Page 216 - The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

Bosideng’s truly inspiring history
begins in 1972, when founder,
Gao Dekang graduated from high
school and began his career as a
tailor. In 1976, at the age of 24, he
established his apparel business
and would travel the 200km
round trip distance from his
home in the Southern Chinese
village of Shanjing to Shanghai to
find new customers and clients.
His reputation of being able to
sew a pair of trousers together in
17 minutes and deliver them back
to the city the next day (what
service!) earned him a dedicated
following early on, and was what
supported him in expanding his
business further later on.
During the next 15 years, Gao
registered the company and
established it as an official business
in his village providing the locals
with insurance and housing. In
1984, he began producing his
now infamous down coats when
he discovered there was a great
demand for warm clothing. Later,
he officially registered the brand
and cleverly renamed it ‘Bosideng’,
which literally translated means
Boston, after the American city
in Massachusetts. His down coats
proved so insanely popular that
the company sold nearly 500,000,
which catapulted it to being the
local market leader, making it
the number one seller in China
that year. From this success, Gao
took on his next challenges of
climbing Mount Everest with
the Chinese mountaineering
team, an excursion to the North
Pole with the Chinese Arctic
Expedition team, and in 1999,
Wave Division Teng honoured
Gao by crowning Bosideng as the
only clothing brand to complete
the tri-polar world.These massive
accomplishments helped make
and prove that the brand truly
knows how to produce clothing
that can handle extremely cold
weather conditions.
From here,Bosideng goes on to be
used as the official Chinese 2006
Winter Olympics team apparel
and winning the coveted “Grand
Achievement Award” in 2008
from China’s National Garment
Association. By 2011, over 11,000
stores had been established in
China! With such outstanding
growth, the brand made the
decision to open its first (and thus
far, only) flagship store outside of
the PRC in London on July 26th
2012. Since then, the store has
become a go-to in men’s fashion
for the sophisticated and stylish
urban male. The London store,
which was largely inspired after
New York City’s Flat Iron design,
took over a year to construct and
tastefully blends local architectural
elements with Bosideng’s Chinese
heritage.This location in London’s
posh and bustling West End, acts