Models demonstrate new fashion designs at a show－a collaboration between Chinese fashion brand Peacebird and Phoenix, one of the country's oldest bicycle brands－in Shanghai's financial hub Lujiazui, on Sep 6. [Photo provided to China Daily]
The fashion show taking place atop the roof of an office building in Shanghai's financial hub Lujiazui is a feast for the eyes and ears: Set against the background of the Huangpu River and the skyline of the century-old Bund on a breezy September afternoon, a matrix of glamorous models, both male and female, walk the runway to the cadence of a Shanghai-dialect monologue.
But beyond the atmospherics, what really attracts hundreds of guests to the scene is the unprecedented collaboration on display at the show - between Chinese fashion brand Peacebird and Phoenix, one of the country's oldest bicycle brands, dating back to 1897.
A collection of 70 or so street-style pieces such as oversized hoodies and slogan T-shirts are displayed at the show. But there's not a bicycle in sight - not even as a prop. It's the bicycle brand's colorful "birdy" logo that appears on every piece of the collection in various ways.
"We would like to call it (the show)'a reborn phoenix rising from the fire,'" Wang Chaoyang, CEO of Phoenix Bicycle, told China Daily after the show.
"The fire is the more than century-long time Phoenix has gone through ... the reborn bird is a chic, trendy brand - not just a bicycle brand, but a brand in general that both young and old should like."
The new collection, Peacebird's 2019 Fall/Winter collection, will be sold at the fashion brand's thousands of stores across the country. And it signals only the beginning of a yearlong partnership between the two "birds".
A forum is held in Shanghai on Sept 6 to explore ways to rejuvenate the nation's time-honored brands. [Photo provided to China Daily]
"The show is of course not about selling bicycles, but selling Phoenix as a brand. Once a brand finds its way back to the frontier of consumers' attention, sales can be easily generated," Wang said.
The bicycle company's latest financial report showed that in 2017, it raked in 1.43 billion yuan ($208 million) in sales, up by 127 percent year-on-year. However, as nearly half of its sales came from low-end manufacturing for bike-sharing company Ofo, its profit actually suffered a 4.3 percent drop.
While Wang evaded the timing of the collaboration with the pitfall of profit drop last year, he acknowledged that Phoenix, despite being a household name familiar to every one growing up in the era when China was dubbed "the bicycle kingdom", is desperately looking for an upgrade and transition.
Having been expanding its offerings to varieties including baby carts, mountain bikes and wheelchairs, Wang believed Phoenix's popularity in the 1980s could be resumed once young people find it a relevant and cool brand.
The concept of "time-honored brands", or laozihao in Chinese, was first proposed at the beginning of the 1990s by China's Ministry of Commerce. There is no clear definition as to how historical a brand should be in order to be named "time-honored". But the ministry said all time-honored brands or the products they sell should carry a distinguished Chinese heritage or cultural traditions.
But tradition doesn't necessarily equal success. It is estimated that only 10 percent of the nation's thousands of time-honored brands have managed to yield a profit consistently, while 20 percent have been afflicted with losses for a long time.
"The English translation of the category is not precisely accurate. The long history or time of these brands can both be an honor and a burden," said Yu Mingyang, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University who focuses on the study of brand management.
Having followed the development of dozens of time-honored brands for more than a decade, Yu pointed out that the biggest problem of these brands is that many of them are left with only "a halo, or an empty shell".
"The Chinese word for brand, pinpai, actually means two things combined - first the product, as pin, and then the brand, as pai. However, many time-honored brands only have the second part now," Yu said.
He offered examples including Butterfly sewing machines and Wastons electric fans. Although these names still ring a bell for Chinese people born before the 1990s, they might be quickly falling out of not only the business world, but also people's memories as their products are no longer in use.
"It could be the last critical moment to save, not necessarily revive, these time-honored brands, before they have gone completely out of our life," Yu said.
And he noted that it's less about what the brand originally sold, but how the brand connects with today's world while maintaining its identity.
"Hermes started as a saddle maker 180 year ago. Today, few people ride horses, but it manages to be one of the most coveted luxury brands globally. This could be a prototype for us to learn from," Yu said.
In hopes of becoming another Hermes, Phoenix sought out the services of Fang Tao, founder and CEO of Chinese fashion agency Suntchi, a sort of "matchmaker" that set up the firm's collaboration with Peacebird.
Founded in 2008 in Shanghai, Suntchi is an agency that offers services such as brand management and intellectual property authorization for fashion companies and designers.
Last year, the agency announced a five-year alliance with The Council of Fashion Designers of America, which offers exclusive access to the council's more than 200 designers.
Fang said the idea of a possible collaboration with a fashion brand was first brewed last December, when Wang approached Fang's agency for an "opportunity to revive his brand".
Among five fashion brands suggested by the agency, ranging from accessories to cosmetics, Peacebird, which had already done a series of viral crossovers including one with Coca Cola, was picked.
In fact, the partnership between Phoenix and Peacebird is only a part of the "China time-honored brand rejuvenation program" initiated by Suntchi and the Shanghai municipal government's commission of commerce, which plans to revive at least 50 time-honored brands in the coming five years.
Shanghai boasts the largest number of time-honored brands in China. The city is home to 222 brands of the kind, with an average age of 100 years. Among them, 180 are of national importance.
"Everyone is talking about reviving China's time-honored brands these days. But it seems there is yet a solution to be discovered.
"I think the key is to reconstruct the relationship between consumers, products and shopping occasions," Fang said.
