XTEP Introduces Mai Le And San Kang Ni Brand In China, Vows To Become The First Brand Of Domestic Running Shoes.

Local fashion sporting goods company XTEP International Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as XTEP International) announced in March 4th that the wholly owned subsidiary of the company, XtepHoldco and Wolverine, wholly established a joint venture agreement to develop, sell and distribute footwear, clothing and accessories in the mainland of China, the Hongkong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region (Merrell) and Saucony (St. John's) brand.

The initial agreement for XtepHoldco and joint venture partners to pay to the joint venture company is about 155 million yuan.

Founded in 1898, Saucony is one of the world's top four running shoes brands. It is also known as NewBalance, Brooks and Asics, and even has the name "Rolls-Royce" in running shoes.

The launch of GRID in 1981 has been considered as a midsole technology system that provides both slow and stable functions.

The brand was bought into WolverineWorldWide in 2012.

MERRELL is a leading brand of high-performance mountaineering shoes. It was founded in 1981. Since 1997, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of WolverineWorldWide, a footwear giant.

XTEP said that with the strong momentum and booming market demand of China's running and outdoor sporting goods sector, the joint venture will use XTEP's retail network and its close relationship with shopping center operators to launch Merrell and Saucony brands, outdoor and running shoes, clothing and accessories in mainland China, Hongkong SAR and Macao SAR.

Most of the new stores will be opened in shopping centres in the mainland's higher tier cities and expand their business bases in the Hongkong Special Administrative Region and the Macao special economic zone.

Public information shows that XTEP international was founded in 2002, and is the first line sport brand in China. The market share in the 2008-2017 years ranked 10 in the domestic market.

In 2015, the company rebuilt its brand and changed its position from the fashion sports brand to the sports fashion brand. With the goal of becoming the preferred brand of runners, the two major products of the professional sports and sports life centered on running were formed. The products cover 4 major sports fields: running, comprehensive training, basket ball and football.

It is understood that XTEP sports resources focus on the field of running, entertainment and marketing resources are excellent, especially in sports marketing, XTEP sports resources to marathon events tilt, in 2017 sponsored a total of 40 running events, the total number of participants exceeded 670 thousand.

In March 2017, XTEP International launched the first exclusive research center for running in China. At present, there are more than 40 research teams, covering sports science, design, structural engineering, fabric and sole chemistry.

The R & D center has three dimensional dynamometer, 3D motion capture system, foot pressure insole, high-speed camera and other precision instruments. It covers 6 types of racetracks, including the world's top runway, mondo and conventional plastic racetrack. The movie "Afanda" uses high speed cameras to iterate products and infrared analyzers, and obtains the data of running gait, joint force and shock absorption.

In 2017, XTEP international changed its traditional way of dividing products by technology. It divided the running shoes according to the needs of runners into three major products, namely, racing, running, running and comfortable running, which respectively met the needs of marathon runner, regular runner and entry-level runner.

Six core technology platforms, namely cool dry technology, ice release technology, thermal energy technology, XTEP-SHIELD, XTEP-COMFORT and XTEPSTRONGER, are designed to meet the needs of runners for different weather conditions.

Compared with the main selling price of the main sports brand's running shoes, the selling price of XTEP's 379 yuan / double power nesting running shoes is the lowest.

From the price of Tmall's highest monthly running shoes, XTEP's running shoes are still lower than those of other industries.

According to data from Yuet Wan, XTEP's top 3 marathon runner in the three marathon events in 2017 ranked first in the domestic market share in the running shoes list.

In 2018, the Chongqing marathon and the 2017 Beijing marathon and the Guangzhou marathon running shoes list ranked fourth of all sports brands. What's more noteworthy is that in 2018, XTEP international independently developed the "shock-absorbing swirl" of the running shoes, the vamp was made of elastic breathable weave, combined with the hollow swirling middle sole design, so that the running shoes had three characteristics: breathability, good shock absorption, resilience and lightness.

At the end of 3 2018, XTEP International released the 321 Running Festival evening star, the star shock absorber and upper leg photos, and the first exposure flow of running shoes by running Festival heat and star effect. After that, the video and GIF creative posters were shown to highlight the highlights and increase the endorsement of product technology.

With excellent product design and special market publicity, the "shock absorber" has exceeded 1 million pairs of sales since it was launched in March, and became the star product of 2002 after sales of "wind and fire shoes".

In the first half of 2018, XTEP international changed the way of dividing sports life products from three types of products: age, product, and style.

As consumers become more individualized in fashion, each series caters to the wider needs of consumers in different age groups.

In addition, in the aspect of new product design, XTEP international has continued to strengthen cooperation with celebrities and well-known IP. It has launched Zhao Liying, Lin update, Jiro Wang, Nicholas Tse, lohua seven sub NEXT products, cross-border cooperation SIMLEY, China new rap and other IP to launch joint products, and continue to create consumer spending hotspots.

The data obtained by reporters showed that in the first half of 2018, XTEP international achieved 2 billion 729 million yuan in business revenue, an increase of 18.1% over the same period, of which the contribution of clothing products increased, an increase of 1.6 percentage points over the same period last year.

The gross profit margin of the company was 43.7%, down 0.2 percentage points over the same period last year. The reason is that the order quantity of the replenishment order exceeds expected, leading to a 1.5 percentage point decline in the gross profit margin of clothing products.

The net profit from the same period returned to 380 million yuan, an increase of 20.9% over the same period.

In terms of retail terminals, the number of XTEP stores reached 6035 in the first half of 2018, a net increase of 35 compared with the end of 2017.

The same store sales grew well, reaching the double-digit growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2013.

As of June 30, 2018, XTEP refurbished about 65% of its stores, and the sales of newly decorated shops increased by more than 10% per square meter.

The total number of exclusive agents is still 40, and the number of outlets operated by them is about 60%, which is the best proportion expected by XTEP.

In the short term, XTEP international has undergone three years of pformation and pformation of strategy and channel, and its performance growth and quality has gradually recovered, and the performance base of the 2017 one-time repurchase stock has been increased. There is no room for short-term performance growth. In the long run, China's sports market space and per capita sports shoes and clothing consumption still have much room for improvement. The market for sports shoes and clothing is highly concentrated. Domestic and foreign leading brands have obvious "crowding out effect" on small and medium-sized brands. Overseas brands Adidas, Nike, domestic brands Anta, Lining, XTEP, and 360 degree sports brands are developing steadily. XTEP relies on product technology, brand and marketing advantages in the field of running shoes, which is expected to further consolidate the first brand position of domestic running shoes, and will open new growth space with the future multi brand layout. Founder Securities analyst Feng Yi said.