Meet the founder
Our Story: From Classroom to Cap Factory
Sixteen years ago, I was marking homework. Today, I’m marking the first sample of your next bestseller.
Before 2010: The Teacher
Before hats, I was a teacher. A regular one — lesson plans, parent meetings, the whole thing. Stable. Predictable. Safe.
But somewhere along the way, I realized: I wasn’t built for “safe.” I wanted to build something of my own. Something tangible. Something people could hold in their hands and say, “This is quality.”
So in 2010, I walked away from the classroom and into the unknown.
2010: The First Step
I bought a small hat store in Yiwu International Trade City — the beating heart of global small-commodity trade. If you’ve ever sourced anything from China, you know this place: 75,000 booths, 400,000 products, buyers from every continent.
I didn’t know much about hats back then. But I knew how to look a customer in the eye and mean what I said. That turned out to matter more than experience.
2012: Beauledo Is Born
Two years of running the store taught me one thing: selling other people’s hats meant selling their quality standards, not mine. I wanted control — over the fabric, the stitching, the way a logo sat on the crown.
In 2012, I launched the Beauledo brand and started R&D on our own product line. No more middleman. No more compromises.
The early days were humble: a handful of designs, a rented workspace, and a conviction that if we focused on one thing — making hats that felt premium — the market would notice.
2015: Earning Trust, One Hat at a Time
By 2015, we were ready to go beyond our local market. We expanded into both domestic and international channels — trade shows, buyer meetings, referrals from clients who’d taken a chance on us.
Here’s what I learned during those years: you can’t market trust. You earn it. One order at a time. One client who opens the box, runs their fingers over the embroidery, and nods.
Quality became our only sales pitch. And it worked.
2017: Scaling Up
Demand was growing faster than our capacity. In 2017, we expanded — bigger facility, more production lines, a larger team.
This was the year Beauledo stopped being a “small workshop” and became a real company. With scale came systems: structured QC, standardized processes, dedicated client service. But we kept one thing deliberately small: our obsession with detail.
2021: The Digital Leap
Then the world changed. 2021 was the year we looked at each other and said: the next wave isn’t in a trade show booth — it’s online.
We pivoted. Hard. We built out our e-commerce infrastructure, grew the team with digital-native talent, and started meeting clients where they actually were — on platforms, in DMs, through content that showed our work instead of just talking about it.
The team grew again. Not just in numbers — in skills. Designers who understood brand aesthetics. Account managers who spoke fluent e-commerce. QC specialists who caught flaws a camera wouldn’t show.
Today: Where We Stand
Sixteen years from that classroom. A physical store in the world’s largest trade hub. A brand we built from scratch. A team that treats your logo like it’s our own.
We’ve shipped to 30+ countries, served 500+ brands. But the thing I’m proudest of isn’t the numbers. It’s the emails from clients who say: “Coco, the hats are perfect. Reorder coming.”
I’m not the cheapest factory in Yiwu. I never will be. But if you want a partner who still cares as much as the day she left the classroom — you’ve found one.
