Jojo Wang, a sourcing agent based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, was stunned when her social media followers surged from around 100 to over 108,000 in the past two days.
The spike came after her viral video exposed extreme price disparities in the fashion industry. It revealed that the factory price of a pair of Calvin Klein jeans was only US$15, compared to a retail price of about US$100 in the United States. The video generated over 220,000 views in just 48 hours.
Wang’s videos are part of a growing trend on TikTok. Since the US-China trade war escalated earlier this month, Chinese suppliers have broken down the actual costs of branded goods, appealing to overseas consumers to bypass tariffs and retail mark-ups by ordering straight from the source.
Keng Yin Lam, a Guangzhou-based clothing wholesaler, specialises in selling unsold inventory from factories at shockingly low prices. In his TikTok posts, he reveals that branded T-shirts could cost as low as US$0.6, while jeans can go for US$1.3 – a fraction of their retail prices.
“We have huge pricing advantages,” Lam said. “Even if you triple our prices to account for tariffs, we remain fully competitive in European and American markets.”
While the claims of rock-bottom prices are still hard to verify, made-in-China products are known worldwide for their price and quality advantages.
