[Distribution Hot People] Master of Over 100 Distribution Collaborations in 8 Years

CEO Jae-Young Heo of Jaeheo&Co, Operating Fashion Brand Nunu

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Huh Jae-young, CEO of Jaehuh&Co, which operates the fashion brand 'Nunu,' is known as a 'collaboration master' in the distribution industry. Over the past eight years, he has conducted over 100 collaboration campaigns. He also holds the title of 'Collaboration Creative Director.' Working as a design advisor for SPC Group's BR Korea, he has led various collaboration campaigns for Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin' Donuts over the past three years.

The Baskin-Robbins Incheon Airport Terminal store and Dunkin' Donuts Beaker Hannam pop-up store, both designed with the popular cartoon character 'Snoopy' as the concept, are also his creations. Recently, he worked on the concept design for the Spanish shoe brand Camper's Starfield store. He emphasized, "The MZ generation, the main consumers, actively express their individuality and preferences in their consumption patterns, but it has become difficult to capture their attention with existing products. The goal is to create brands that consumers want to experience through collaboration."

Heo Jaeyoung, CEO of Jaeheo&Co

Launched in 2016, Nunu is a joint brand with artist Jean Jullien, who has emerged as a national artist in France. It started as a capsule collection for the street casual brand Stereo Vinyls, which he launched, and debuted as a brand in 2016. The witty face illustrations quickly gained great popularity among young people, leading to rapid growth. At that time, prominent online platforms continuously showed interest, and the brand successfully entered various online fashion select shops such as Beaker under Samsung C&T Fashion Division, Musinsa, and W Concept.

In 2018, when the brand was thriving, he suddenly halted its operation. CEO Huh said, "I felt a resistance to the commercialization of the brand," adding, "It was a time to reconsider the original promise of spreading creative and unique enjoyment through consumption beyond temporary consumption." After two years of deep reflection, he made a fresh start on the 10th as 'Nunu Phase 2,' through Studio Concrete, founded by Yoo Ah-in, who initially launched the brand four years ago.

The product range expanded from clothing to lifestyle fields such as furniture and accessories. He worked hard to embed the brand’s identity into each product. The response was faster than expected. A new wine glass product, introduced only through offline stores, was so popular that all 300 units sold out on the day of release.

Nunu releases new products once a week. The number of items released is also limited to small quantities. This is a bold move in the fashion industry, which typically floods the market with countless products twice a year each season. He also avoids mass production. He said, "I wanted to reject the method of mass-producing even filler products just to meet the number of hundreds of new items each season."

The same reasoning applies to collaborations with external parties such as large corporations. The street fashion brand Stereo Vinyls, which he also operates alongside Nunu, offers kids' products exclusively through E-Land Retail’s curated kids platform Kidikidi. These are exclusive products only available on Kidikidi. A collaboration with the public brand 'Seoul Made' by the Seoul Business Agency is also in preparation. CEO Huh said, "We judged that our brand’s principle of caring for the environment and producing all products only in Seoul (Korea) aligns with the Seoul Made campaign." He emphasized, "Instead of increasing sales volume through mass production, we will build a brand that communicates with consumers by embedding meaning into each product."