Local designers agree that pop-ups are more advantageous than physical stores

Vincent Cheang

Local designers Leo Wong (Soul) and Vincent Cheang (Worker Playground) are taking part in a new installment of the “Brand Story – Macau Original Fashion Exhibition” initiative. The Macao Fashion Gallery (MFG) has been in charge of the project since last April, when it kicked off with Macau-based brands Macon and Jade.L.

The initiative, promoted by the government through the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) and the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center (CPTTM), aims to showcase local brands in the fashion industry, boosting their brand names and attracting business.

Interviewed by the Times, Leo and Vincent agreed that the system of publicizing a brand through “pop-up shops” and “event related” promotions has definite advantages over physical stores for the time being

“Now I’m focusing on events… and on getting more ideas,” said Cheang, who heads the already well-established “Worker Playground” brand.

Cheang originally started the brand back in 2012 and had a physical store at Av. do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida in Macau’s central district. At this moment, he believes that having a physical shop is overrated, since “to think on how many pieces you sell is not the most important thing. The most important thing is how to build up your brand image and let everybody know about it.”

Targeting an audience that he called “Kidadults,” Cheang aims to attract people by the revival of “vintage and legendary pieces, like the baseball jacket and the biker’s jacket.” This business and production style would focus on small batches and special editions tailored to “niche markets,” with the main goal being to “just enough to sell,” as the main efforts are directed at “brand building.”

Cheang noted that the sales in the stores have been brushed aside over the events, explaining two major successful cooperation experiences (with the Macau Grand Prix and with “Hush” rock music festival).

Leo Wong

“The Grand Prix [alone], just four days, is much better [in terms of sales] than opening a shop for a whole year [or more],” Cheang said. “All the items were already sold out even before the grand prix [day]. During this event people are crazy about stuff [related to the event] and it was a crazy time in the factory and all, pushing them to produce more as we had nothing to sell.”

As for the idea of partnering with the “Hush” Festival, Cheang reported that they  created a summer collection in collaboration with the event. “And again [the sales] of just two days were much better than the whole summer [in the shops],” he remarked.

Cheang’s plan is to continue cultivating more collaborations. Pop-up events are already in the plans of the “Worker Playground” brand; Cheang also said that through his biker’s jacket collection, he has already managed to take the brand to Beijing where the community is also very keen to see and possibly purchase these kinds of items.

Unveiling a little about the next project, a collaboration between Worker Playground and the US-based Shark Sports watches, Cheang shared that the idea for the collaboration came directly from the promotion of the brand during the Grand Prix.

“The director of the company just messaged me on Facebook saying he saw my designs and proposing some collaboration. So my team will collaborate in designing a crossover for a racing line of watches,” an idea that Cheang had presented to the Sports Bureau (ID) where it was rejected. He concluded, “that’s not a problem. I’ll do it by myself.”

Another fashion designer, Leo Wong, also agrees with the idea that a physical store is a “heavy burden.” Wong was the face behind “Soul,” a brand targeting women between 18 and 40 years old with a style that presents as its main feature an asymmetric cut highlighting the uniqueness of the brand.

Wong managed to start the brand by receiving a grant through the government subsidy program for Fashion Design and Sample Making from 2016. The designer acknowledged that the grant is “a great help” and one of the reasons for Macau-born designers to return to the region after more than 20 years of living, studying and working in neighboring Hong Kong.

“When I established another business in Macau back in 2016 [in uniforms] I realized there was much support from the government to local designers so that gave me some trust [to move forward with my brand],” Wong said. “I believe in Macau it is easier than in other regions,” he continued, naming the current opportunity to exhibit and to sell directly at the MFG as one of those advantages.

“Besides the space granted [free of charge] and the sales, we also have the support of the staff here that help us to collect data on the buyers and visitors [of the collection] in order to help us to target our market and study it better,” Wong remarked, saying: “Outside is more difficult in terms of man-power and capital.”

Choosing the online over the physical store, Wong also mentioned that he has just started an online sale with the mainland-based portal taobao.com to get the brand some visibility outside Macau and “hopefully also to boost the sales” that are already “getting better and better.”