Brand Story

The name of the TFS brand comes from the mountaineering route, which was opened up by two famous climbers, Yan Dongdong and Zhou Peng, and has a milestone significance in the history of Chinese folk climbing.
The first registered trademark is a pair of rhino horns + ice pick tattoo totems. I always feel that tattoos represent faith, freedom, and unruliness.

Later, considering giving the trademark more meaning, we changed to a seal with a small seal script that reflects Chinese culture. To some extent, the Chinese seal represents credibility.

My teacher (left) and I (right) at work. Mr. Choi Jun-seok is Korean. He has been teaching me to design tents since 1999. We have designed tents for many brands in the industry together.

The mini model we made for the American TNF company for store display is very cute.

We jointly conducted wind tunnel experiments on tents in the Korean military laboratory with DAC and TNF to demonstrate the tent structure's resistance to wind force. The experiment proved that the most important factors for a tent's wind resistance are: structure, The fixing of the ground nails and the strength of the fabric.

The most important thing about a tent is its structure. I will use hand-drawn drafts to determine and judge whether the structure is coordinated. We still use manual plate making. I think handmade tents are its soul. It also gives me a lot of room for thinking during the production process.

It took us only a short year to run out of bullets (funds). In the second year, our new partner Dong Fei joined our small team.

I personally think that the most professional outdoor products exhibition in the world is in Europe. The exhibition is held in Friedrichshafen, a small town in Germany. In 2013, at the exhibition, the owner of the Finnish brand kupilka gave me a small green cup; in 2018, I discussed with my friend @TaraPoky to become the agent of their brand. In 2019, the exhibition moved to Munich. At the exhibition, I saw the Kupilka brand again, and took this photo.

In 2019, Director Lee of the famous Korean brand Helinox introduced me to Kim, the owner of Hollain, a famous Korean outdoor fashion buyer store. Director Lee said that Hollain is the most influential outdoor store in Korea, and the store can be said to represent the trend of Korean outdoor.

Kim came to Qingdao to visit us in September. He is mature and steady... At first he was a little worried about whether the high-end tent brand from China could be accepted by the Korean market.

We discussed for two days, and he decided to represent the TFS brand. His only request was that I consider using English for the trademark. He said that English represents internationalization. In July 2020, we sold the first batch of tents to Korea for the first time. Then Kim left me a message on Instagram:

Hello, Ji-gang, the tent sold out in 15 minutes, looks like you did a great job!