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Indochino's Head Office: New Location, Traditional Culture.
Just a short walk from The Bund, Shanghai's most famous district, Indochino's head office resides in the 'Cool Docks', one of many developments springing up along the Huangpu River causeway. A newly refurbished Mao Zedong era heritage site, the red brick building is home to an art gallery, a boutique owned by one of Jackie Chan's mistresses, and an innovative Japanese ad firm that is helping us gain traction in the Japanese market.
An homage to our early days working out of a back alley warehouse in Old Shanghai's tailoring district, our office is still very much alive with the constant buzz of curriers and community members streaming in and out of the office. With no secretary or separate offices, Indochino's collaborative and work centric culture (very Chinese) is well preserved in our expansive second floor, workshop like, high ceiling studio.
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Two excited Founders find their Name.
It is a sunny July day, and both Indochino founders are sitting at a circular, two person aluminum table outside the Munchies Bar (a snack stop at the University of Victoria). Then both students, Heikal Gani and Kyle Vucko are brainstorming names for a company that will sell tailor-made suits over the internet. You can hear the excitement in Heikal's voice, 'I really want something that shows off our Asian origin, lets be up front about doing business in China, start a trend.' Nodding his head, Kyle adds, 'Ya! Something memorable and familiar sounding. . . . . and (slight chuckle) the domain name needs to be available too!'
A perfect marriage of our Asian values, catchiness, and the availability of '.com' saw the word Indochino scrawled onto a page of Kyle's note book that day.
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Shanghai: 'The City of Lights.'
Welcome to Shanghai, home to the: Largest port in the world, financial centre of China, tallest building in the world, and 2010 World Expo (among others). With over 17 million people (unofficially, probably 20 million), Shanghai never sleeps; a flurry of people shopping in new mega malls, expats working long hours, and fleets of bicycles. One of the fastest growing cities in China, traffic is awful! Indochino's employees saw their daily commute increase from 30 minutes to two hours in less than eight months; it actually made more sense to provide team members with downtown company apartments!
The epicenter of China's rise onto the world stage, the government now calls Shanghai the ‘City of Lights.'
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