This is a seamless bra. You might find it hard to believe how much it weighs. The answer is: an egg. Straps, side panels and back clasps are molded in one piece, with seams that are almost invisible.
Nearly one in every two pieces of intimate apparel on the domestic market is made in Shantou, Guangdong.
Next, let's run a "stress test."
First, elasticity. Stretch a piece of the fabric to three times its length, and it still bounces back by more than 95 percent.
Now drop some water. On ordinary cotton, the droplet stays put; on this fabric, it spreads out within five seconds.
Even after the seamless adhesive tape is stretched 50 times, it won't come apart or curl at the edges.
This visible quality is the result of decades of joint effort by more than 10,000 textile manufacturers in Shantou.
More than 40 years ago, Shantou's family workshops started taking overseas underwear orders. Today, Gurao Town produces knitted underwear; Chendian Town makes bras; Liangying Town produces knitted fabric; and Xiashan Subdistrict makes loungewear. Within an hour's drive lies a complete industrial chain from fabric to e-commerce.
Today, Shantou produces about 4 billion pairs of underpants, 1.2 billion bras and 150 million sets of loungewear a year—around 45 percent of the nation's output of underwear and loungewear.
From workshops in Shantou, these garments reach 192 countries and regions around the world, with APEC member economies a key export market.
As family workshops have grown into a hundred-billion-yuan industrial cluster, these pieces of intimate apparel travel from Shantou into the lives of consumers across the Asia-Pacific.
Do you know what other garments are made in Guangdong? Tell us in the comments.
Main Creators: Chen Rongwei, Guan Xiruyi, Li Qian, Gong Chunhui
Revisors: Huang Qini, Wei Shen, Liu Lingzhi
