Outdoor Sports Industry: The Market That Has Not Been Reclaimed Is Going To Be Good.

stay

After nearly 10 years of rapid growth, the traditional sports industry suddenly encountered a cold winter in 2011.

The Anta financial bulletin, which has just taken the first place in the local brand, shows that the growth rate of same store sales in the first quarter has slowed to the number of units in the two quarter, while the growth rate of orders in the second quarter of 2012 is only "low unit number growth". In the second quarter of 2012, the order size is only "flat" in the second quarter of the year. In the other two years, the eye-catching star enterprise PEAK has increased 9.5% orders in the second quarter compared with the same quarter in 2011. This is the lowest increase in PEAK's orders since 2009.

Just as the local traditional sports brand collectively falls into a downturn, the outdoor sports market is another scene.

According to the statistics of outdoor products branch of China Textile Business Association, the total retail sales of outdoor products in China reached 7 billion 130 million yuan in 2010, an increase of about 47% over 2009.

From 2000 to 2010, the annual growth rate of the total retail sales of China's outdoor products market reached over 47%.

An insider, who declined to be named, told reporters that the statistics were too conservative. At present, the actual outdoor market has been at least over ten billion.

Mainland's largest outdoor brand Pathfinder last year's revenue reached 434 million yuan, an increase of 47.86% over the same period, with a profit of 64 million, an increase of 24.12% over the same period last year.

In the first three quarters of this year, the revenue of Pathfinder reached 430 million yuan, an increase of 68.77% over the same period last year, and the profit increased by 76.55%, reaching 53 million 800 thousand yuan.

According to industry sources, the annual growth rate of TheNorthFace and Columbia in the domestic market is over 70%.

Just as sports brands collectively spend the winter, outdoor brands are greeted by warm spring.

Although the outdoor sports industry has maintained a high growth rate of 40% over the long term, due to the relatively small scale of the industry and the annual growth of the mainstream traditional sports industry over the past five years, the minority outdoor sports industry has not received enough attention. Many people still do not notice this "gold mine" if the local traditional sports brands are suffering from growing pains this year.

At present, capital and talent are pouring into this booming market.

This year, three important mergers and acquisitions have occurred in the outdoor sports industry. First of all, in June, the VF group, which owns TheNorthFace, spent 2 billion 300 million US dollars to acquire the famous mountaineering brand Timberland. Then in July, Private Equity Investment Firm Blackstone Group acquired the largest outdoor brand wolf claw (JackWolfskin) in Germany at the price of 700 million euro yuan. In November, Adidas bought the professional rock climbing brand FiveTen at the price of 25 million dollars, showing its ambition in the outdoor field.

In the capital market, the outdoor concept stock has also been sought after. Since January 2009, the stock price of VF group has not increased to US $60 to today's US $120.

Since the announcement of Timberland in June this year, the company's share price has risen by more than 20 US dollars.

The share price of Columbia, another leader company, has also increased by nearly 50% over the past two years.

The bright future of the market has also attracted a large influx of talents from traditional sports industry.

A person who has just left the Li Ning Co has told reporters that Lining, who is currently in the position of an internationally renowned outdoor brand, is now facing a huge concussion. Many employees choose outdoor brand instead of traditional sports brand as a new starting point for their career.

However, despite 10 years of rapid growth, the development level of the whole industry is still very low, and it is not too much to describe it as a wasteland that needs to be reclaimed.

The number of TheNorthFace and Columbia sales in China is about 1 billion yuan, and the number third Pathfinder is expected to achieve 700 million yuan this year, and 4 to 10 are almost four hundred million or five hundred million at the same time, and the gap between them is very small.

Generally speaking, the outdoor market is far from the traditional industry structure, so the industry's first camp and the two or three camps have not really opened up. The whole market is still a blue ocean, full of variables.

"Now everyone thinks of how to be himself, not how to beat others."

Xiao Ke, director of a well-known outdoor brand product, told reporters that "each brand has 10 steps against each other. There is no need to jump over to provoke others."

Different ways of playing

This is a new field. The pattern of forces and rules of the game in the traditional sports industry are thoroughly here.

The jackets of the original birds can be sold for 20 thousand yuan, but they still sell well. Adidas has a $1200 assault suit, but no one buys it.

Xiao Ke said, at present, the domestic outdoor market, especially the high-end consumer group, does not care about the price at all. "The higher the price, the better the sale."

Adidas has been making efforts in outdoor areas this year. In addition to its acquisition of FiveTen, it has also vigorously promoted the outdoor TERREX series of its brand. In early September, Adidas's first outdoor product franchise store in Harbin was located in China.

But in Xiao Ke's view, Adidas's path is not right at present.

"Adidas is good at providing products with high cost performance, but in the current outdoor market, this direction is wrong. What consumers are concerned now is that products should be cool enough and professional enough."

Xiao Ke said.

Just copying the experience of traditional sports industry can not play in outdoor areas.

The popularity of high-end outdoor sports products, which are expensive, is actually the inevitable result of further segmentation of the traditional sports industry.

For the high-end consumer groups in China, the high-end brand Nike and Adidas in the traditional sports industry are far from meeting their consumption needs.

On the price of products, the price of Nike's most expensive footwear LeBron9 basketball shoes is only 1599 yuan, while the average price of professional grade outdoor shoes is around 1500 yuan, and the price of high-end products can easily exceed 2000.

German hiking brand Lowa's MOUNTAINEXPERT hiking shoes cost up to 3480 yuan. Even with such a high price, this product is still very popular in the market.

For many consumers of outdoor products in China, it is urgent to use outdoor sports products to separate themselves from the mass consumer groups to prove their identity, and high-end outdoor sports products are becoming new luxuries.

An industry insider told reporters that many people buy outdoor products for the purpose of not having professional sports needs, just to show off their wealth.

At present, only two to 30% of the consumers who buy professional outdoor products aim at outdoor sports.

For the vast majority of consumers, the outdoor products have far more functional characteristics than their actual needs. This also makes the outdoor sports industry do not need to launch a large number of new products every year, just like traditional industries.