China’s answer to H&M, fast fashion giant Meters/bonwe was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Zhou Chengjian – who grew up on a village farm and went bankrupt twice before turning 18
Meters/bonwe might boast over 3,900 clothing stores across China and a separate e-commerce platform Banggo.com, but before founder Zhou Chengjian’s success he was a tailor and a school dropout
Zhou’s goal might be for Meters/bonwe to become “the world’s tailor”, but his fashion empire began due to his sewing and mathematics skills. Growing up in the mountainous area of Shikengling in China’s coastal Zhejiang province, he was the spoiled kid of the family – which in this context meant that he was exempt from farm work. Instead, at eight years old, he made the trip to town to buy rice, soy sauce, MSG, and other goods to re-sell at his village at a profit.
Zhou quit school at 12 and, shortly after, began to learn the tailoring trade. He opened his first clothing business in 1982, working until the wee hours of the night and selling what he made during the day. He thought he got lucky when he received a contract amounting to US$74,000, allowing him to hire at least a hundred tailors.
However, the deal went south. The buyers took the products, but didn’t pay because they didn’t like the quality. Zhou ended up bankrupt for the second time – the first being after he got rumbled for illegally trading antique coins when he was 14. “I was heavily in debt at the age of 18. But we have a saying that ‘ignorant people fear nothing’, so I didn’t care,” said Zhou in an interview with The Financial Times.
His big break also came because of a mistake. One night, when he was making a new batch of suits, he accidentally cut the sleeves too short. Instead of slating them for the rubbish heap, he turned them into casual wear and the idea for Meters/bonwe was born.
Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter .