Musinsa Standard Expands Overseas, Aiming for 1 Trillion Won in Annual Sales as a Mega Brand

From Musinsa’s Private Brand to a Korean-Style SPA Leader
Estimated Annual Sales of 470 Billion Won Last Year... Fivefold Growth in Five Years
Laying the Groundwork to Compete with Major Brands like Uniqlo
New Store Opens in Shanghai, Accelerating Overseas Expansion
Aiming for the ‘1 Trillion Won Club’ Achieved Only by Global and Major Corporate Brands

Musinsa Standard, which started as a private brand (PB) of the fashion platform Musinsa and has grown into a Korean-style manufacturing and distribution integrated (SPA) brand, is accelerating its expansion this year with the goal of reaching 1 trillion won in annual sales.

Local customers are waiting to enter at the Musinsa Standard Shanghai Huaihai Baixing Store. Provided by Musinsa Standard

According to the industry on January 25, Musinsa Standard’s sales last year are estimated to have reached approximately 470 billion won, a 40% increase from the previous year. After launching the brand in 2017, it surpassed 100 billion won in annual sales in 2020, just three years later, and has since grown nearly fivefold in five years. It is now evaluated as having established a foundation to compete with major brands in the domestic SPA market, such as Uniqlo, Topten, and Spao.

The main driver behind Musinsa Standard’s performance rebound has been its offline stores. Last year alone, the company added 14 new stores, bringing the nationwide total to 33. The cumulative number of visitors to these stores reached 28 million annually. This year, following the opening of the ‘One Grove’ store on January 22, Musinsa Standard plans to enter major distribution channels in the first half of the year, including Hyundai Department Store Mokdong branch, Starfield Unjeong, Shinsegae Premium Outlet Paju branch, and Shinsegae Department Store Gwangju branch.

Musinsa Standard is also receiving a positive response from younger consumers, including Millennials & Gen Z, through ‘data-driven product planning’ accumulated from operating its online platform. A representative example is the company’s precise analysis of the actual demand of consumers in their 20s and 30s, which has resulted in improved quality and lower prices for staple items such as slacks and T-shirts.

Local customers are browsing products at the Musinsa Standard Shanghai Huaihai Baixing Store. Provided by Musinsa Standard

Given Musinsa Standard’s growth trajectory, the industry believes it could achieve the milestone of 1 trillion won in annual sales-the threshold for being classified as a mega brand-as early as this year. In the domestic fashion market, only a handful of brands, such as Nike, Uniqlo, New Balance, and Hazzys by LF, have achieved annual sales of over 1 trillion won as a single brand, and it is rare for a new brand launched less than ten years ago from an online community to reach this status.

The key factor is the success of its global expansion, starting with the Chinese market. Musinsa has determined that the domestic market is saturated and has chosen China as its strategic overseas market to overcome these limitations. In December last year, it opened its first standalone overseas store in Shanghai, China, and is scheduled to open a second store at the Shinsegae Shinwan Center on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai this March. By securing stores one after another on the first floor of department stores where global luxury brands are located, Musinsa Standard is being recognized locally for its growth potential. The company has also set a goal to secure up to 10 Musinsa Standard stores in major Chinese cities this year and to expand to 100 stores by 2030.

An industry official commented, “Achieving 1 trillion won in annual sales as a single domestic brand will be a new milestone for the Korean fashion industry. Whether Musinsa Standard can establish itself in China, the world’s largest consumer market, will be the decisive factor in determining when it reaches the 1 trillion won mark.”