A seller born after 1995 discovered a niche category and made 300 million yuan a year!

How to stand out among many sellers, good product selection is often crucial.

Although socks are daily necessities, they are often overlooked by sellers.

However, three young people born after 1995 targeted this category and became the industry leader in just three years, generating billions of dollars in revenue!

Post-95s sellers discover new business opportunities! Create popular basketball socks

In 2017, UZIS was founded in Changsha, Hunan. The three founders are very young. Li Hongji and Yang Xiaoru were born in 1995, and the oldest, Wang Sen, was born in 1994. People in the industry jokingly call them "three post-95s".

Out of their love for basketball, the three young men chose basketball enthusiasts as their target consumer group.

In recent years, basketball shoes have been popular among consumers, and sneaker enthusiasts are willing to invest a lot of money to buy their favorite limited edition sneakers.

The founder of UZIS is very familiar with the needs and pain points of this group. Although they are willing to spend a lot of money to buy professional basketball shoes, if the socks matched with the shoes are not of good quality, they may slip and sprain their ankles when they stop suddenly during exercise, or even aggravate their injuries.

At that time, there were not enough good trendy socks brands in China, so they decided to choose the niche track of basketball socks.

The most critical product feature of the basketball socks that UZIS wanted to create is anti-slip, so before developing the product, the UZIS team bought a pair of basketball socks worn by NBA stars.

They found that the anti-slip performance of this basketball sock is quite good. However, the anti-slip yarn needed to make basketball socks belonged to international brands in the early days. The purchase price was very high and the supply was often out of stock, which made the UZIS team in a dilemma.

Therefore, UZIS and Donghua University conducted in-depth research and found that the key material that determines the anti-slip performance of basketball socks is "island-in-the-sea silk". It is understood that "island-in-the-sea silk" is a clustered ultra-fine fiber that not only has good anti-slip performance but also feels very soft. Basketball socks made of this material are very comfortable to wear.

UZIS and the Donghua University Laboratory studied the anti-slip principle of "island silk" and independently developed gecko anti-slip silk. Then UZIS and the factory jointly researched and improved the machines for producing gecko anti-slip silk .

On the premise of ensuring the factory's production capacity, the shipment volume of UZIS basketball socks can reach nearly 10 million pairs per year.

It is not enough to just ensure the anti-slip performance of basketball socks, the appearance design of the product is also a very important part.

In order to make basketball socks more in line with the aesthetic tastes of Chinese consumers, the ambitious UZIS team invested a lot of energy. They collaborated with students from internationally renowned art schools such as the London College of Art to develop the visual style of the products and created several popular product series.

Among them, the most popular is the "Armor Warrior" series of basketball socks. This product uses simple geometric shapes to present the style of armor, and the vertical and horizontal stripes also have functional anti-slip properties, giving consumers a feeling of conquering the court when wearing them.

(Photo source: UZIS Weibo)

At the same time, the ambitious UZIS has also created a number of co-branded products.

In 2018, UZIS cooperated with the well-known domestic basketball self-media team Yeqiudi to create a number of co-branded products. It also sponsored events such as Hupu Road King and Changsha Fashion Week.

In 2019, UZIS, as the only cooperative brand of the Caochang Fighting Legend event, launched the UZIS × EQUALIZER joint fashion socks. At the same time, it also cooperated with the internationally renowned sports brand WILSON and the well-known domestic female referee Qi Hao to create a series of products.

In March 2022, UZIS and Guangzhou's XH55 jointly launched "THE STEP Space Sports Slippers".

Not only that, in 2022, UZIS also jointly created the IP of "National Treasures" with the Hunan Museum, and applied elements of ancient Hunan musical instruments in the Hunan Museum's collection to product design .

(Photo source: UZIS Weibo)

At the same time, UZIS is also active in various large-scale sneaker fashion exhibitions in the circle such as Sneaker Con.

It is worth noting that UZIS is also constantly enriching its product line. In addition to basketball socks, it also provides basketball users with basketball shorts, basketball vests, basketball sweatshirts and sweatpants and other products.

By grasping precise channels, the ambitious UZIS won the first place in multiple platform categories!

In terms of channel layout, UZIS has a very accurate grasp.

As early as 2019, UZIS noticed the dividends of short videos and saw the influence of the Douyin platform, and focused its online promotion on the Douyin platform. It opened an official account of UZIS, aspiring people, and started Douyin live broadcast, becoming one of the first basketball socks brands in China to conduct Douyin live broadcast at that time.

The ambitious UZIS, based on the operation of Taobao brand stores, gradually shifted its business from Douyin to Tmall and Taobao.

At the same time, Dewu is also an important platform for the online promotion of the UZIS brand by those with ambitions.

On the Douyin platform, UZIS will release new product information, popular science-type "old shoe sharing" and various stadium activities to attract the target group.

In terms of offline channels, UZIS has cooperated with more than 1,000 stadiums in China to display posters in the stadiums for precise exposure. At the same time, it also infiltrates the brand into offline basketball scenes by sponsoring prizes for basketball games.

In just three years, the ambitious UZIS has taken the first place in the field of basketball socks on multiple online platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, Douyin, JD.com and Douyin.

UZIS, the ambitious company , has launched its products overseas with a strong momentum, and the Amazon product rating is 4.5+ in 2 months

The ambitious goal of UZIS is to create world-class products and brands, so this Changsha fashion brand started its overseas expansion in 2022.

For the first stop of its overseas journey, the ambitious UZIS chose the United States, where the basketball culture is most concentrated.

In December 2022, UZIS officially entered the Amazon US site.

However, in the early days of entering the US market, UZIS discovered that huge cultural differences meant that their product designs could not fully meet the needs of local consumers.

Therefore, UZIS participated in Amazon's Vine program in the early stage to obtain the first batch of consumer feedback, and then adjusted the details of basketball socks based on the feedback. For example, they found that Westerners' feet are relatively slender, so they made modifications in product and design.

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of UZIS, the brand's products have also achieved good results on the Amazon platform. In just two months, the evaluation of UZIS's full range of products reached more than 4.5 points.

In addition to the US site, UZIS has also rapidly expanded its European site. Currently, the average monthly shipment volume of UZIS on these two sites exceeds 10,000 (US dollars).

Since its establishment in 2017, UZIS has achieved rapid development. The turnover has increased from 1 million to 20 million and then to 100 million. In 2022, the turnover of UZIS exceeded 300 million.

This brand, founded by three young men born after 1995, has also gone global from Changsha, China. The long-term meticulous pursuit of products by the ambitious UZIS has also made everyone realize the importance of grasping user needs and pain points. I believe that this national trend sports brand will bring more surprises in the future!

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