‘Amazon coat’ brand Orolay’s Chinese founder on his success selling down jackets overseas and how he’s helping other entrepreneurs

The creator of the ‘Amazon coat’ – a US$129.99 down jacket made in China – explains how he used feedback from foreign customers to create his popular outerwear

Qiu Jiawei recalls how excited he was, on a trip to New York, to see people wearing his Orolay jackets, which lead Amazon’s winter-clothing bestsellers list

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Chinese down jacket maker Orolay targets US shoppers on social media and websites like Amazon. Qiu Jiawei, the founder, reveals how he created the famous “Amazon coat”. Photo: Instagram

Published: 7:15am, 17 Nov 2021

Qiu Jiawei, a Chinese entrepreneur, can still remember a winter two years ago in New York. He had been surprised to see, while walking around the city, many passers-by wearing down jackets of his brand, Orolay.

“I was so excited that I wanted to go up to them and ask them why they liked the clothes, but I don’t speak much English,” says Qiu.

Orolay has, since 2017, been among the top sellers on e-commerce giant Amazon. In 2019, 20 of the top 100 bestselling winter-clothing items on Amazon came from the Chinese brand. A US$129.99 coat in particular became so popular that it came to be known as the “Amazon coat” after it went viral on social media.

Qiu is riding the wave of the flourishing cross-border e-commerce business, adjusting his designs to meet the demands of the US market.

Orolay has, since 2017, been among the top sellers on e-commerce giant Amazon. Photo: Instagram

After graduating from college, Qiu worked in marketing for a foreign-funded enterprise. Wanting to spend more time with his newborn son, he left to start his own business making down jackets in his hometown, Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, eastern China, in 2012.