What is the gross margin on a school uniform fabric? While most merchants in Keqiao struggle over pennies of price difference, one company that started with school uniforms has pushed its product price to 100-600 RMB per meter, locking in high-end menswear designer clients. Behind this is a decade of supply chain accumulation and a precise lane change.
Background
On Dongsheng Road in Keqiao's China Textile City, a street known for outdoor fabrics, a high-end fabric experiment is underway. Qiting, launched in 2013 and registered in 2014, initially operated in the East Market, focusing on school uniform base fabrics, building stable clients through quality control. In 2018, as industry profits compressed and competition in conventional fabrics intensified, the brand decided to split: Qiting continued with outdoor functional fabrics, while new brand Haoli Textile targeted premium business menswear.
The two brands now occupy phases one and two of Dongsheng Road, forming a clear dual-storefront layout. The area's concentration of brand owners, e-commerce merchants, and designers demands finer fabrics and yields better order conversion, providing ideal soil for Haoli's high-end positioning. General Manager Li Xiongzhen stated plainly that this is the ideal platform for developing high-end fabric business.
Industry Impact
Haoli's product logic is simple: all lines use natural fibers like wool, silk, and lyocell, with colors achieved through plant extraction rather than chemical dyeing, maximizing eco-credentials. This positioning deliberately avoids price wars in the mass market, targeting high-end menswear brands and designer orders instead.
On the supply chain side, an integrated factory supports a 15,000 sqm warehouse, with both stock and custom order models. Custom orders take 3-10 days, while stock items can ship within an hour—a response speed critical for designers needing small, urgent batches. More notable is the digital push: Haoli has digitized core fabrics like waffle knit, health knit, double jersey, mesh, air layer, and pique into an AI fabric mini-program, enabling one-click matching that greatly improves remote communication with overseas clients. For high-end clients demanding precise hand-feel and texture, digital matching is more accurate than manual sample flipping.
Dual-brand synergy extends to capacity and channel sharing. The outdoor line uses Italian imported napping machines, expanding capacity and improving bargaining power; export channels cover Europe and America, with fabrics meeting EU fluorine-free environmental standards. Domestically, long-term cooperation with Qiaodun (8-10 years), plus clients like Xiaobeibei and Little Prince, provides a ready channel for Haoli's high-end menswear push.