The US premium cashmere market is undergoing a structural expansion. Parisian brand Kujten plans to open three new stores in New York's SoHo, Aspen, and Miami, bringing its total US footprint to four. The number itself is modest, but against the backdrop of diverging global luxury consumption and resilient purchasing power among affluent Americans, the signal matters far more than the store count—premium cashmere demand is migrating from Europe to North America.
The Consumer Logic Behind the Expansion
Kujten's location strategy deserves scrutiny. SoHo is New York's fashion retail gateway, Aspen represents high-ticket consumption in ski resort settings, and Miami covers wealthy Latin American and North American winter migration demand. These three points correspond to urban fashion, mountain sports, and resort leisure respectively, indicating the brand is not testing the market but rolling out channels along a scenario-based logic.
Industry public data shows that US cashmere apparel imports have maintained moderate growth over recent quarters, with premium categories growing noticeably faster than mass lines. This means demand is not rising across the board but concentrating in higher price segments. For upstream suppliers, order structures will follow—small batches, multiple varieties, and fast delivery times will become increasingly common.
Why now? On one hand, US consumers' preference for natural fibers continues to strengthen, and cashmere's warmth and lightweight advantages are hard to replace in autumn/winter categories. On the other hand, the European market is weighed down by energy costs and consumer confidence, pushing brands to seek incremental markets. US store expansion is essentially monetizing European design premiums in a region with stronger purchasing power.
Transmission Effects on China's Supply Chain
China is a critical processing base for global cashmere raw materials and products, with goat cashmere output and primary processing capacity in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and other production areas holding key positions globally. Store expansions by brands like Kujten will drive procurement demand for cashmere yarn, fabrics, and garments in the short term, but the transmission path is not direct.
The brand emphasizes Parisian design and Mongolian raw materials, leaving China's supply chain mostly in the middle processing segment. This means order volumes may increase, but bargaining space may not expand in tandem. If factories remain in pure toll-processing mode, profits will be squeezed from both ends—upstream raw material price volatility and downstream brand price pressure.
Notably, US stores demand far higher delivery speed and replenishment rates than wholesale models. If retail sales perform well, brands will require suppliers to complete replenishment orders within weeks. This is a screening test for Chinese factories' flexible production capacity: those capable of quick-response orders will gain more share, while those reliant on large-volume, long lead times may be marginalized.
Another variable is tariffs and trade policy. The US maintains additional tariffs on some Chinese textile and apparel products. While cashmere products are not specifically targeted, overall trade environment uncertainty will prompt brands to consider diversified sourcing. Chinese suppliers need to assess tariff costs in their quotations in advance to avoid being passive in negotiations.
The Response Rhythm of Regional Industrial Belts
From the perspective of industrial belt reactions, cashmere dehairing enterprises in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia have recently held firm on quotes for high-quality dehaired cashmere, indicating that the raw material end has already sensed warmth from export orders. In Hebei's Qinghe, a cashmere spinning and product distribution hub, some factories have begun increasing capacity for small-batch premium lines.
However, the overall upgrade speed of industrial belts remains slow. Most enterprises excel at large-scale standardized production but lack responsiveness in design sampling, color management, and rapid reorders. Store expansions by brands like Kujten test not production scale but supply chain coordination efficiency.
For buyers, this means re-evaluating supplier tiers. Concentrating orders with factories that have quick-response capabilities and quality control systems reduces stockout risk more than pure price comparison. For trading companies, the pure intermediary model is narrowing. Whether they can provide value-added services such as design conversion, testing certification, and logistics coordination determines profit margins.