The co-founder, chairman and CEO of fashion retail powerhouse IT, Sham Kar Wai has built the company from a single store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district into a global powerhouse. He founded the company with his brother Sham Kin Wai in 1988, when he was 21, to stock overseas brands that were hard to find in Hong Kong. It soon developed a powerful cult following among the city’s youth, with eye catching store design and an innovative line-up of brands.

It now has a range of in-house labels, of which the best known is Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape, which it bought in 2011; and has also developed its own brands, including 5cm and Izzue, and licensed others, mainly from Japan and Europe. In addition to its stores, it operates outlets for overseas labels, including Off-White, Junya Watanabe, and Comme des Garçons.

Starting in the early 2000s, it expanded beyond Hong Kong, and now has an extensive presence in mainland China, including a department store partnership with legendary French retailer Galeries Lafayette.