Though lifestyle purchases are still considered pricey - whether it be an up-to-the-minute t-shirt, or concert tickets to see the latest band - young people have yet to put away their pocketbooks, and Eno is successfully targeting this market by utilizing young Chinese artists to create t-shirt and apparel designs for their own demographic.

While most apparel businesses work from the top down, dictating the types of designs they want artists to create, Eno works from the bottom up, relying on their team to produce designs that will speak to their core market. And it’s working. Eno boasts stores and franchises in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Chongqing, with business growing between 30 and 40 percent in the past year alone. Retail sales in 2008 hit US$ 1 million. The company’s rapid rise and new ideas landed it on Fast Company’s recent Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in China list.

Though alternative culture in China still largely resides under the mainstream radar, young people increasingly want to look, dress and act differently, says Renee Hartmann, co-founder of Eno. Chinese youth are dying their hair, getting tattoos and piercings, and are looking for brands that reflect their personalities and make them stand out in a crowd of 1.3 billion. “Art and music are relevant to young kids today and what they’re doing,” she says.

But though China’s alternative arts scene is growing, issues in dealing with factories, quality, distribution and sales in China’s underdeveloped retail market can hinder designers from striking out on their own, says Hartmann. In developed markets independent designers can drum up business for themselves by selling to small boutiques and shops. “But in China it’s really hard to grow that way,” she says. “There just aren’t that many sales channels open to you.”

Eno’s success comes from providing the much-needed link between the creative community and commerce. The commercial space is unexplored territory for many young creative talents, and in the case of alternative art, the market itself is new. Artists are working with a blank slate, with no idea of how to negotiate rates, or even what things should cost. Brands, on the other hand, aren’t clear on how to approach and deal with the youth demographic. Eno is also mining its access to China’s hipster scene with a side consulting business, that counts Coca-Cola, New Balance, Kraft, Unilever, and Ticketmaster among its clients.

For Eno, ensuring a unified portrayal of its brand throughout its franchise stores is key to its successful expansion. Opening franchise stores is a calculated risk. Franchise owners generally don’t pay fees to the parent company for franchise stores, and the parent company has little control over the day-to-day operations of the franchise. This makes careful selection of franchise owners, who will be perpetuating a brand image throughout the country, a crucial choice, says Hartmann. For Eno, having franchise owners who “get it” is more important than previous business experience. At least one franchise owner was only a recent university graduate when he opened an Eno franchise.

But though finding physical places to sell products and the right people to run stores are major challenges, perhaps even more so is consolidating a nascent and sporadic interest in alternative arts into a solid market base. Successful enterprises need to nurture an interest in alternative arts, essentially developing their own market. To do this, Eno incorporates elements of grassroots growth. The chain’s flagship store in Shanghai is also used as a performance venue for local bands and other events that link Eno with the alternative scene and boost its presence in the community.

As China continues to develop, so will its alternative markets, and opportunities for business growth. “The whole world looks at China as a copycat nation,” says Hartmann. “But really there are some interesting and creative people here, and there’s not always an outlet for that to be shown.”

But for now, thanks to Eno, there is.

Laura Fitch is a Beijing-based freelance writer and photographer. She has lived and worked in Japan and China for almost a decade, writing stories that cover everything from F1 racing and pop culture comic illustrators to business and politics.