After years of silence, Vancl founder Chen Nian has once again gained public attention thanks to Lei Jun.

Yesterday, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun dedicated several minutes during his annual speech to discuss his 28-year friendship with Chen Nian, while also describing how "Chen Nian's transformation into live-streaming e-commerce" influenced him, expressing the sentiment that "being in your 50s is the perfect age to venture forth."

With this statement, Chen Nian's fortune quietly changed. Following Lei Jun's speech, Vancl quickly launched a "Perfect Age to Venture Forth" pure cotton printed T-shirt. Additionally, multiple Lei Jun-style items became bestsellers in Vancl's flagship store. Vancl customer service and live-streaming personnel revealed that today's inquiries and purchases for "Lei Jun's style" clothing surged dramatically.

On the Douyin platform, Chen Nian has also begun capitalizing heavily on the "Lei Jun speech" traffic. Currently, Chen Nian's personal Douyin account shows his top 7 videos, including pinned content, all featuring interactions with Lei Jun. Chen Nian became emotional while watching Lei Jun's speech and responded: "I feel unworthy, and my destiny has changed from this moment."

**Multiple Lei Jun-Style Items Launched, Chen Nian Capitalizes on "Lei Jun" Traffic**

The "Perfect Age to Venture Forth" pure cotton printed T-shirt mentioned in Lei Jun's speech is now available in Chen Nian's personal Douyin account "Vancl Chen Nian" and other account showcases. According to Vancl internal personnel, this product was launched yesterday. As of 3:00 PM today, this item alone sold 1,827 units through the "Vancl Chen Nian" account, with some styles already sold out.

Live-streaming personnel indicated that the white version is currently out of stock and unavailable for purchase in the live stream. Furthermore, multiple Lei Jun-style clothing items have been launched across Chen Nian's personal Douyin account and Vancl's official flagship stores for general merchandise, menswear, and athletic shoes, all prominently displayed in visible positions.

On Chen Nian's Douyin account, he has initiated an aggressive traffic-grabbing strategy leveraging "Lei Jun's" popularity. His three pinned posts and four latest videos all feature Lei Jun-related content, with notably high "Lei Jun content density."

**30-Day Online Sales Exceed 25 Million Yuan, Douyin Contributes Primary Revenue**

While watching Lei Jun's speech yesterday, Chen Nian became emotional when hearing Lei Jun spend considerable time introducing him. In subsequent live streams, he responded: "He used such extensive coverage to discuss Vancl, which immediately anchored me. I was very anxious when going live, feeling unworthy, but my destiny has changed from this moment."

However, Vancl did not respond regarding order quantities and sales contributions resulting from Lei Jun's mention.

Third-party data platforms show that Vancl's online sales reached 25-50 million yuan over 30 days, primarily through Douyin channels. On Douyin alone, "Vancl Chen Nian" achieved 100,000-250,000 units in sales over the past 30 days, with cumulative live-streaming sales of 10-25 million yuan. Vancl's official flagship store achieved 75,000-100,000 units in 30-day live-streaming sales, generating 5-7.5 million yuan in revenue. Vancl's menswear flagship store sold 7,500-10,000 units over 30 days, generating 2.5-5 million yuan in sales. Excluding video content-driven sales, Douyin platform sales ranged between 17.5-35 million yuan over 30 days.

On May 10 last year, Vancl's official flagship store reached the top position on Douyin's apparel sales ranking.

**Chen Nian's 16 Enterprises: 9 Dissolved**

As Lei Jun's friend of 28 years, Chen Nian co-founded Joyo.com with Lei Jun in 2000, establishing a deep friendship. He subsequently founded Vancl in 2007, becoming a leading vertical e-commerce platform with sales exceeding 2 billion yuan in 2010 and over 13,000 employees.

However, as e-commerce competition intensified, Vancl faced operational difficulties. In 2011, the company reported annual losses of 600 million yuan with 1.445 billion yuan in inventory backlog. Thereafter, Vancl remained in inventory clearance mode, experiencing declining product quality and brand image damage, eventually accumulating debts of 2 billion yuan.

According to Lei Jun, after settling debts, when Chen Nian decided last year to relocate the entire company to Hangzhou for live-streaming e-commerce transformation, Vancl had only "three to four" employees remaining. The once 10,000-employee company had essentially "reset to zero" and started anew.

According to corporate records, Chen Nian (birth name Wang Wei) is currently associated with 16 enterprises, of which 7 remain active, including Vancl Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Beijing Vancl Fashion E-commerce Co., Ltd., and Beijing Weidi Jingtian Technology Co., Ltd. Chen Nian serves as legal representative and executive director in these companies, while the remaining 9 enterprises have been dissolved or had their licenses revoked.

In fact, Vancl's transition to live-streaming sales began before the mentioned "Hangzhou office relocation." As early as April 2022, Chen Nian appeared in Li Guoqing's live stream, collaborating to sell Vancl clothing. However, that live stream sold only 9 items with dismal results.

It wasn't until April 18 last year, when Lei Jun responded in a live stream to criticism about imitating Elon Musk and Steve Jobs' attire by stating he wore Vancl T-shirts, jeans, and canvas shoes, that Vancl's live-streaming traffic experienced explosive growth. Chen Nian admitted: "Honestly speaking, that April 18 live stream changed me."

However, with the golden era of vertical e-commerce gone and Vancl now dependent on Lei Jun's live-streaming mentions for sales surges and public attention, when can Vancl reclaim its former glory?