On Dongsheng Road in Keqiao's China Textile City, a cluster of fabric merchants is redefining itself beyond bulk sales. The dual-brand strategy of Haoli Textiles and Qiting offers a compelling case: starting from school uniform fabrics, they pivoted to light-luxury menswear, pricing at 100-600 RMB per meter. This shift is a recombination of supply chain, craftsmanship, and digitalization.
Background
The brand's roots trace to 2013, with Qiting formally registered in 2014, initially operating a storefront in the East Market, focusing on basic school uniform fabrics. By 2018, shrinking margins in conventional fabrics forced a strategic pivot: one direction toward functional outdoor fabrics, another toward a new brand, Haoli, dedicated to high-end business menswear. This decision gave the premium line its own identity, storefront, and customer base.
Dongsheng Road was chosen deliberately. The area attracts brand owners, e-commerce sellers, and fashion designers who demand finer fabric details, leading to better order conversion. Qiting became one of the first tenants in Phase I of the outdoor functional fabric zone, while Haoli opened its own booth in Phase II. The two booths target different segments but share the same supply chain, creating synergies.
Industry Impact
Haoli's product strategy centers on material and craftsmanship. Using natural fibers like wool, silk, and lyocell, and replacing chemical dyes with plant-based extraction, the brand commands premium prices while filtering out price-sensitive buyers. For purchasers, this means fabric cost is no longer the only factor; environmental attributes and material scarcity justify higher prices. However, plant dyeing poses technical challenges in colorfastness and batch consistency, which is why high-end brands are willing to pay a premium.
Supply chain responsiveness is another competitive edge. With an integrated factory and 15,000 square meters of warehousing, Haoli offers both stock and custom orders: stock items handle small urgent orders, while custom orders take 3-10 days, with the fastest shipping within one hour. This efficiency is rare in the traditional fabric market, significantly reducing sampling and restocking lead times for designers and brands.
Digital tools are transforming remote collaboration. Haoli participated in the AI Fabric mini-program, digitizing core fabrics like waffle, health knit, double jersey, mesh, air layer, and pique. Previously, designers bringing swatches for fabric matching meant manual searching and color card comparison—slow and error-prone. Now, the system can instantly match similar fabrics, especially beneficial for overseas clients. This is not just a tool upgrade but a service model shift: high-end clients demand precise matching, and digitalization improves accuracy while reducing communication costs.
The upcoming AI Fabric Experience Center on Dongsheng Road, featuring smart body measurement, 3D virtual fitting, fabric visualization, and garment simulation, will further bridge online and offline. This allows virtual sampling before physical production, potentially changing procurement habits and reducing time costs for designers and brand buyers.
Dual-brand synergy extends to foreign trade. The outdoor fabric line uses Italian imported napping machines, boosting capacity and bargaining power; exports meet EU-standard fluorine-free environmental requirements, already entering European and American markets. Domestic clients include Qiaodun (8-10 years), Xiaobeibei, Yingqi, Macedonia, and Xiaozhubanna, which channel traffic to Haoli's high-end menswear. After two years of strategic transformation, overall performance has improved markedly, with optimistic order growth this year.