A distinctive "horse" has become the newest attraction this winter at Shenzhen's Mixc World, a commercial landmark known for its concentration of leading brands and trendsetting consumer culture. Crafted from hundreds of pieces of colorful leather and fabric using intricate collage techniques, the sculpture stands with a posture that is both sturdy and light. Crowds of young people gather to take photos with it, while just steps away, casual sneakers featuring the same design language displayed on nearby shelves are frequently picked up for try-ons.
This debut "Horse in the Courtyard" New Year pop-up space functions like a carefully orchestrated theater. At the center stage is an art piece created by artist Xi Min, surrounded by the real commercial world of products, settings, and consumer activity. The distance between artistic expression and commercial product, between cultural statement and purchasing decision, is intentionally narrowed. This is more than just seasonal marketing; it signifies Belle's deliberate choice to present its upgraded strategy in this symbolic commercial space, clearly signaling its intent to deepen its positioning in the "fashion-casual" segment.
The metaphor of an artistic horse represents a shift from "fashion" to "fashion-casual." Collaborating with designers and artists to reinterpret the traditional Chinese zodiac, Belle's New Year narrative is now in its second year. The evolution from 2025's theme to this year's "Leaping Forward with the Horse" reflects not just a change in subject but a deepening of the narrative. Artist Xi Min uses materials like shoe leather and fabrics as her "paint" and "brushstrokes," deconstructing and reassembling them to give the traditional zodiac a contemporary artistic expression. This creative approach itself serves as a metaphor for the brand's transformation: a creative reconstruction of classic elements and its own DNA to fit a new era.
The "Horse in the Courtyard" spatial concept further dramatizes this metaphor. The stillness of the courtyard contrasts with the dynamic energy of the horse, creating a tension and balance. This accurately corresponds to the core spirit of Belle's expansion into the "fashion-casual" track: finding a balance point between refinement and relaxation, between the urban pace and personal comfort. It also communicates the brand's evolution to consumers—expanding from solely fashion-focused products into the broader fashion-casual domain.
On the shelves next to the art installation, this sense of "balance" is materialized into product series. In recent years, Belle's product lines have undergone a decisive pivot. The core of this shift is moving from footwear focused on formal occasions to "fashion-casual" items that cover a wider range of daily life scenarios. This transformation is not vague but is crystallized into two distinct product families: the "Toast Family" and the "Runway Family."
The creation of these two product families is not an isolated move by Belle. In fact, the entire Chinese footwear and apparel industry is collectively facing a "scenario revolution": the boundaries between commuting and leisure are blurring, and "light sports" style is becoming standard for urban life. According to iiMedia Research data, casual style led Chinese consumer apparel preferences in 2025 with 36.93%. By focusing on "familized" product lines, Belle is essentially consolidating scattered market responses into sustainable growth drivers. This approach has already increased the revenue contribution of its casual products to nearly 50%.
The "Toast Family" is warm and everyday. It focuses on "all-day comfort," involving systematic research and development tailored to Asian foot shapes, aiming to cover various wearing scenarios for family members. Cumulative sales exceeding 1.5 million pairs are a clear market endorsement. This success indicates not just a popular product but that the brand's deep understanding of mass comfort needs has been translated into large-scale resonance through R&D and supply chain.
The "Runway Family" is light and exploratory. It targets the merging trend of "urban light sports," wrapping lightweight technology in retro designs to suit multi-scenario transitions from commuting and jogging to suburban outings. This family's market performance has been more explosive: the endorser's同款 "Runway Racer Sneaker" not only topped the overall footwear category ranking on Tmall's Super Brand Day in 2025 but also saw its initial color stock sell out on the first day, with sales soaring 537% compared to the previous period.
"Toast" protects inwardly, while "Runway" explores outwardly. Together, they define a new era of "fashion-casual": it is both internal comfort and external vitality. The popularity of these two family series reflects the explosion of a billion-yuan market—young consumers no longer buy for single scenarios; they need "commuting gear" that also serves as a "life partner."
As a brand's product system becomes more diverse, a potential challenge emerges: how can consumers still clearly recognize and identify with the brand's core value amidst the variety? Belle's answer is to continuously build its "Characteristic Chinese New Year" brand IP. A professor and digital marketing expert noted that contemporary brand competition is shifting from "being liked" to "being identified with." Belle's approach is to use a sustainable, evolving cultural IP to build deeper emotional connections with consumers, fostering brand identification that transcends seasonal shopping.
The evolution of this IP is noteworthy. The 2025 collaboration with a designer emphasized craft aesthetics and a premium feel; this year's co-creation with an artist highlights material deconstruction and artisan narrative. This change seems to continuously apply different value undertones to the broad "fashion-casual" track: refinement and craftsmanship. What remains constant is the IP's emotional core, consistently focused on the warmth of "family." As the product lines widen, the IP ties the diverse product series to a unified brand value pillar, ensuring that while the brand explores external "breadth," the internal "depth" it accumulates increases simultaneously. This evolving IP system wins broader market recognition and ensures the brand's long-term development.
However, even the best products and cultural IPs are castles in the air if they cannot be woven into reality on a large scale and efficiently. Behind Belle's lighthearted pop-up art expression lies the robust platform capabilities of its parent company, Belle Fashion Group.
The supply chain acts as an agile converter. Its value lies in the ability to rapidly transform trends and creativity into quality products. Whether it's the stable supply for over a million pairs of "Toast Family" orders or the rapid response to explosive demand for the "Runway Family," the entire chain's协同 efficiency from raw materials to production is crucial.
The retail network is a precise amplifier. Positioning the New Year's first exhibition at Mixc World, a hub for premium brands and diverse lifestyles, demonstrates the group's strong channel strength and precise strategic vision. The underlying intent is to leverage the extensive influence of this strategic location for a high-concentration presentation of the brand image. The group's network of over 8,000 physical stores and mature online channels forms a powerful omnichannel system. A successful product concept can be quickly validated and scaled within this network, creating exponential market influence.
On this efficiently operating platform, digitization functions like a sensitive nervous system, making trend perception, inventory turnover, and consumer connection more precise and efficient, supporting the brand to be both steady and agile in its pivot.
When products, IP, and the platform harmonize in the transformation melody, market feedback is the most powerful echo. Since 2025, Belle has achieved strong double-digit growth during major promotional events on platforms like Tmall and Douyin. During the 618 shopping festival, sales in its Tmall flagship store surged 79% year-on-year, securing the top spot in both the "Brand Ranking" and "Store Ranking" for men's and women's footwear. A deeper value lies in the accumulation of user assets: total omnichannel members have surpassed 30 million.
In conclusion, from the "artistic leaping horse" at Mixc World to the "Toast shoes" and "Runway shoes" on consumers' feet, Belle's New Year narrative has completed a full circle. It uses cultural IP to dialogue with consumers, responds with products to lifestyle trends favoring comfort and diversity, and ultimately relies on a strong, agile platform capability for large-scale implementation. True brand evolution begins by placing "people" at the center of the narrative—understanding consumer needs and using powerful platform capabilities to swiftly translate those insights into accessible consumption experiences. Ultimately, the value of any commercial system is reflected in its ability to consistently and accurately serve the needs and aspirations of "people." When all business logic returns to the human element, transformation finds its most solid starting point.