SMEs ministry opens five-day Sungsu-dong pop-up for 120 small manufacturers

The SMEs ministry said Wednesday it will hold a five-day event in Seoul's Sungsu-dong from Nov. 4 to 8 to showcase 120 small manufacturers it has been pairing with the online retailers Musinsa and Oasis, closing with awards for 12 of them.

The 2026 Sogongin Digging Week combines a competition to pick stand-out makers in fashion, beauty and food with a public pop-up store, the ministry said. The event runs at Y173 on Yeonmujang 17-gil and at the former Vision Motors site on Yeonmujang 11-gil, and is expected to draw about 4,000 visitors.

Twenty-four companies have reached the main round of the audition out of the 120 in the programme — four in beauty, 10 in food and 10 in fashion. They will be judged over two days: beauty companies through a live-commerce broadcast on Nov. 4, food companies through a blind tasting, and fashion companies through a runway show of their products on Nov. 5. The 12 winners will be honoured at a ceremony on Nov. 6.

A separate pop-up store opens on Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 8 from noon to 8 p.m., with about 100 small manufacturers taking part. It is laid out as a laboratory, and visitors can join games such as shovel digging and weight-and-length guessing to receive products, samples and souvenirs worth up to 300,000 won ($224).

The programme, run with the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, pairs the manufacturers with larger retail platforms — Musinsa for fashion and beauty, Oasis for food — and supports facilities, infrastructure, new product development and consulting. It also links them to store placements on duty-free channels and a shared-growth mall, as well as to domestic and overseas promotional events and direct purchasing by retailers.

Among the participants are Plaiz, which sells hoodies and denim trousers under its GCLIP brand, and Fringz, whose KIMMY line includes a makeup puff called Baby Bottom Glow and which was named a Rising Unicorn by the ministry's strong small business programme in 2025. Sojeokdu, a food company that won top honours at the agriculture ministry's 2018 cooperation contest, sells red bean paste for shaved ice.

The ministry has budgeted 6.69 billion won ($4.99 million) for the sales-channel programme this year, supporting 220 small manufacturers. Of those, 120 are in the private-sector partnership track and 100 receive individual support.

"Global demand for Korean consumer goods is growing and opening new opportunities for our small manufacturers," said Kim Jeong-ju, the ministry's director-general for small business policy. "We will strengthen cooperation with private retail platforms that have domestic and overseas networks, and continue to expand support so that these businesses can grow quickly and become more competitive."