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　  Business Story

Mr. Li Dong-lin, the founder of OH9 Taiwan Brother Black Dog, shares his story of launching his own sock brand.
No game is destined to lose unless you quit.
In a volleyball game, there is no reason to give up saving the ball before it touches the court.

Mr. Li started to play volleyball since he was the age of nine. When he was nineteen, he had a car accident, which injured his leg, on the way home after taking Sports College Exam. Misfortunes never come singly. He had a more serious car accident the next day, which made his injured leg even worse. The doctor advised Mr. Li that he should take a year off if he still wanted to go to sports college. Eventually, instead of continuing his career in sports field, he chose to learn the skills for future profession and went to Nanya Junior College (former Nanya Institute of Technology), commencing his career in making socks.
After graduation from college and finishing military service, Mr. Li  joined a sock manufacturer in Shetou Township Changhua County (a rural township in central Taiwan) and acquainted himself with how to make socks. After three years, he believed he could start his own business. Hence, with his wife’s financial support, he bought for used machines to make socks and became an original equipment manufacturer. Over the course of many years, besides running the sock factory, Mr. Li had also done several part-time jobs at the same time. The consequential exhaustion in mind and body had affected his health. At that moment, he realized that his company barely made money. Therefore, he wanted to build his own brand, working as a designer and manufacturer of sports socks.
He recalled that he used to love playing volleyball. The experience of sports team had him know that how important a good pair of socks was to an athlete and what kind of socks athletes favored. Mr. Li even designed commemorative socks and gave them to players, coaches and staff of the game. Before long, Mr. Li received more orders for socks. So far, more than 300 teams in Taiwan wear his products. Mr. Li also keeps the used socks he had given away for analysis and future design.
Mr. Li had never sold socks himself before. He had thought of building his own brand, yet he had been too busy on OEM orders to prepare his own brand. He hadn’t got opportunity to start his own socks design until Europe Union boycotted orders from mainland China.
“My socks are made to meet the need of athletes, not to follow the trends.”Mr. Li said. To meet the need of athletes, not only has he designed many types of sports socks, but stuck to making high quality socks.
“The only limits you have are the limits you believe. Don’t give up. After a storm comes a calm.”Mr. Li said and upheld such belief.
Source：《Business Weekly》The First Documentary「Sock'n Roll」
OH9 Brand Road| Li Dong-lin - WorkFace Taipei
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