Recently, the Market Supervision Administration of Yiwu City has started to rectify the counterfeit version of Labubu, with considerable efforts - it cannot be ruled out that it may be transferred to the public security for handling.
Now, the Yiwu market is on high alert, and all high imitation Labubu products in the area have been urgently taken down. Several merchants who used to sell counterfeit products have withdrawn from the shelves, saying that 'the inspection is too strict and we cannot continue'.
Those bosses who rely on Labubu to earn millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars are looking for a way to survive, while smart people have found a way out - making baby clothes.
The so-called 'baby clothes' refer to the clothes worn by cloth dolls. From Barbie dolls, BJDs (ball joint dolls) to the popular cotton dolls in recent years, the consumer market for doll "dress up" has already matured.
With the popularity of Labubu, the baby clothing market has once again entered the spotlight. Wearing a wizard hat to become a wizard, lifting a sword and shield to transform into a king, and putting on cloud shoulders to perform on stage... On online platforms, young consumers are enthusiastic about changing Labubu's personality and showcasing their dolls' OOTD (today's outfit).
The peripheral industry that replaced Labubu has also brought huge wealth opportunities to many people.
Inside the Labubu Clothing Factories
If there is a risk of infringement in the production of counterfeit Labubu and its peripheral products (home furnishings, daily necessities, phone cases, accessories, etc.), then Wayi can be considered a safe zone. Although it may not be as profitable, there is no need to worry about seizure, and stable performance can still be achieved.
Labubu's producer, Pop Mart, also launched baby clothing products this year, including workwear, overalls, shirts, etc., mostly basic styles. The price of medium clothing is 129 yuan, and the price of small clothing is 69 yuan. Currently, it has shown a shortage status.
The customer service representative stated that there are currently no products on sale for Labubu baby clothes, and it is uncertain whether they will be restocked and when they will be restocked.
According to data from Xiaohongshu, the number of notes related to Labubu baby clothes has exceeded 130000. On the Taobao platform, sales of Labubu related baby clothing products reach thousands or even tens of thousands. Randomly click on a 10 centimeter long Labubu cloak, which shows that the number of products sold exceeds 5000. If calculated at a discounted price of 32 yuan, the sales revenue has exceeded 190000 yuan.
Behind the huge market demand is an endless supply of sewing machines.
At present, multiple factories in Yiwu are operating at full capacity to produce Labubu's baby clothes. A small and medium-sized factory can produce 20000 to 30000 sets of baby clothes per day, but the products are still in short supply.
These children's clothing merchants meet consumers' demand for personalized Labubu dressing by designing and producing various exquisite Labubu children's clothing, while also bringing considerable income.
A shop owner selling baby clothes in Yiwu said that she expanded three stores in less than three months after moving to Yiwu International Trade City. She described Labubu's recent sales as "soaring to the sky". Her factory has six to seven hundred people who work tirelessly on sewing machines every day until two or three in the morning, but they can still produce two to thirty thousand sets, which is still not enough. There is not a single item in the warehouse inventory.
Some bosses can generate nearly ten million yuan in sales in a month with just six types of baby clothes.
These sales revenue not only come from China, but also from overseas.
Last September, a baby clothing factory in Shenzhen made two new Labubu baby clothing samples. Overseas customers placed orders for thousands of sets of baby clothing. In October of last year, the factory began continuously providing customers with Labubu baby clothing samples, ranging from raincoats to sweaters, overalls, eye masks, etc. At its peak, a new sample was produced every day.
In November last year, Labubu baby clothes began to explode overseas, and it has been going on ever since. The factory accompanies customers every day to see baby clothes, make quotations, and make samples.
High-End Labubu Clothes Enter the Market
Even if the sewing machine in the factory is smoking, it still cannot meet all the needs of consumers.
For players in the child circle, buying clothes for their children and buying clothes with others is the same principle. The styles mass-produced by the factory are not personalized enough or cannot meet their own needs for wearing parent-child clothes with children, so they turn to seeking customized baby clothes.
And those who undertake these customized needs are often part-time handmade bloggers on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu.
A blogger has stated that a simple style of baby clothing usually takes one or two days from design to sample production, while a complex style takes one or two weeks. Nowadays, every day when I wake up, I just "step on the sewing machine" - in fact, "step on the sewing machine" is a humorous term. Their manual method is usually crochet, priced at around 70 yuan per piece, with monthly sales exceeding 300 orders, mostly Labubu clothes, of which nearly half are overseas orders.
Sometimes when there are too many orders, there may also be a situation of insufficient production capacity, and customers need to wait in line for 2 months.
The booming orders have also boosted the income of these bloggers. Some novice bloggers earn two to three thousand yuan in a month, and experienced bloggers even earn over 20000 yuan in revenue.
No one expected that this small monster with nine sharp teeth would become the "breadwinner" of these bloggers.
In the past, the situation in the child circle was that a child cost around five to six thousand yuan, and players spent five to six hundred yuan to buy clothes for it. However, now players' spending on clothes has exceeded the price of Labubu itself.
As some netizens have said, "Labubu is great, at least it doesn't scrape off the money of the poor." The number of players who buy children's clothing for Labubu is indeed relatively small, and the student group is relatively small. Mothers and white-collar workers are the backbone, and most of these white-collar workers come from Shanghai.
With the rise of the baby clothing market, some people are also trying to make high-end baby clothing.
A Labubu dress on Xiaohongshu is available for pre-sale, with prices of 728 yuan for small and 1688 yuan for medium sizes. Currently, 4 pieces have been sold. Some celebrities' Labubu baby clothes of the same style can also cost over 500 yuan.
However, the scarcity of fabrics may affect the market for high-end baby clothes. Many fabrics used for making baby clothes need to be imported from Japan and South Korea. The price of rough fabrics in China is 20 yuan per meter, while the import price is 100 yuan per meter. The price difference is significant, so it is important to find suitable suppliers in China.
The baby clothing market is not booming domestically, but with the popularity of Labubu, it has also become popular overseas. Multiple Labubu baby clothing products on Amazon have sold over a thousand copies, and the search ranking for Labubu baby clothing on Amazon in the United States has risen to third place in Labubu related terms.
And Labubu's peripheral is far more than just baby clothes - from baby clothes to baby shoes, accessories, and even spawned new formats such as "baby model" photography and virtual dressing apps. A senior player in the baby circle admitted that dressing a baby is like running a virtual social account, and each set of clothes is an extension of the character design.
This emotional consumption logic is essentially a victory for the consumption culture of Generation Z. Young consumers are no longer satisfied with "owning", but are pursuing building emotional connections through personalized dressing - of course, this also means that even if this Labubu falls down, there will be more Labubus standing up in the future.
