Building the suiting market in Korea

Woolmark recently held a marketing campaign with Cambridge Members, the second largest premium suiting brand in Korea. Established in 1977, Cambridge Members belongs to Korea’s fifth largest apparel group Kolon Industries which had annual sales worth A$3.7 billion in 2023.

Although the men’s suit market in Korea has faced downward pressure from the casualisation of apparel for a number of years, net sales in the men’s suiting market increased to about A$5.32 billion in 2023, a rise of 8.4% from the previous year. This renewed interest in men’s suits is a reflection of a recent trend towards men’s grooming, especially among Gen Z.

Launched in October, the Cambridge Members’ marketing campaign – themed ‘The Timeless Classic’ – promoted 34,000 traditional suit and business casual menswear items, representing an estimated 40 tons of wool.

The campaign involved a digital and social media campaign as well as promotion in the brand’s 60 brick-and-mortar stores, which resulted in an uplift in sales of wool products compared to the previous year.

Brand Manager of Cambridge Members, Mr. DongYoon Shin, said he was delighted with the successful outcomes of working with Woolmark.

“Despite the challenging market conditions – where the current economy is performing worse than last year and impacting our year-on-year sales – we were still able to secure a sales uplift, which exceeded our expectations in this economic and political climate,” he said.

“I sincerely appreciate Woolmark for providing us with a valuable opportunity to execute diverse marketing activities. I look forward to continued collaboration with Woolmark in the coming years to deliver the message of Merino wool’s premium quality to more customers and maximise the effectiveness of our efforts.”

The digital campaign included a special landing page on the Cambridge Members website which included information on the benefits and provenance of Merino wool, plus all-important links to products that customers could buy. A special Cambridge Members App push message was sent to 15,500 Cambridge Members’ customers. The number of views of the landing page, promotional video and total engagement were all well above campaign targets.

Famous Korean actor Daniel Choi was featured in the campaign wearing styles from the Cambridge Members’ Merino wool collection. Top image: A special pop-up installation at the major Lotte department store in Incheon promoting the benefits of Merino wool and the Cambridge Members’ wool apparel.

A highlight of the campaign was the involvement of famous Korean actor Daniel Choi who was featured in the campaign wearing seven styles from the Cambridge Members’ Merino wool collection.

As part of the promotion, an interview with Daniel and a pictorial of him wearing the Merino wool apparel also featured in the Korean version of WWD, the fashion-industry trade journal for readers ranging from global business leaders to aspiring fashion students looking to become future designers.

“The campaign in Korea with Cambridge Members successfully positioned Merino wool as a premium fibre in the traditional menswear market to increase awareness and sales of Merino wool during the autumn/winter season,” said AWI Regional Manager Japan & Korea, Samuel Cockedey.

“It has also strengthened our relationship with Cambridge Members and its parent Kolon Industries which will help us to encourage them to develop and sell more Merino wool products in the future.”

Kolon Industries also owns the Brentwood suiting brand, whose Action Suits were featured in the previous edition of Beyond the Bale.

This article appeared in the Winter 2025 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine that was published in June 2025. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.