Ding Zhizhong: I Want To Build Sports Shoes That Chinese People Can Afford.

Ding Zhizhong, who was born in the seaside town of Chai Tai in Fujian Province, is the biggest wish since his childhood to go to the capital Beijing.

In 1987, he was 17 years old.

Holding 10 thousand yuan, Ding Zhizhong traveled to all the shoe factories in the town, picked out 600 pairs of shoes he thought best to sell, took a car to Fuzhou, and then bought a train ticket to Beijing for 48 yuan.

4 years later, Ding Zhizhong returned home with his father and brother to create the "Anta" brand.

Now, as chairman and CEO of Anta group, Ding Zhizhong is proud to say: "Anta has the market share in the first three consecutive years in the share of sporting goods in China. Sportswear occupies the first place."

From the shoe dealers who rush to the capital and the leaders of China's sporting goods industry today, Ding Zhizhong's life path reflects the changes of China's sports business environment.

In 2008, the Communist Youth League of Fujian province elected Ding Zhizhong as the torch bearer. As a representative of the footwear enterprises in Jinjiang, Ding Zhizhong took part in the torch relay in Quanzhou in May 12th.

When I graduated from junior high school, I hope to go up to Beijing. My family didn't approve of my idea at first. My father asked me why I went to Beijing.

I thought at that time, in 1980s, every foreigner took money to buy things in Jinjiang, almost everything could be sold. Why don't we take the initiative to sell Jinjiang's products?

At that time, my father's own shoe factory was just beginning, and his family was not well-off.

But my father persuaded me, and he took out 10 thousand yuan to let me buy more than 600 pairs of shoelaces for sale in Beijing.

I never thought: what should I do if these shoes are not sold?

Because at that time I was determined to cross out.

In 1987, China was in the pition from a planned economy to a market economy.

The demand for goods in the whole Chinese market is enormous, although the products of the Jinjiang department are not yet brand, but they are also selling hot in the market.

When I first arrived in Beijing, I only sold shoes in shoe city and wholesale market.

But in order to put our Jinjiang products into the Xidan shopping mall, I began to play a key role in the shopping malls.

They didn't agree at first and asked me, "how old are you?"

Come and do business. "

I said I was 20 years old, and even though they did not believe in my age, I finally promised to go to Jinjiang to see it in person.

After that, all the shopping malls in Beijing were put on Jinjiang shoes, including the Wangfujing shopping mall in Beijing. At that time, it was called Beijing's most authoritative and the most difficult sales channel.

Brand impulse in those days, the shoes I brought to Beijing were called tourist shoes.

China did not have the concept of real sports shoes at that time.

However, Nike's early shoe factory has already been set up in Quanzhou.

In 1989, the domestic political situation underwent subtle changes.

Nike also became the first foreign company to withdraw, but he left Quanzhou with the technological basis and atmosphere for making sports shoes.

In 1991, I founded the "Anta" brand with my father and brother.

Because of the changing market environment, we are beginning to realize the importance of product brand.

In 1984, Jianlibao brand sponsored the Chinese delegation to participate in the Losangeles Olympic Games.

So we chose the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Looking back on history, if there is no original choice, there may be no Anta today.

Anta in 2000, we have no strong strength to participate in the sponsorship of the Olympic Games.

But the advertising cost was not as high as it is today.

We invested 6 million yuan, and asked Kong Linghui to be the spokesperson of Anta and play the advertisement in CCTV.

The 6 million is the profit of the company at that time.

After careful calculation, all our shoes are made by hand. We need to sell 600 thousand pairs of shoes for each pair of 10 yuan profit and 6 million yuan advertising fee.

At that time, my state of mind was that enterprises had risks in making big decisions.

Now, I think I choose the right thing to do at the right time.

I did it, and I succeeded.

Recently, sports brand has been exploring the operation mode of light assets.

Like Nike and Adidas, they do not have their own factories and are born solely for brands.

But I have calculated that there are no more than two enterprises in China.

Most Chinese sports brands have their own factories, because our national brands so far have relatively low added value relative to the international brand value.

This requires a unique Chinese model.

I remember when I was in the United States, a reporter asked me, Taiwan has the largest sports shoe factory in the world. They make shoes factories alone and get more than 10% net profit each year. What is the situation in mainland China?

I saw that the factory not only brought profits to us, but also brought about a rapid reaction mechanism.

Anta has covered all aspects of the sports shoes industry chain, which is the main reason why Anta can maintain 15% net profit.

In 2007, Anta went public in Hongkong.

When I went to the global roadshow, hundreds of investors were discussing with me. What exactly is China's business model?

What is the core of Anta mode?

From capacity to brand, and from brand to capacity, the two interlaced each other, rolling Anta up.

Personally, I think foreigners invest in the growth rate of Anta.

Foreign brands now have a peak value of 20%, but Anta can reach 50% or even higher.

They have been "buying" our net interest rate and growth rate.

For Anta, we should also seize a trend -- the trend of the national movement after the Olympic Games.

What we need to do is to create sports shoes that people can afford.