Do Won Chang

Male

Asian

Korean

First-generation immigrant, arrived in the US in 1981 at 27

not established

Korean; almost no English at the time of arrival in the US

not established

Three simultaneous low-wage jobs, a coffee counter at about $3/hour, a gas station, and office cleaning at night, were the entire income floor while they saved toward the first store.

Jin Sook Chang worked as a hairdresser through the same stretch, adding a second wage to the household.

not established

The hardship was imposed, not chosen. There was nothing to fall back on.

not established

His parents emigrated to Los Angeles with him and Jin Sook in 1981, rather than following later or staying behind.

Myeong-dong, a central commercial district of Seoul.

Emigrated from Seoul to Los Angeles in 1981, at 27, with his wife and his parents.

He'd run his own coffee delivery business in Seoul before 25. In Los Angeles he started over behind a coffee counter at $3 an hour, a step down before it was a step up.

Arrived into immigrant Los Angeles with almost no English and built the first store around the Korean American community in Highland Park rather than a broader market.

The Korean American community around the first Highland Park store supplied the early customer base.

The Korean American community in and around Highland Park, the neighborhood of the first store, rather than a cold or general market.

Opened the store cold, on a leased storefront, with no prior employer, investor, or institutional relationship behind it beyond the lease itself.

Jin Sook Chang, his wife, co-founded the company and ran merchandising and buying.

27

Before opening his own store, he took a job at a clothing retailer to learn merchandising and how the trade worked.

No college. Arrived in the US at 27 with almost no English.

$11,000 in savings, built up over about three years working three jobs at once, funded the first store in 1984.

It paid its own way from the start. Revenue came before any outside money.

Grew store by store on its own cash flow for roughly 36 years, no outside investors, family-owned throughout, until the 2019 bankruptcy ended it.

Personal experience: a prior small business in Seoul, a retail job taken specifically to learn US merchandising, and an immigrant neighborhood he judged was underserved by cheap, fast-turning clothing.

0

Self, from wages across three jobs plus Jin Sook's income as a hairdresser. No family capital is documented on either side.

30

Opened as cheap, fast-turning clothing was becoming a mass retail category; the store nearly quadrupled the previous tenant's typical annual revenue in its first year.

Built from one leased storefront rather than acquiring an existing chain.

30

36

Apparel retail

3000000000

Journalistic estimate

2019

Wealth held almost entirely as equity in the private, family-owned company. When Forever 21 went through Chapter 11 in 2019 and its assets were sold for $81 million in February 2020 to Simon Property Group, Brookfield, and Authentic Brands Group, the family's equity was wiped out along with it. None of the peak figure was cashed out beforehand.

Built one of the largest privately held fast-fashion chains in the US, roughly 800 stores at its peak, without ever taking outside investment.

Uncapped

Sued repeatedly over design copying, by Diane von Furstenberg (2007), Anna Sui, Trovata, Mara Hoffman (three separate suits, 2012, 2013, 2017), Adidas, Gucci, Puma over the Fenty Creeper (2017), and Ariana Grande ($10M suit, 2019), among others. A lawyer for one plaintiff described the company's model in court filings as built around copying other designers' work; most suits settled rather than went to verdict.

A 2001 suit by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center on behalf of Latino garment workers, alleging sweatshop conditions and pay far below minimum wage at factories supplying Forever 21, settled in December 2004 with commitments on worker protections. In 2012 the US Labor Department subpoenaed supplier wage records after finding some workers paid as little as 12 cents per garment and 10-to-12-hour days, six or seven days a week; Forever 21 resisted the subpoena and a federal judge ordered compliance in March 2013.

During

Produced the advantage

Civil wrong

Fine absorbed

As an employer he ran a supply chain that regulators twice found paying below minimum wage under sweatshop-like conditions, and fought a federal investigation into it rather than opening the books early. His own first years in the US were low-wage and unprotected too, though not inside a factory.

Hardworking, Frugal, Devout, a notorious copycat

Press

Before

Mixed

The reputation accrued from behaviour rather than being manufactured.