YG Entertainment‘s CEO Yang Hyun Suk spoke up about WINNER‘s delayed debut at the boy group’s debut album launching show held on August 6 at the Conrad Hotel.

After the successful airing of the competition show “WIN: Who Is Next,” contrary to the initial promises of debuting the winning group right after the completion of the show, Yang Hyun Suk pushed back WINNER’s debut until now.

He said, “We needed time to make sure that we created a boy group different from BIGBANG. WINNER is our first boy group in nine years, after BIGBANG. When you are debuting a new boy group, you need time to make sure that they are not similar to their predecessors. We thought that this would factor into the group’s success.”

He went on to add, “We were planning on debuting them right after the show, but we had many concerns. Concerns like what kind of image they should have, and how to distinguish them from BIGBANG. It took one year for them to find their own style.”

He also talked about WINNER’s launching show concept, saying, “Different from YG’s other groups, since members of WINNER are all so tall and skinny, we decided on a model concept for the launching show.”

WINNER will be releasing their debut album “2014 S/S” on August 12.