Musinsa said on Thursday it signed a three-way memorandum of understanding with KOTRA’s China regional headquarters and South Korean designer brand Akham. It plans to build an organic ecosystem of cooperation to help K-fashion establish itself in the Chinese market.

The agreement was pushed to help platforms and the government jointly address the high barriers to entry and uncertainty that individual brands face when expanding overseas on their own. The two sides will combine Musinsa’s local operating infrastructure with KOTRA’s global network to expand overseas sales channels and advance a public-private, co-growth model, it said.

Akham, launched in 2022, is a success case that delivered results through Musinsa’s incubating programme tailored to each stage of brand growth. The company said Akham received customised support such as product planning and marketing from Musinsa, and its annual transaction value rose within a year from 2 billion won in 2024 to the 10 billion won range last year.

Musinsa plans to expand the scope of its support to China under the agreement and strengthen its role as a strategic partner driving brand scale-up.

As its first step under the agreement, Musinsa took part the same day in the "2026 Korea-China Consumer Goods Cooperation Plaza" hosted by KOTRA. The event drew many leading local buyers, and Musinsa set up a dedicated showcase within a distribution platform pavilion to serve as a bridge directly linking South Korean fashion brands with the Chinese market.

A Musinsa official said the agreement was meaningful in that it built an efficient cooperation model that lowers local entry barriers for partner brands in logistics, customs clearance and marketing under a new distribution paradigm in China. The official said Musinsa will continue to support K-fashion brands so they can maintain their distinct identity and demonstrate competitiveness on the global stage based on Musinsa’s capabilities as a global platform.