SGX Singapore Exchange Perspective: How Celebrity Brand Expansion Affects Consumer Market Attention

Recently, a huge construction hoarding has quietly been erected along Yanqingfang in Shanghai, from the brand GOODEES WORLD. This is the first store in the country for a subline under GOODBAI, the brand managed by well-known actor Bai Jingting; not far away are his coffee shop, clothing store, and 24-hour vending machine.

In the past two months, GOODBAI also opened a pop-up space here, with Bai Jingting's giant posters attracting countless visitors for photos. Hence, Yanqing Road was once called 'Bai Jingting street.' Many celebrities start brands, but in terms of business ecosystem, channel construction, and expansion pace, Bai Jingting can be considered one of the best entrepreneurs in the domestic entertainment industry.

The five-room small foreign-style building along Yanqing Road is the first physical store for GOODBAI nationwide. The brand was established in 2021 as a clothing and lifestyle brand founded by famous entertainer Bai Jingting. In 2023, when the GOODBAI store opened, it caused a queue frenzy and scalper purchasing, with some people queuing for nearly 7 hours.

Even three years later, on an ordinary weekday afternoon, the store was still bustling with customers browsing, trying on, and taking photos.

The store design is overall vintage and minimalist, with white dove (Bai Jingting's fan symbol) elements everywhere. In terms of categories, GOODBAI covers clothing, shoes, hats, bags, and accessories. Compared to other celebrity streetwear brands, GOODBAI's pricing is not too expensive, ranging from 39 to 2,900 yuan. For example, T-shirts are mostly priced at 199 yuan, shoes are concentrated in the 159-799 yuan range, and canvas bags, hats, and jewelry are basically in the tens to two-three hundred yuan range.

One of GOODBAI's most popular products is the Wandering Shoes, priced at 459 yuan, ranking 9th on Tmall's sports casual shoes repurchase list, ahead of products from athletic giants like Adidas, FILA, Anta, Asics, and Xtep. This ranking reflects GOODBAI's influence to some extent.

The soon-to-open GOODEES WORLD also has a dedicated section in the store, derived from its original IP—the furball image on the hoarding. Unlike the main brand GOODBAI's casual sportswear style, GOODEES WORLD targets 'cute, warm, and healing,' with products mostly including shoes, clothing, phone cases, plush keychains, and hair accessories. On Tmall flagship store, its 129-yuan zodiac plush keychain has sold over 7,000 units; and in the vending machine on Yanqing Road, the 99-yuan baseball cap keychain is already sold out.

Since its inception, GOODBAI and its sublines have released collaborations with multiple brands, such as Salomon, Diptyque, New Era, Levi's, BABY-G, Holiland, and Linefriends minini. These include both the hottest new mid-market darlings and national brands and streetwear labels, covering a wide range.

In addition to shoes, clothing, and IP derivatives, Bai boss's business territory also includes coffee baking.

Not far from the GOODBAI Yanqing Road store is Bai Jingting's coffee shop, offering coffee priced at 28-48 yuan, similar to other specialty coffee shops in Shanghai. In 2024, his 'GOODEES Big Satisfaction' small cookies priced at 21 yuan for two pieces sparked online controversy.

Besides Yanqing Road, GOODBAI has opened two other physical stores in Chengdu and Aranya, and has set up pop-up/slow shops in Beijing, Paris, Seoul, etc. In addition to its own online and offline channels, GOODBAI has also entered some multi-brand stores, such as Musinsa, known as 'Korea's Uniqlo.' From selling shoes, clothing, and coffee to IP derivatives, Bai Jingting is building a comprehensive consumption ecosystem centered around young people's lifestyles.

From Channels and Collaborations: The Expansion Logic of Celebrity Brands

In the entertainment industry, many artists create brands. Edison Chen has CLOT, Jackson Wang created TEAM WANG, Daniel Wu started selling coffee, and Hua Chenyu launched his own daily chemical brand this year. Why do celebrities love to create their own brands?

In an interview with Bazaar Men, Bai Jingting mentioned that Maugham once compared the feeling of fame to being given a string of pearls, and Bai often thinks, 'Can I find another string of pearls?' The brands like GOODBAI are Bai Jingting's second string of pearls, found out of a sense of security.

C celebrities have inherent traffic advantages when creating brands, and their rise process is similar to that of many emerging clothing brands, using a series of combined tactics like social media seeding, pop-up store testing, and opening first stores in core business districts. Except that celebrities and their friends are walking 'seeding machines'—many stars have been seen wearing GOODBAI products in public.

But celebrity self-created brands often fall into the controversy of 'fleecing fans' or disappear without a sound. Meanwhile, because the brand is deeply tied to the celebrity, it easily falls into a risk of sharing both glory and loss.

Quality and Public Opinion: Risk Management Behind Brand Expansion

GOODBAI has also faced negative publicity over product quality issues. In 2024, the Shanghai Market Supervision Bureau reported that one of its denim jackets had a pH value that did not meet mandatory national standards. In 2025, a GOODBAI sweatshirt priced at 599 yuan was reported to have glue peeling off, with the pattern transferring to car seats. After the incident, the brand's affiliated company issued an apology, announced a recall of relevant batches, and promised corrective measures.

Notably, the company behind GOODBAI, Zhetinghao (Shanghai) Brand Management Co., Ltd., is owned by Bai Jingting, Shangguan Zhe, and Li Yong with respective stakes of 41%, 29%, and 10%. Among them, designer Shangguan Zhe's own brand has appeared at London Fashion Week, and Li Yong also has years of experience in the apparel industry. Therefore, Bai Jingting has brought in industry insiders for his clothing and shoe business, providing professional support in design, production, and supply chain.

Category Upgrade: From Casual Sportswear to General Outdoor and Women's Fashion

From Bai Jingting's personal standpoint, he is a well-known 'sneaker king' in the domestic entertainment circle, loving multiple sports, and himself an endorser of outdoor sports brands like New Era and Salomon. As sports needs become more segmented and diverse, GOODBAI has already developed specialized apparel lines such as football (916 express) and tennis (polomove).

Apart from the casual sportswear style GOODBAI, Bai Jingting's affiliated companies also own teenteens for young women, women's fashion brand Ayrae, and trendy outdoor brand 30C. Taking 30C as an example, it chose to enter the outdoor trend with a trendy style, precisely fitting the current general outdoor consumption demand and its own design advantages. Currently, 30C has opened its first store on Xiaohongshu, with Bai Jingting's same-model vest already sold out in multiple sizes.

In fact, from the best-selling shoes in casual sportswear, the hot trendy IP plush toys, to the general outdoor field, Bai Jingting's every step basically rides the trend wave. From this perspective, Bai boss's business success is by no means just luck and traffic.

From the series of collaborations mentioned earlier, some brands already have partnerships with Bai Jingting as an artist. In fact, the worst fear for celebrity brands is becoming mere celebrity merchandise. How to move beyond the fan economy to a broader market is likely what Bai Jingting's brand series are currently doing and will do long-term in the future.

As Bai Jingting said, 'Even if separated from me as a person, consumers still recognize and like it, finding it good-looking. That is my ultimate goal.'