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Jerry-T: Self-starter yields success

By Ding Congrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-01 08:07

With increasing numbers of orders, the Nantong Shirui Fashion Co staff are busy producing clothes for domestic and overseas markets.

Many insiders in the fashion world in the United States will know of JerryT, as its arrival there caused a stir among the nation's women.

On Thanksgiving Day every year, JerryT's headquarters in Los Angeles receives many calls from across the US, thanking the company for making pretty clothes.

A dark horse in the international fashion world, JerryT took just two years to gain prestige in the US. The person behind this is a Chinese merchant and designer Tao Liang.

Inspiration

Tao is a legendary figure in fashion circles. He always carries paper and pen with him so he can record any moment of inspiration. His designs fit the tastes of Western women well, so his factory in China always has orders.

"I know the aesthetic appreciation of American women and what clothes they want to make themselves more beautiful and confident," said Tao.

His designs are especially favored by ladies aged between 30 and 45 in the US.

Tao was born in Nantong city, east China's Jiangsu province in 1965.

After he graduated from the art school of Nanjing Jinling Institute of Technology in 1993, he opened his first design studio in his hometown of Nantong with his wife Wang Ju. Their clothes sold well because of their design and fine workmanship.

Later Tao began to realize he could not meet the growing demand if he stayed in his small workshop so he bought a small factory that was near bankruptcy in a suburban farm in Nantong in 2000 and revamped it into a clothing plant.

One day when his factory was processing clothes for a bigger enterprise to export, Tao noticed that the Japanese material they had been asked to use was new in China. He had a feeling that it would be popular.

Since no domestic factories could develop that kind of cloth at that time, Tao devoted all his time into creating it.

Starting from scratch

This affected his own business and some partners left him - only his wife supported him. With almost one year's hard work Tao finally succeeded.

In September 2001, Tao set up a new clothes company, the Nantong Shirui Fashion Co. The only staff were Tao and his wife as he couldn't afford to employ anyone else.

In November that year, Tao took some sample garments south to Guangzhou to seek for partners. He lived in the cheapest hotel and talked to dealers one by one. Eventually a dealer from Shantou took a fancy to his clothes and trial sales were successful. Tao got the first orders after just one week.

With persistent effort, Tao's clothes appeared at all kinds of fashion exhibitions in China and gradually became highly desired. Orders swarmed to him from dealers across the country.

He made revenue of $1 million in 2003 and by the end of 2007, this figure reached $6 million. He built a modern clothing processing factory and expanded production capacity with the money.

In 2008, he talked to his partner in the US and expressed his wish to set up a company there. His partner said that Tao would lose money since the US clothing market is shrinking.

But Tao disagreed. He saw that some international big brands were slower in introducing new clothes and he wanted to grab a share with his competitive design and fast processing.

He registered a company called General Apparel International lnc in Los Angles and created the brand JerryT.

He attended major fashion shows in America with his designs and attracted many dealers.

Success in the US

In just a few months, his clothes could be seen in shopping malls, supermarkets and stores all over the US.

In September 2008, almost all Chinese companies that make clothes for export were suffering due to the financial crisis. Yet Tao's business remained buoyant.

"My intuition told me that I had to do this," said Tao.

Tao's decisions proved to be a good one, instead of losing jobs, his dealers in America made even more money than they did before the crisis.

Now the JerryT brand attends more than 30 fashion shows in the US every year, and ranks among the top 10 in terms of orders. Tao predicts that JerryT will obtain revenue of above $5 million this year in the US market.

"Every time I see people wearing JerryT clothes on the street, I feel very proud," said Tao.

Jerry-T: Self-starter yields success