Before liberation, Shengxifu was headquartered in Tianjin, and its founder Liu Xisan, whose real name was Zhan En, was born in sha he, Yexian County, Shandong Province (now Laizhou, Shandong Province). His family has been farming for generations. He studied for a few years as a child, but later dropped out of school because of his poor family, so he helped his father to work in the fields. One year, his hometown was affected by the disaster, and the farmland failed, and the villagers made a living everywhere. He also left home to do odd jobs in a restaurant run by foreigners in Qingdao. He is diligent and studious, and he learned some daily English in the restaurant because he often deals with foreigners. Soon, Liu Xisan left the hotel and worked as a salesman in a foreign firm, responsible for buying straw hats in the countryside. Straw hat braids are used to make straw hats. Foreign firms collect them, transport them abroad to make straw hats and sell them back to China for high profits.
Liu Xisan worked in a foreign firm for several years, and he knew clearly about the quality, variety and origin of straw hats, as well as the production of straw hats, so he wanted to do it himself. China people's money, why let foreigners earn it? In the next few years, he scrimped and saved a sum of money. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), he and his friends set up a joint venture to open Shengjufu Xiaomao Store in Tianjin Guyi Street. After the opening of the store, the business is very prosperous and profitable every year. Later, Liu broke up with his friends because of a conflict with the East Gang. In this way, Sheng Jufu's business was divided into Liu Xisan's hands, and he was determined to make it bigger. He got a considerable loan from the Southeast Bank, and chose a good store site on No.21 Road in the French Concession in Tianjin, and changed Sheng Jufu to Shengxifu, which reopened in the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917).
Liu Xisan named the factory name "Sheng" for the hope of flourishing business, "Xi" for the middle of Liu Xisan's name, and "Fu" because Liu Xisan's name is "Laifu", which means to wish good luck. The trademark is under the word Shengxifu, which is connected into a ring with grass. The three hats in the middle are in the shape of a "pin", and the word "three hats trademark" is below. From top to bottom, it is just the word "tin three". The name of the factory and the trademark are exactly the name of Xisan. The general meaning is that the Shengxifu founded by Xisan and the "Three Hats" brand hat made by Xisan are prosperous, so that his name will last forever with Maozhuang.
Liu Xisan, with his courage and boldness, realized that advanced technology and equipment were necessary to make Shengxifu's hats superior. Therefore, he did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to import a full set of electric felt hat making equipment from abroad, and hired hat making technicians to specialize in the design of new styles and strict quality control, making Shengxifu a large hat factory with first-class advanced technology and equipment in the domestic hat making industry. Liu Xisan, considering that his products should not only take the lead in China, but also enter the international market, sent his big apprentice to Japan to study and master the latest technology, which made Shengxifu even more powerful. In less than a few years, he added eight or nine professional factories, such as fur hat factory, casual hat factory and satin hat factory. At the international exposition held in the Philippines in 1929, Shengxifu's straw braid and straw hat won the first prize, ranking first in the straw hat industry in East Asia.