became no longer niche. At first, the internal and external targets were 28 to 35 years old, elite women with professional backgrounds such as investment banking, consulting, and advertising. However, since 2016, 20-25 year old young users have increased, and currently account for 30% of the total online users .

Winners of the entrepreneurs ushered in the harvest moment. In 2016, Crème's first batch of underwear was swept away, the number of users of oxygen rushed to 3 million, and internal and external sales increased to 50 million yuan. In 2017, Ubras achieved sales of 70 million yuan and a user repurchase rate of 70%, while internal and external sales soared to 150 million yuan.

The data dispels the hesitation of capital institutions. During the round A and the round of financing in 2016 and abroad, I already had contact with Xiangfeng Capital. "At that time, the internal and external online was at an early stage, and the offline expansion plan was not clear enough," Xu Feng, executive partner of Xiangfeng, decided to observe for a while. A year later, the 70 million yuan B round of financing led by Xiangfeng was completed internally and externally. In 2018, 60 million RMB of B + financing was obtained internally and externally.

Underwear, a highly fragmented industry, was eventually laid out by capital at a rate visible to the naked eye. In December 2017, Guan Yi and his parent company Mochuan completed a Series A 45 million yuan financing; half a year later, Inman Underwear completed a Pre-A Series financing; In August 2018, For Dear Me received 10 million in the Series A financing Grade RMB, Ubras also completed a 50 million yuan A round of financing.

Xu Ying found that capital has projected more attention to the underwear track: "actively looking for inside and outside, including looking for us to explore VC in this field. They want to understand the market space and our investment logic."

04

People-oriented will not go backwards

Women are embracing underwireless underwear, and men giving gifts are also changing.

Two years ago, Qi Lang's girlfriend started wearing lace-free lace underwear, and his natural chest shape made him feel "unpretentious." He is 23 years old and can distinguish the true and false of the "career line" at a glance: if it is a vertical line, it belongs to the natural fullness of the chest; if it is Y "shaped, it must be a squeezed cleavage; the upper chest is too round and the distance between the two peaks is wide , Breast augmentation is no doubt.

As a teenager, Ni Hongjie and Lin Zhiling's underwear advertisements cultivated Qi Lang's imagination of women's curvy beauty to a certain extent. "Their ads are beautiful, but that doesn't mean that I expect the other half to be like that. Girls don't have to squeeze from Cup A to Cup C."

Mellin shared two stories. There is a male customer who reluctantly returns-he hopes his girlfriend can wear it, but the girlfriend cannot accept such a thin underwear. Another male customer bought underwear and gave it to her favorite girl, and asked the customer service to keep it confidential. After arrival, the girl came to inquire and the customer service told the truth. In the chat box, the girl sent a sweet line: "Well, then we probably want to be together."

Nowadays, underwireless underwear has become a new blue ocean for underwear business. For light French lace underwear, Taobao has conceived more than 30 independent designer brands. In this competitive ocean, new players are still leaping.

Hong Kong brand her own words just opened its Tmall flagship store. It was jointly created by Belle Group and Virginie Group, the latter is the largest manufacturer of Vimy in China. At the beginning of 2018, the international fabric company Lycra and Oxygen reached an in-depth cooperation. Leica tried to promote spandex yarn in oxygen, and got a slice of the sports underwear market with an annual sales growth of 30%.

But must steelless underwear be the future? Some designers believe that its popularity just shows that women ’s desire for comfort is very strong. This kind of demand is reshaping the underwear industry, but it is only a transitional stage.

In the mature market of underwear in France, steel ring and non-steel ring underwear are equally divided. And both steel ring and underwear without steel ring can be evolved based on technology. For Dear Me, established in 2016, specializes in marshmallow underwear with nickel-titanium memory steel rings, and has maintained a 75% repurchase rate since its launch. The nickel-titanium memory steel ring is heat-treated and shaped, which is more elastic than the steel ring, and has the advantage of better supporting capacity than the steel ring.

Focused on underwireless underwear, Liu Xiaolu has been studying to improve the design structure to meet the needs of women with full breasts. Next year, it is expected that underwear suitable for women with big breasts will be launched inside and outside.

Under the premise of ensuring comfort, the greater opportunity for underwear entrepreneurship is to provide multi-scenery underwear matching.

Fuli Girls changed the traditional underwear classification, and distinguished underwear categories with scenes such as fashion, vacation, and home. Underwear luxury brand "Dare One" has a set of solutions combining underwear and outerwear, such as a deep V-chest dress, which can just reveal the lace of the underwear inside.

On the inside and outside of the standard Uniqlo, in addition to underwear without steel rings, it has also expanded the line of home wear, casual wear, light sports, and home furnishing. The future