Every brand faces this question. Take an already-built road, or cut a road that doesn't exist yet. Both are valid answers; both carry a cost.
This isn't an argument for either side. Brands have different stamina, and stamina shapes the options. But whichever you choose, knowing the cost and the opportunity of that choice going in produces a better result.
The economics of following
Following trends has a clean upside. The market has already validated the direction, so failure risk is low; references are plentiful, so production is cheap. Decisions are fast — "so-and-so is also doing this" clears the board instantly. The trade-off is smaller opportunity. Everyone stands in the same arena, so the winner is whoever has the bigger budget.
The economics of leading
Making trends is the reverse. No validation yet, so failure risk is high; no references, so production and education costs climb. Decisions are slow — you can't answer "who's done this before?" on the board. The trade-off is a much larger opening. In an arena you're standing alone in, there's no prize for second biggest budget. The new category itself becomes a brand asset.
Two cases we've seen
BBFit's "sportainer" concept was a positioning that didn't exist in Korea in 2015. We had to absorb two years of "what even is that?" reactions. After that period, competitors couldn't easily enter the category. By contrast, projects we entered after a trend had set returned stable revenue, but the brand's position barely shifted. Both are successes — of entirely different kinds.
Stamina × timing × maturity
This isn't a claim that leading is always right. A thinly capitalised brand that chooses to make trends usually runs out of stamina before the market catches up. Conversely, a brand with capital and time that only ever follows eventually gets locked into price competition. You have to read stamina × timing × market maturity at the same time.
Where we stand
YEN is structurally tilted toward the latter. Sportainer, the year-long meta-showroom, the regional music show — all of these were bets on "what doesn't exist yet." The costs were real: long upfront persuasion, budget pressure. But those projects built the portfolio and the stamina we have today. If you're deciding between the two, one thing we can tell you — the cost structures of the two paths are completely different, and switching between them mid-way makes you pay for both. Decide at the start.