“The goods are fine. The problem is with other factories.”
What did she mean, the problem was with other factories? Suddenly, Tian Tian caught on.
“Counterfeit clothes have already appeared, haven’t they?”
Ye Lifeng nodded with a bitter smile. “And the ones making the counterfeits are none other than the people from my own village.”
Ye Lifeng’s village was almost entirely in the garment business. His factory ran three shifts a day, with machines that never stopped. That had long attracted attention in the village. At first, the villagers were just envious of how many orders he had. But after Tian Tian’s clothes sold well for a few days, word reached his village too. They immediately bought two pieces to bring back. After comparing them, they confirmed it was a hit item and immediately began replicating it without delay.
As for why the replication was so fast? Well, of course, because they knew where Ye Lifeng sourced his raw materials.
“Our whole village is in the garment business. Back when we were negotiating with suppliers, we agreed to source raw materials from the same factory.”
Tian Tian understood. An entire village making clothes all needed fabric, buttons, and other garment accessories. Buying from the same supplier gave them bargaining power.
And the people making counterfeits were from their village. They knew the raw material channels, so they could just buy the same materials and copy the designs exactly. It was easy and effortless.
“It’s all my oversight.” Ye Lifeng said somewhat guiltily. Many of the people in the village making counterfeits had some connection to him. Although he hadn’t lived in the village as a child, after returning, he had never treated the villagers badly. And yet he’d been stabbed in the back.
Tian Tian wasn’t really angry. Because she had long known this would happen.
“Boss Ye, this is nothing. Back when I told you to stock up more, I said that counterfeits would appear soon. At the time, I thought the first ones to jump in would likely be from your village. As for the raw materials angle, I hadn’t thought of that. But it doesn’t matter. I still have a batch of orders waiting for pickup. Once you finish another five thousand pieces, we’re done.”
“What? You’re not making more? Isn’t it selling like crazy?”
As a manufacturer, Ye Lifeng was also watching the sales. After all, the orders kept growing, and payment wasn’t delayed. Only a fool would let such a quality order slip away. That was why he was even angrier about the villagers making counterfeits. It was basically stealing food from his bowl.
Tian Tian shook her head. “The market is already opened up. I still have plenty of orders with deposits paid, waiting for pickup. And once the counterfeits spread, their wholesale price will definitely be one or two yuan cheaper than mine—maybe even five. This garment isn’t some high-value product. Once everyone rushes in, we need to make a swift exit.”
Ye Lifeng still felt a bit unwilling. Because apart from Tian Tian’s orders, his factory hadn’t had many orders lately.
Tian Tian saw what he was thinking and smiled, shaking her head. “This world doesn’t have only one style of clothing—batwing sleeves. Let others copy what they want. As long as we stay ahead and lead the trends, customers will recognize us.”
Those who walk in front get the biggest slice of the cake. The rest can fight to the death over the leftovers.
Ye Lifeng immediately caught on. “You mean…”
Tian Tian planted one hand on the table, her expression proud and commanding. “I remember you auctioned off a batch of white cotton fabric from customs, right?”
—
After seeing off a highly motivated Ye Lifeng, Zhou Haoting asked, “Do you need my help?”
Earlier, when Tian Tian was negotiating with Ye Lifeng, he hadn’t interfered. Because the two had agreed that no matter where their relationship went in the future, keeping their businesses independent was best. If one side needed something, they could ask the other for advice or help. But if one side didn’t ask, the other couldn’t interfere.
Simply put, he could know about it, but he couldn’t casually make decisions for her.
Otherwise, going by Zhou Haoting’s way of thinking, he would have just sent people to block those factories’ wholesale channels. No matter how many counterfeit clothes they made, they’d only be able to pile up in warehouses.
Tian Tian shook her head. “Counterfeiting can’t be stopped. As long as we run faster than them, that’s enough. But since you want to help, there is something I need you to do.”
Zhou Haoting was curious. “What is it?”
Tian Tian took out several design sketches.
Zhou Haoting took them and raised an eyebrow. “Sportswear?”
Tian Tian nodded. “I want to find a kind of fabric that’s lightweight and has quick-dry properties.”
These days, domestic fabrics were still mainly polyester, nylon, cotton, silk, and the like. But for making sportswear, the ideal would be a synthetic fabric that dries as quickly as polyester while having some of cotton’s stretch. However, that kind of fabric generally could only be imported.
Imported fabric, however, was too expensive. She couldn’t even consider it.
So the only option was to search hard domestically for a fabric that came as close as possible to the requirements, at a low price.
And, learning from this lesson, once she had a new fabric, even if other factories wanted to counterfeit, they wouldn’t be able to find the exact same fabric right away, making counterfeiting much harder.
“Alright…” Zhou Haoting thought for a moment, then looked at Tian Tian with sudden delight in his eyes.
Tian Tian grinned. “You guessed it!”
Zhou Haoting nodded. “This sportswear has huge potential.”
“So, do you want to partner with me on a big one? I heard from your mom that your factory project is probably going to cost a lot of money.”
Even if it was a state-owned factory in the district going bankrupt and being auctioned, the price could still be very high. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have put it up for auction. The authorities were counting on the auction money to resettle workers and pay off supplier debts.
Zhou Haoting had his own capital and other ways of making money. But partnering with Tian Tian on this venture felt like it would be great. And his sharp instincts had already told him this sportswear had enormous profit potential.
Why? Simply because this year was an Olympic year.
It was now early March. The Los Angeles Olympics was still over four months away. And this year would be the first time the country competed fully since rejoining the International Olympic Committee.
He had already seen quite a bit of promotion in the newspapers. At the moment, the response didn’t seem very strong. But as time went on, especially if the athletes won medals, the Olympics would only attract more and more attention.
So how could sportswear tied to the Olympics not sell well?
Tian Tian was thinking even further ahead. In her past life, the country had won fifteen gold medals, and the women’s volleyball team had achieved a three-peat. Back then, the nationwide fitness craze had been astonishing. That momentum would last for a long time.
So selling sportswear had huge potential.
The reason she was doing the batwing sleeve clothes now was to make more capital. It was also to get some experience working with a manufacturer, so she could do the sportswear project well.
Of course, during the gap period, it was the perfect time to use up Boss Ye’s batch of white cotton fabric.
Although Zhou Haoting didn’t know what the outcome of this year’s Olympics would be, he saw the potential in this project and wanted to partner with Tian Tian, so he eagerly pulled her into discussing the specific details.
—
Over the next week, Tian Tian’s wholesale shop saw fewer and fewer customers. Many people had run off to other wholesale shops to place orders for batwing sleeve clothes. Mainly because those other shops’ wholesale prices were two or three yuan cheaper than Tian Tian’s. But the quality wasn’t much different.
Seeing this, Hui got a little anxious.
These past days, he had first done retail at the shop entrance, then gone to residential areas and factory gates to set up stalls. Business had been good all along. It wasn’t until someone started selling a few yuan cheaper than him that he could no longer compete.
“Sister Tian, aren’t we going to lower our prices?”
“No price cuts. Anyway, there are no new orders. Once we ship out the last batch, we’ll put out new goods tomorrow.”
“Why…” Hui was about to ask why when he caught the words “new goods” and his eyes went wide.
“We… where did we get new goods?”
Tian Tian said, “You’ll know tomorrow. Go home early today and save your energy. Tomorrow we get up at five to haul the goods over and stock the shop.”
She had already contacted some customers, telling them to come see the new goods tomorrow if they were free.
Hui stopped asking. His dejected expression visibly improved.
Just then, someone walked in from outside.
“Oh, Boss Tian, how come your shop has no customers? If you ask me, when everyone’s doing wholesale, you shouldn’t try to make so much money. Give up a few yuan to your wholesale customers—that’s how you get more orders. Taking a small loss to gain a bigger advantage—that’s the way to do business.”
The person was Hong Jie, the owner of the clothing wholesale shop next door. These past few days, she had come over every day to make snide, passive-aggressive remarks. Mainly because her shop had lost all its customers. They had all gone to her shop to buy the cheaper batwing sleeve clothes.
“Oh, no wonder they say people get craftier with age. Sister Hong, with all your experience, you must be about sixty, right? Well, you’ve aged pretty well. You only look fifty.”
“What…” Hong Jie, who had been about to continue lecturing the youngster from the perspective of an elder, was so angry at these words she nearly toppled backward.
What woman likes being told she’s old? And she wasn’t even forty yet!
“I was kind enough to put money in your pocket [meaning: give you advice for your own good]. If you don’t appreciate it, fine. But you’re spreading rumors that I’m some old granny.”
Facing Hong Jie’s increasingly agitated tone, Tian Tian spread her hands with a helpless expression. “Sister Hong, you’ve misunderstood me. Didn’t you say you’re a senior with lots of wisdom to teach the younger generation? Then you must be quite old. I was being kind, complimenting you on aging well. If you don’t appreciate it, fine, but you’re actually turning around and accusing me. Oh, I’m so wronged…”
At the end, Tian Tian turned to the crowd gathering at the door to watch the commotion and put on a pitiful expression.
Hong Jie wanted to blow up and curse Tian Tian as a damn bitch. But seeing so many people watching, and thinking about the “understanding big sister” persona she maintained on the wholesale street, she held back the urge to curse. She covered her face, pretended to be aggrieved, and ran back to her own shop.
The onlookers, seeing there was no more drama to watch, dispersed.
Hui, who had watched the whole thing, was stunned. “Sister Tian, I didn’t know you had such a sharp tongue!”
Tian Tian made a punching gesture at him from a distance.
Hui backed away repeatedly, begging for mercy. But inwardly, he was marveling—did Brother Ting know Sister Tian’s mouth was this formidable? Anyway, he really didn’t like that Hong Jie next door. Every time she came over, she spoke in veiled jabs. Don’t think he couldn’t understand—it was just that as a young man, he really didn’t know how to deal with that kind of older woman.
Now it was great. Sister Tian had talked her away with one mouth.
Impressive!
Tian Tian didn’t know what Hui was thinking. After sending Hong Jie packing, she didn’t give it another thought.
Having run a shop on this street for some days, she had a rough understanding of each family’s background here.
That Hong Jie’s background was a bit complicated. Single, from out of town, and with several lovers. That kind of person was complicated, but she wouldn’t really dare provoke Tian Tian’s shop, which had a local village as backing. Yes, doing business these days was like that. Without some kind of backing, it was hard to do big business.
For her sportswear project, she planned to recruit some villagers to help. That way, future work should go more smoothly.
Just like with selling the batwing sleeves this time.
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