Chinese Entertainment Brand Expansion: Bai Jingting's GOODBAI Store Opening and Collaboration Business Strategy
Recently, a large hoarding quietly went up along Yanqing Road in Shanghai, featuring the brand GOODEES WORLD. This is the first national store of a line under GOODBAI, a brand founded by well-known actor Bai Jingting.
Yanqing Road was previously a hot topic due to Bai Jingting's pop-up space. Two months ago, GOODBAI opened a pop-up space here, with Bai Jingting's huge poster attracting countless visitors, leading to Yanqing Road being called 'Bai Jingting's street.'
Boss Bai selling clothes, coffee, and plush toys: Multiple products rank in the top 10 on Tmall; collaborations with Salomon, New Era, etc.
The five-room villa along Yanqing Road is GOODBAI's first physical store nationwide. The brand was established in 2021 as a clothing and lifestyle brand founded by renowned artist Bai Jingting. In 2023, when GOODBAI opened, it triggered crowd pandemonium and scalping, with some queuing for nearly 7 hours.
Even three years later, on a typical weekday afternoon, the store traffic was relatively dense, with many customers shopping, trying on, and taking photos.
The store overall has a vintage yet minimalist design, with dove motifs everywhere. GOODBAI covers clothing, shoes, hats, bags, and accessories. Pricing generally ranges from 39 to 2900 yuan: t-shirts are mostly 199 yuan; shoes concentrate in the 159-799 yuan range; canvas bags, hats, jewelry, etc., are mostly several tens to two to three hundred yuan.
One of GOODBAI's popular products is the Wander Shoes, priced at 459 yuan, ranked 9th on Tmall's sports casual shoe repurchase list, ahead of major sports giants and well-known brands like Adidas, FILA, Anta, ASICS, and Xtep.
GOODEES WORLD, about to open its first store, also has a dedicated section in the store. This line originates from the original IP, the furry ball image on the hoarding. GOODEES WORLD is positioned as 'cute, warm, healing,' with products ranging from shoes and clothes to phone cases, plush keychains, and hair accessories.
In the Tmall flagship store, its 129 yuan zodiac plush keychain has sold over 7,000 units; while at the vending machine on Yanqing Road, the 99 yuan baseball cap keychain is sold out.
GOODBAI and its sub-lines have released collaborations with multiple brands, including Salomon, Diptyque, New Era, Levi's, BABY-G, Haolilai, Linefriends minini, etc., covering up-and-coming middle-class consumption favorites, national brands, and streetwear brands.
From Apparel to Coffee and IP Derivatives: Channel and Category Linkage
Beyond apparel and IP derivatives, Bai Jingting's business landscape also includes coffee and bakery. Not far from GOODBAI on Yanqing Road is Bai Jingting's coffee shop, with coffee priced at 28-48 yuan per cup, similar to other specialty coffee shops in Shanghai.
In 2024, his 'GOODEES Great Satisfaction' small cookies, priced at 21 yuan for two, sparked online controversy.
Beyond Yanqing Road, GOODBAI has opened two other physical stores in Chengdu and Aranya, and pop-up/drop-in stores in Beijing, Paris, Seoul, etc. In addition to its own online and offline channels, the brand also enters concept stores like Musinsa.
From selling apparel and coffee to IP derivatives, Bai Jingting is building a consumer ecosystem centered on young people's lifestyles.
Celebrity Self-Created Brands: Traffic Advantages and Risks Coexist
In the entertainment industry, many artists create brands: Edison Chen has CLOT, Jackson Wang runs TEAM WANG, Daniel Wu started selling coffee, Hua Chenyu launched his own daily chemical brand, etc. Why are celebrities keen on creating their own brands?
In an interview with Bazaar Men, Bai Jingting mentioned that Mao Zedong compared the feeling of fame to receiving a string of pearls from others. Bai Jingting pondered, 'Can I find another string of pearl chains for myself?' GOODBAI and other brands are described as the second string of 'pearls' Bai Jingting found for himself.
Celebrities creating brands often have traffic advantages, and the process of becoming popular is similar to emerging apparel brands, using combinations of social media seeding, pop-up testing, and flagship stores in core business districts. Celebrities and their communities are seen as 'walking seeding machines,' and many celebrities have been seen wearing GOODBAI products in public.
At the same time, celebrity self-created brands may face controversies of 'fleecing fans' or gradually losing voice due to lack of sustainability. Since the brand is tied to the celebrity, there is also a risk of both rising and falling together.
GOODBAI has also faced negative publicity due to product quality issues: in 2024, the Shanghai Market Supervision Bureau reported that one of its denim jackets did not meet the national mandatory standard for pH value; in 2025, news emerged that a 599 yuan sweatshirt had glue marks coming off, with the back pattern printed on car seats. After the incident, the brand's related company issued an apology, announced a recall of relevant batch products, and pledged corrective actions.
It is worth noting that GOODBAI's related company, Zhetin Hao (Shanghai) Brand Management Co., Ltd., is held 41% by Bai Jingting, 29% by Shangguan Zhe, and 10% by Li Yong. Designer Shangguan Zhe's own brand has appeared at London Fashion Week; Li Yong has also been in the apparel industry for many years. Therefore, Bai Jingting's apparel business is described as having onboarded industry insiders, with professional support in design, production, and supply chain.
Sports and Outdoor: Extension Directions of the Multi-Brand Matrix
Bai Jingting himself is known as the 'shoe king' of Chinese entertainment, passionate about multiple sports, and also endorses outdoor sports brands like New Era and Salomon. Under the trend of diversified sports needs, GOODBAI has gradually developed specific sub-lines like football (916 express) and tennis (polomove).
In addition to GOODBAI's casual sporty style, Bai Jingting's related company also owns teenteens for young women, women's fashion brand Ayrae, and trendy outdoor brand 30C. For example, 30C enters the outdoor market by combining trendy style with design advantages; currently, 30C has opened its first store on Xiaohongshu, with Bai Jingting's same-style vest sold out in multiple sizes.
From the popular casual sporty shoes, the trendy IP plush toys, to the outdoor field, Bai Jingting's business moves are described as stepping on every trend; his progress does not rely solely on luck and traffic.
Additionally, some collaboration brands already have relationships with Bai Jingting the artist. Celebrity brands often worry about becoming mere merchandise for the star. Therefore, how to move from fan economy to a broader market is considered what Bai Jingting's brands are currently doing and will need to do long-term.
The article quotes Bai Jingting: 'Even if separated from me as a person, consumers still recognize it; many people will still like it and find it beautiful - that is my ultimate goal.'
