Dominic Johnson-Hill: Foreign shopkeeper in Beijing’s Hutong

Dominic Johnson-Hill, CEO and Creative Director of Plastered T-shirts

Hello everyone, my name is Dominic.I am from England, I am the founder of Plastered T-shirts, a creative brand in Beijing.

My first trip to Beijing was in 1993, as a backpacker. At that time, because of the reform and opening up, the economy was developing very fast, and there were all kinds of job opportunities. So I stayed, and then started my own business.

Beginning in 1995, I spent more than a year setting up a joint venture company specializing in market research.In 2006 I started my own company, Plastered T-shirts, which is now my own independent brand.

Dongcheng District was very supportive, and they gave me a lot of guidance about how to operate. But at that time, I could not understand many materials. So I found a lawyer to help me register the company and paid him about 10,000 yuan. It took me about more than two months.

But when I started another company in Chaoyang District this year.It took me about a week, and cost less than 4000 Yuan. So it's pretty fast now.

I've been playing with retro stuff since 2006. When my brand became popular  many were copying. Because protection for intellectual property was inadequate at the time. Though I had thought about suing some people, but it was not easy, so I just focused on innovating.

Things are different now. There was a Taobao shop about three months ago.They have 2 million fans, they totally copied three or four patterns from us. I immediately communicated with them through Taobao and a lawyer, and they pulled the T-shirts off the shelves in a day. The country now attaches much greater importance to intellectual property rights, so they dare not sell plagiarisms, and they wrote me a letter of apology. Not like before, intellectual property is much better protected in China now. I've been in this creative industry for 12 years. For me, Beijing is a city that keeps changing. From 1993 to now, every day is different. In fact, I like this kind of environment. It is very challenging for me as an entrepreneur. It makes me feedynamic. So I like to start a business in Beijing. Every day is new. Hello，my name is Dominic Johnson-Hill，I'm from England and I've lived in Beijing for twenty-five years and I am the CEO and creative director of Plastered T-shirts. Beijing, I love you. Nanluoguxiang Lane and Beijing, I wish you become better and better.