Brandeis Alumni, Family and Friends
Jiahuan “Green” Xia ’15 Began a Streetwear Empire From His Dorm Room
After starting out by selling sneakers out of his dorm room, Xia now oversees a growing international streetwear business. He still wants to accomplish a whole lot more.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jiahuan “Green” Xia
Work boots will do on most construction sites, but Jiahuan “Green” Xia ’15 wants to build a fashion empire. So when he broke ground 11 years ago selling streetwear and sneakers from his own collection out of his Brandeis residence hall, he did so in a pair of Air Jordan Black Cement 3s.
Clearly, they were the right kicks for the job. Today, that one-man dorm-room business has become a full-fledged international operation, with Xia overseeing multiple streetwear, sneaker and apparel storefronts across the U.S. and in China worth tens of millions of dollars.
After graduating with a degree in economics, he opened Sole Stage, a high-end streetwear outlet that now has physical storefronts in California, New York and his native China. In 2019, he founded Shine Marketplace, which he calls the “first Chinese hype-culture streetwear incubator in North America,” aiming to put a spotlight on fashion, arts and culture created by Chinese and other Asian entrepreneurs and artists here in the U.S. And more recently, he founded Milly Rock Group, a fashion and art holding company to help emerging American brands launch and gain a foothold in China.
Through it all, he’s built quite the following for himself, too. He has thousands of followers on the Chinese social media app Douyin and more than 30,000 Instagram followers on his personal account (Sole Stage’s business account boasts nearly 200,000 followers). And that social status is no coincidence. In fact, his business was born out of his social media savvy (more on that later).
Xia recently chatted with the Alumni Association about his career, his experience at Brandeis, his vision for creating that fashion empire and so much more. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jiahuan “Green” Xia
How did you get immersed in streetwear and sneaker culture?
One of the first friends I made at Brandeis was this kid from Atlanta. He was a very cool guy, loved sneakers like I did. He took me to a store in Cambridge and there was this really long line. I asked what it was for and he said a pair of Nikes: the Jordan Black Cement 3s. I looked them up on my phone and thought, “I want these.” They were really cool, but we had to camp out at the store if we wanted to buy them. That was my first camping trip in the United States, outside in Cambridge with a bunch of strangers. From that experience, I knew this was a thing. It wasn’t just me. Other people were really inspired by this style.
How did that experience blossom into a business idea?
I already knew this kind of fashion was booming in China and from that experience, I knew it was also really popular in the United States. But the majority of American social media platforms are blocked in China, so there’s a bit of a cultural blockade. So I saw an opportunity. I started showcasing my own sneakers and streetwear that I’d picked up in the U.S. on WeChat, reaching a Chinese audience from the United States, and I basically started reselling sneakers to Chinese customers. I became a bridge between the United States and China. I also had a lot of friends at Brandeis who were always asking me about my shoes, because they’d see me wearing the freshest sneakers. So I started selling to my classmates, too. That's how I started my business at Brandeis. I paid my tuition that way, paid my rent, all that stuff.
That dorm-room business has since exploded. Walk us through your career to date.
After I graduated, I met my partner, the co-founder of Sole Stage. Our dream was to open a sneaker store in the United States, and he suggested we locate it in L.A. We opened our first store in the West Hollywood area next to [streetwear brand] Supreme. In 2017, when we opened up, it was just crazy right away. Then in 2018, Supreme became the hottest streetwear brand in the industry. We were right next door, so we had an advantage getting their products on our shelves and we became even more popular. In 2019, I opened my second store in New York City, and then two more in California.
Then Covid blew up. For a while, everything was shut down, but slowly, different countries were opening and closing depending on their own handling of the pandemic. So there was a time when the U.S. was shut down but China was reopening. As that was happening, I thought, now’s the time to establish my business in China. I opened my first store in Beijing and my second in Shanghai. Last year, I was able to raise a few million dollars and open a few more stores in China. So right now, Sole Stage has 10 stores worldwide, three in the U.S., seven in China.
Aside from your passion for streetwear, what inspires you to do this work?
I see a lot of problems as opportunities. You can see that all throughout my career. I knew how to take advantage of that social media barricade between the U.S. and China, to share and promote culture that I knew was really popular in both places. Same thing with Covid. It’s obviously a terrible disaster, but I also was able to see how different countries were treating the pandemic at different times and react to that as a businessperson.
What was the most valuable thing you learned at Brandeis that has helped in your career?
I learned business, economics and marketing strategy. I studied Lululemon and how they started out making yoga pants and became a worldwide brand. I also took accounting classes and finance classes, and learned how to manage my own books. All these foundational classes helped me a lot because I was a one-man team, so I had to manage every aspect of my business on my own. All this, I learned from my time at Brandeis.
What are your goals for the future of your business and career?
I’m trying to build a fashion empire. That’s how I see it. I believe Sole Stage and Milly Rock Group can be the next [luxury fashion brand] Farfetch. The difference is Farfetch specializes in more European, luxury, traditional fashion. Sole Stage has its roots in the U.S. and China. And I think our roots being in these two powerhouse countries that don’t always see eye-to-eye with each other, and our mission of promoting Chinese culture in the U.S. and American culture in China, that makes us really unique. I feel like we can have a real social impact in that regard.
What role do you envision your company having from a social impact perspective?
A lot of people in the U.S. have biases towards China and the Chinese people have their own biases towards the United States. But if I tell someone in either place, “Hey, there’s this artist or this brand that’s really cool,” they'll still like it. They don't see things like that as American or Chinese. They see it as something that has creative value. Streetwear, fashion, creativity in general, is a universal language. That’s where I see my company having a social impact, connecting people.
Mandarin Translation
起步于大学宿舍的街头服饰帝国
— 布兰戴斯2015届校友夏嘉欢的创业故事
从最开始在宿舍卖运动鞋起步，夏嘉欢现在管理着一家日益壮大的国际街头服饰公司，他
还想完成更多的事情。
工作靴适用于大多数施工现场，但夏嘉欢 ’15 希望建立一个时尚帝国。因此，11年前，当他在布兰戴斯大学的宿舍里出售自己收藏的街头服装和运动鞋时，他穿的是一双Air Jordan Black Cement 3s。
显然，这双鞋对这份工作非常合适。如今，这个单人间大学宿舍生意已成为一项成熟的国际业务。夏嘉欢如今在美国和中国经营着多家街头服饰和运动鞋店面，共价值数千万美元。
从布兰戴斯大学获得经济学学位后，他开设了Sole Stage，这是一家高端街头服饰店，现在在美国加利福尼亚、纽约和他的祖国中国都有实体店面。2019年，他成立了Shine Marketplace，他称之为“北美第一家中国潮流文化街头服饰孵化器”，旨在在美国市场聚焦中国和其他亚洲企业家和艺术家创造的时尚、艺术和文化。最近，他又成立了Milly Rock Group，这是一家时尚和艺术控股公司，旨在帮助新兴美国品牌在中国市场推出并立足。
通过这些，他也为自己建立了社交媒体影响力。他在中国社交媒体抖音上拥有数千名粉丝，Instagram个人账号拥有三万多名粉丝（Sole Stage的Instagram账号拥有近二十万粉丝）。而这种社交媒体的地位并非巧合，事实上，他的生意正是源于他对社交媒体的精通。
嘉欢最近和布兰戴斯校友会聊到了他的职业生涯、在布兰戴斯的经历和他创建时尚帝国的愿景等等。由于篇幅原因，采访对话经过了编辑。
你是如何进入街头服饰和运动鞋文化（领域）的？ 我在布兰戴斯结识的第一个朋友是一个来自亚特兰大的孩子。他是个很酷的人，和我一样喜欢运动鞋。他带我去剑桥的一家商店，那里排着很长的队。我问他这是干什么的，他说是一双耐克：Jordan Black Cement 3s。我在手机上查了一下，心想：“我想要这些。”这双鞋真的很酷，但如果我们想买的话，就得在店外扎营排队。那是我第一次在美国露营，在剑桥和一群陌生人一起。那次经历让我意识到这是一个有意思的事情。不仅仅是我，其他人也真的受到了这种风格的启发。 这种经历是如何发展成为一种商业理念的？ 我已经知道这种时尚在中国正在蓬勃发展，那次经历让我了解到它在美国也非常流行。但大多数美国社交媒体平台在中国都被屏蔽，因此存在着一点文化屏障，所以我看到了机会。我开始在微信上展示我自己在美国买的运动鞋和街头服饰，从美国影响中国的受众，进而开始向中国客户转售运动鞋。我成了美国和中国之间的桥梁。我在布兰戴斯也有很多朋友，他们看到我穿着最新款的运动鞋，总是问我鞋子的事，所以我也开始向我的同学推销。就是这样在布兰戴斯开始我的生意的。我由此付了学费、付了房租及其他费用。 那间宿舍的生意从此火了，让我们了解您迄今为止的职业生涯。 毕业后，我遇到了我的合伙人，Sole Stage的联合创始人。我们的梦想是在美国开一家运动鞋店，他建议把它设在洛杉矶。我们在西好莱坞地区开了第一家店，紧挨着Supreme（街头服装品牌）。2017年，这家店甫一开业生意就很火。2018年，Supreme成为业界最热门的街头服饰品牌，而我们就在隔壁，所以我们有优势把他们的产品放在我们的货架上，我们因此变得更加受欢迎。2019年，我在纽约开了第二家店，之后在加利福尼亚开了另外两家。 然后，新冠疫情爆发了。有一段时间，一切都被关闭了。但慢慢地，不同的国家根据自己对新冠的处理方式开放或关闭。因此，有一段时间，美国被关闭，而中国正在重新开放。当这一切发生时，我想，现在是我在中国建立业务的时候了。我在北京开了第一家店，在上海开了第二家店。去年，我筹集了几百万美元，在中国又开了几家店。因此，目前Sole Stage在全球拥有10家门店，其中3家在美国，7家在中国。 除了你对街头服饰的热情之外，是什么激励你从事这项工作？ 在我看来很多问题都是机遇，你可以在我的整个职业生涯中看到这一点。我知道如何利用美国和中国之间的社交媒体障碍，分享和推广我知道在两国都非常流行的文化。新冠疫情也是一样。这显然是一场可怕的灾难，但我能够看到不同的国家在不同的时期是如何应对的，并作为一个商人对此作出反应。 你在布兰戴斯学到的对你的职业生涯有帮助的最有价值的东西是什么？ 你未来的商业和职业目标是什么？ 从社会影响的角度来看，你认为你的公司将扮演什么角色？
About the author
Dave Eisenberg is the integrated marketing and content strategy manager with Brandeis University's Institutional Advancement team. Prior to joining Brandeis, he worked as a content specialist at Perkins School for the Blind, and before that, as a journalist. Outside of work, he enjoys playing guitar and is an avid runner.
