In 1986, then 26-year-old Cheng Kun founded Oujin Enterprise with several million in capital to establish ATUNAS, vowing to become Taiwan’s leading outdoor leisure brand. Today, he has not only achieved that goal but also invested NT$30 million between 2006 and 2009 to organize an expedition team that successfully summited the highest peaks on all seven continents, setting multiple world records and writing a historic chapter for ATUNAS.
“Only by shaping a professional brand image can a company find sustainable development goals.” This belief took root in Cheng Kun’s mind early on, so even though his father’s Shinwang Industry had a strong foundation, he insisted on carving out his own path in his own way.
Starting from the ground up—forging his own path
From childhood, Cheng Kun accompanied his outdoors-loving father, who enjoyed “conquering mountains and seas,” fostering his love for forests and wilderness. In middle school, he often gathered friends for camping trips; in high school, he went hiking and even once got lost overnight in the mountains—yet his passion for nature never waned. He would often joke about an anecdote from his infancy: “I’d just been born, my umbilical cord had barely fallen off, and my father already put me in a nearby stream to learn how to swim.” So when he later founded ATUNAS, a brand dedicated to comprehensive outdoor leisure products, combining his interests with business felt far beyond a typical job—it wasn’t just about earning money.
Therefore, despite everyone expecting him to naturally take over the family business, Cheng Kun chose instead to earn just NT$200 a day hauling templates and bricks at construction sites. He also worked as a door-to-door watch salesman. Even at 23, when he joined Shinwang Industry, he started as a temporary worker, working through roles like warehouse staff, delivery driver, and product developer. Few knew that the man often dragging and tying sponges was actually the chairman’s son.
Still, he had long made up his mind: start from the bottom and steadily build his own enterprise.
When he recognized the vast business potential of outdoor activities, the idea of “building a brand and establishing a professional corporate image” began to take shape in his mind.
He was the first at Shinwang Industry to propose a corporate transformation—shifting from OEM manufacturing to becoming a brand with a professional image.
“Without brand image support, a business is easily affected by market prices. Building a brand requires long-term cultivation of its image and designing products based on consumer preferences—complex processes—but once established, it earns consumer recognition, affinity, and loyalty, turning them into brand advocates.”
To reinforce his point, Cheng Kun spent over eight months conducting an exhaustive client-visiting campaign, calling on more than 1,500 locations across Taiwan. After each visit, he mailed a thank-you postcard. His sincere approach secured many orders, with an impressive 1.4:1 success rate per visit, bolstering his confidence in building the ATUNAS brand.
Founding His Own Company and Building the Brand
However, the sudden increase in advertising and marketing expenses sparked internal opposition. Although revenue grew to NT$7.32 million, over half was spent on marketing. Cheng Kun recalled facing skepticism from shareholders: despite his strong advocacy for branding and the importance of marketing, some questioned why they should invest in branding when OEM exports spent less than NT$1 million annually on marketing yet yielded higher profits.
Under these circumstances, Cheng Kun partnered with a few like-minded friends to co-found Oujin Enterprise.
To boost visibility and promote products, Cheng Kun first provided life jackets from ATUNAS to popular rafting operators on the Xiuguluan River in Hualien, quickly capturing nearly 80% of the local market and establishing strong word-of-mouth for the brand, which led to numerous business opportunities.
Beyond that, trials and long-term sponsorships by leaders of hiking, swimming, and sailing clubs helped spread awareness from the top down, rapidly expanding ATUNAS’s retail presence. Hosting various outdoor events, such as surfing competitions, further cemented ATUNAS’s professional brand image.
Organizing a world-class expedition team to tackle mountaineering extremes, elevating Taiwan’s global presence, and proving the capabilities of Taiwanese people… this vision had long been in Cheng Kun’s mind. Especially witnessing international climbers achieving historic milestones on world peaks while Taiwan remained on the sidelines, he silently resolved that once ATUNAS was strong enough, he would make this dream a reality—for himself, for the company, and for the aspirations of the Taiwanese people.
With this grand vision, Cheng Kun led the ATUNAS team forward relentlessly. Their outstanding achievements eventually won the support of the elder generation, and in 2000, Shinwang Industry officially merged with Cheng Kun’s Oujin Enterprise. Despite facing price wars and market contraction, ATUNAS maintained stable pricing thanks to its superior quality and strong brand image. Internally, the company actively restructured and diagnosed its operations to ensure optimal use of resources and manpower.
Project Green Earth Expedition—Forging Professionalism
Finally, at ATUNAS’s 30th-anniversary celebration in 2005, Cheng Kun felt the time was right. He announced boldly: “We’re going for the Seven Summits!” In 2006, ATUNAS officially unveiled the climbing plan, recruiting six elite Taiwanese mountaineers. Through professional training and full support, the project aimed to achieve the first Taiwanese team to summit the highest peaks on all seven continents. At the time, over 2,200 climbers worldwide had conquered Mount Everest, including five Taiwanese, but fewer than 100 had completed the Seven Summits, with Taiwan having none.
Moreover, to prove he was more than just a sponsor, Cheng Kun joined the 2006 expedition to Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus. Despite suffering a crushing injury at age 39—requiring a three-month leg cast that ruled out intense activity—and despite Elbrus having 15–30 climbing deaths annually (higher than Everest), including a Ukrainian team suffering two fatalities and one critical injury the day before, and a French climber dying suddenly on the mountain that very day, Cheng Kun still pushed forward with the team to reach the summit, completing his own personal climbing milestone.
“Achieving one record is only the beginning.” After the team accomplished this feat for Taiwan and for ATUNAS, even more challenging tasks lay ahead: a new expedition targeting the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters, and a domestic campaign on October 10, 2011 (Taiwan’s Centennial), mobilizing 100,000 people to climb smaller peaks.
Cheng Kun stated that these events not only fostered a stronger sense of identity with Taiwan but also expanded the outdoor community while reinforcing ATUNAS’s professional brand image.
Thus, future initiatives under the “ATUNAS Green Earth Expedition” series will further sharpen the brand’s identity, ensuring consumers think of ATUNAS first when meeting diverse outdoor needs.