INTERVIEW Matin Kim embraces its fan-driven style identity

Lee Jun-seong, director of Hago Haus' Strategy Division, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the company's office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, July 16. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Jul 22, 2025 12:01 PM KST
• Updated Jul 23, 2025 10:37 AM KST

Matin Kim draws from social media to meet organic fashion demands

SEONGNAM, Gyeonggi Province — A unique feature of fashion brand Matin Kim is that it does not have a representative fashion statement. This means there is no consistency in style, no secret formula to define its design and no iconic fabric or sewing patterns to draw public recognition.

But it has a bold manifesto which has made it one of the most outstanding labels across Asia: It lets its avid fans worldwide define its style.

Lee Jun-seong, strategy division director at Hago Haus, which runs Matin Kim, and his team regularly browse the brand’s official Instagram and TikTok channels to check what their 380,000 followers say. Prior to launching its spring-summer and fall-winter collections, the company begins an opinion-gathering campaign and receives suggestions from social network users.

“They talk about what color or which style they want to see in our upcoming collection. They also ask when we will restock items that were sold out or if we will launch certain items in their countries,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times at the company’s office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. “We select suggestions we deem right for us, whether they were made by a majority or a few.”

From March to June, Hago Haus launched a large-scale online brand promotional campaign for Matin Kim, partnering with 400 social network influencers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Poland. The campaign, conducted on Instagram and TikTok for each country separately, drew a total of 20 million views and 820,000 likes.

“The campaign brought another wave of inquiries from the countries about Matin Kim. Some asked if this was really a Korean brand,” Lee said. “Following the campaign, the brand’s homepage saw its online traffic volume from the four countries jump more than 98 percent on average. And the brand’s sales overseas instantly spiked 121 percent in total.”

Lee said that because Matin Kim’s fame originally started online, consumers’ instant reactions to the brand has been its growth engine.

Hago Haus regularly shares its upcoming collections on their social media. Replies soon follow, requesting the style or items consumers want to see actually launched on market. The company faithfully takes into account those reactions for its follow-up planning, which then materializes into a new teaser and product launch — and often a sellout.

Lee said the public interest in Matin Kim derives from the ongoing interest in Korean culture worldwide, from K-pop to beauty products and foods. The brand, however, does not insist on a fixed appeal or image. It instead continues to communicate with global online communities and implements their views into its products.

“We get thousands of feedback (comments) every day and instantly apply them to our style. This creates what is beyond a simple trend, more of something that breathes in a digital community," Lee said. "When they see their opinions implemented into Matin Kim apparel or accessory items, they just go nuts. This is Matin Kim’s culture and how it has successfully represented K-fashion in the global market."

Global popularity

Matin Kim, in addition to their online platform, currently welcomes visitors to its offline stores in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Japan. In Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district, a Matin Kim store that opened in April reported sales of 430 million won ($310,000) in the first week of operation and 670 million won in the second week. A store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay area saw sales reaching 150 million won within three days of its opening in November. Through May, the store’s monthly sales reached 830 million won on average.

Another Hong Kong store in Harbor City and two stores in Taiwan all posted over 200 million won in sales within two weeks of opening. A store at the Londoner Macau, a casino resort, opened in December and is currently seeing average monthly sales growth of 33 percent.

The stores are concentrated in Asia, but Matin Kim plans to expand further, and is currently negotiating with retail companies in more than 10 countries to launch additional offline stores.

“We had not planned our global market expansion for this early. We had originally planned it years from now. The brand has been doing so well here, we had to concentrate on domestic business,” Lee said.

“But starting last year, we saw the brand becoming viral on social networks. We had not done any marketing outside Korea. Turns out the brand had become an online buzzword among its consumers and got famous in North America, the Middle East, Europe and South America. It became famous by itself. Matin Kim’s store in Myeong-dong is now seeing monthly sales of 2 billion won, and 90 percent of the store’s visitors are from outside Korea.”

Hago Haus invested in Matin Kim and began incubating it in 2021. Back then, the brand had no offline store and grew its market share among domestic users online. The brand’s sales dwindled to 5 billion won and it was losing money. In 2024, that figure jumped to 150 billion won, and Lee expects it will reach 200 billion won this year.

“There was no reason to invest in Matin Kim back then. Its operations were a mess. But we saw one thing: potential,” Lee said.

“The brand did not hire major models or locate gorgeous settings outside Korea to shoot its collection and produce shiny catalogues. But the way they exposed their brand on Instagram was very down-to-earth and interesting. They seemed to demonstrate, ‘This is how we young fashionistas roll.’ It was such a cultural shock to me because I used to work at a large-size fashion firm where every part of operations was bound to the company’s traditional manual."

Who is Lee Jun-seong?

Lee joined Hago Haus in 2023 and started serving as management strategy division chief. He was promoted to his current title last year.

Prior to joining Hago Haus, he worked at Shinsegae International. His most recent role there, from 2018 to 2023, was responsible for planning and brand sales in the cosmetics division. Before that, he worked in the women's fashion division, focusing on the Chinese market.

Lee graduated from Korea University’s Department of Education.