“There will come a day when everyone will always want to wear Hanbok anywhere with friends, families, lovers and everyone else.”
Hello, this is Sesang Park, CEO of Hanboknam.
Although I studied marine vessels in university, I am extremely interested by space re-vitalization and hence, became a professional space planner.
The beginning of my career as a space planner was back in 2009, in my alma mater Chungnam National University.
A business venture named ‘I am Gung’ was set up to re-vitalize ‘Gung-dong’, a community nearby our university campus. To revive the local economy, we initiated the operation of a shuttle bus service between the student dormitories of CNU and the business area. We also involved art and music students from the University in holding local concerts and decorating the area with murals.
With that as my first project in space-planning, I was involved in the Jeonju Hanok Village re-vitalization project in my hometown Jeonju in 2012.
At that time, the Hanok Village lacked Korean traditional cultural elements, including Korean food and its heritage as traditional Korean housing. I thought to myself, it was time to introduce Korean traditional cultural elements back into the Hanok Village by bringing in Hanbok into the formula.
We gathered around 300 volunteers, dressed them in Hanbok and initiated Hanbok Day to create a culture that wears and appreciates Hanbok. We made use of social networking websites in promoting Hanbok Day to young people in their 10s and 20s, and by 2014, the Hanbok Day festival attracted around 6,000 guests.
To further establish the idea of Hanbok as a daily outfit, I came up with the business idea of offering Hanbok rental services at reasonable prices on an hourly basis. Hanboknam was the first company in Korea to offer such services and we succeeded in creating the perfect Jeonju Hanok Village experience for visitors, with Korean traditional cultural elements like Hanbok, Korean food, photoshoots and more. Our business idea succeeded in promoting the culture of Hanbok and Jeonju Hanok Village is now commonly referred to as the ‘Hanbok Village’.
In 2016, I made a new beginning and expanded Hanboknam to Seoul, with two locations near Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village.
To Hanboknam, Seoul meant a challenge and something different than Jeonju.
With our expansion to Seoul, I was one step closer to making my dream come true: to make the Hanbok experience a must to not only local tourists of Jeonju Hanok Village, but also global tourists that visit Seoul.
Rather than an outfit that is worn at weddings and traditional festival celebrations, our goal at Hanboknam is to make Hanbok an outfit that is worn on local and international trips, on special dates with friends, when making special memories with family, in photoshoots and more.
HanbokNam will always be your guide to your Hanbok LIFE!
Profile
2009
Establishment of I Am Gung
The first-ever university student/social entrepreneur
2010
Awarded with Award from Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Knowledge Economy
Awarded with Korean Youth Special Prize
2012
Jeonju Hanok Village Re-vitalisation Project
Planning and Execution Hanbok Day Festival
2014
Initiation of the first-ever Real-time Hanbok Rental Business in Korea
2015
Establishment of Hanbok culture space HanbokNam
Selected as Outstanding Tourism Business Venture by Korea Tourism Organization
Operation of three Hanbok Rental Stores in Jeonju
2016
Selected as Outstanding Tourism Business Venture by Korea Tourism Organization
Selected as Business Model of Korea Tourism Organization Mock Investment Convention
Opening of Hanbok Rental Stores at Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul
2017
Opening of Lotte World Pop-up Hanbok Rental Store
Opening of Hanbok Rental Stores at Changgyeonggung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace and Hongdae Trick Eye
Hanbok Rental Store Andong, Jeju Island and Thailand in the making