Li Gong is the founder and creative director of 8ON8, the label he launched in 2017 after graduating with distinction from the MA Menswear program at Central Saint Martins, where he received the Grand Prix LVMH Scholarship.

The brand has developed one of Chinese menswear's more distinctive visual worlds, built around Gong's retro-futurist point of view: contemporary sportswear, saturated vintage color, sharp tailoring and a deliberately offbeat sense of nostalgia. His graduation collection drew praise from Vogue critic Sarah Mower and The Business of Fashion, and 8ON8 went on to win Best Emerging Designer Brand at Shanghai Fashion Week in 2018.

Collaboration has expanded that world internationally. The label has worked with ASICS since 2020, launched a global collection with CANALI in 2021 and an APAC capsule with GAP in 2023. Gong was also named to the Vogue Business 100 Innovators in 2023 and was a finalist for the Amiri Prize the same year.