In Addition To Adidas And Nike, More Sports Brands Are Entering The Chinese Market.

The Chinese market is becoming an important fulcrum of major sports brands.

Since the beginning of this year, the sports brand giants headed by Adidas and Nike have accelerated the strategic layout in the Chinese market, and many sports brands such as Under Armour, Skechers and Reebok have followed closely. In the Chinese market, they are eager to expand their market share and continuously expand their share in the Chinese market.

Adidas

In January 12th, the Adidas flagship store of Beijing road was officially opened in Guangzhou.

This is another important flagship store in the Chinese market after the three brand centers such as Shanghai Nanjing East Road, Beijing Sanlitun and Shanghai Huaihai Road. It is also the largest self store in the Southern China market in the Adidas brand.

The store has three layers of space, integrating retail stores and sports experience. The store has all kinds of football, basketball, running, training, outdoor, clover, children's clothing and so on.

In March 27th, Adidas opened its new headquarters in Asia Pacific and greater China in Xujiahui, Shanghai. The new headquarters, called Homecourt, is 21 storeys. It is the first time that Adidas has been built as a company headquarters in China for the first time. It is also a regional headquarters of Adidas group in addition to the German headquarters and North American headquarters.

In addition to opening stores, Adidas has also increased horsepower on the electricity supplier.

In February this year, Adidas announced its comprehensive strategic cooperation with Alibaba, Tmall. The two sides will conduct in-depth cooperation in new products distribution, new retail, consumer operation and new product innovation to enhance brand operation efficiency and consumer experience.

As a start, Adidas and Tmall launched the Tmall super brand day event in February 21st, and put the new Ultra BOOST running shoes on Tmall's flagship store in the world in 2019.

Adidas said that in 2019, Tmall will further deepen its cooperation with the new retail sector. Adidas will carry out a comprehensive new retail digital upgrade. It will use all channels, smart stores, shopping guides and store digitalization and other new retail scenarios to get through online and offline inventory, so as to better enhance retail efficiency and consumer experience.

Adidas2018 reported that the group gained 15% growth in the Asia Pacific region, of which the Greater China region grew by 23%.

Adidas said the Asia Pacific region is already the largest, fastest growing and most profitable market in the Asia Pacific region. At present, Adidas has nearly 1.2 stores in Greater China and plans to open another one thousand stores in 2019.

New stores will gradually sink to small and medium-sized cities, and at least one small brand center in key cities.

Nike

Nike's attention and digital input to the Chinese market is early, and this effort is clearly sustained by the performance returns from the Chinese market.

In the latest Nike earnings report, the Greater China region has maintained two digit growth for 17 consecutive quarters.

Since 2015, Nike has officially established its direct business as an important strategy for the company. Meanwhile, it has announced 50 billion revenue targets in 2020.

Since then, the proportion of Nike's direct business has been rising continuously, accounting for 26% three years ago, and 30% in fiscal 2018.

In order to cooperate with the direct marketing strategy, Nike has opened more direct stores in China, and has established a website for dialogue with consumers online.

In October last year, Nike's first Shanghai Nike 001, which was based on the concept of House of Innovation, was officially opened. The cross flagship store has four layers of space, with 3822 square meters of floor space and integrated digital and offline services. This is also a gathering place for Nike's global innovation product technology, leading design style and immersion experience.

Nike said that the group's direct business in the Chinese market has performed well and will continue to accelerate Nike's digital pformation in key markets.

With the integration of digital and offline retail services, the integration of digital and physical retail in retail sector is crucial to providing a seamless personalized consumer experience. Nike leads retail and sports innovation, and is also redefining the future of sports retailing.

Skechers

At the beginning of this year, American sports leisure brand Skechers Cage opened the biggest shop in China in Shenyang.

The area of the shop is 2982 square meters, which is divided into several exclusive product areas, including D 'Lites, Lifestyle, Performance, Kids, etc.

This is a new channel for Skechers to deepen the two or three line market in China.

At the end of December last year, Skechers announced its strategic cooperation with Jin Lang sports to force Sichuan and Chongqing to further deepen the three or four line market.

A series of market moves show that the US brand has adjusted the market strategy of rapid expansion in the early stage, putting the strategic emphasis on the deep development of China's two or three line regional market.

Under Armour

Under Armour Andrew's ambitions for the Chinese market have also been reflected in recent actions.

Under Armour has opened about 700 exclusive brand stores and partners in Asia, most of which are located in the mainland of China.

Meanwhile, Under Armour plans to set up a regional headquarters for Asian market in Hongkong in 2019. By the end of 2023, the number of stores in Asia will grow to 1900, and the Chinese market is the main goal.

According to Under Armour's latest earnings report, despite the poor performance of the brand in the North American market, a 6% decline in the chain and a total revenue of $965 million, its overseas market surged by 24% to a total of $395 million, of which the Asian market grew by 35%.

Reebok

Over the past time, Reebok Reebok has been investing more in China.

Last year, Reebok set up an Asian creative center in Shanghai. Its core goal is to develop local products for the Chinese market. Reebok said it must speed up its understanding of Asia, especially the Chinese market.

In March 27th, Reebok held the 2019 Shanghai fashion week autumn and winter show for the first time in the Chinese market. With the theme of "The Other Side dare do exceptions", it displayed the series including Reebok Sole Fury, InstaPump Fury, Aztrek and Winter Winter.

At the same time, in the Tmall platform synchronized spring and summer 2019 "see buy" special series, can be directly purchased at the show.

In addition, Reebok will join hands with China's new designers to create exclusive limited footwear.

Mizuno

In the face of the booming Chinese market, Mizuno, a Japanese sports brand that has been in a low profile for a long time, has finally been unable to sit still. In this year, a substantial new step has been taken in the year of.

In March 11th, Mizuno announced its strategic cooperation with Shanghai Mei Jin Sports Co., Ltd., and will establish long-term cooperative relations in China.

Its rights include Mizuno's sales authorization for football, running, indoor sports and leisure products in China, and the design, development and production cooperation with Chinese consumers for leisure products.

At present, there are only 90 outlets of Mizuno brand in China and 30 franchisees.

In the next three years, the development strategy of Mizuno in China includes developing three kinds of products, including running, football and indoor. It will play a special role in three aspects: online, offline and professional channels, and finally complete the target of 500 stores in three years.

At the same time, Mizuno plans to increase the proportion of leisure products. After three years, the target is 50%.

New market competition

It can be said that the Chinese market is becoming the biggest bright spot in the earnings report of the major sports brands and the powerful growth engine of brand performance.

From the initial hesitation to the active attitude, more and more sports brands, including Nike and Adidas, including Under Armour, Skechers, Reebok and so on, are stepping up their horsepower into the Chinese market. They are eager to get a slice of this huge cake and expand the market share of the new blood market that is sprayed up by the two blood vessels.

New battlefield, new game.

The Chinese market is undoubtedly becoming an important fulcrum of major sports brands.

With the increasing number of sports brands entering the Chinese market, it is not hard to imagine that next, there will be a fierce competition among sports brands, but there are many interesting competitions and competitions.

From the new strategic trend of the major international brands, expanding the stores, upgrading digitalization and increasing the number of electricity suppliers will undoubtedly become the new force of brand this year, and the new retail mode has become the focus of wrestling.

In the face of fiercely fierce competition in e-commerce and the increasingly hot trend of digitalization, in order to gain growth, attract more young consumers, embrace the digital market, explore the development of e-commerce, and communicate with consumers through digital media, reconstruction of the communication and dialogue mode between brands and consumers is obviously a top priority for sports brands.

But for the Chinese market, whether it is to open the electronic business platform, expand the offline stores, find the star ambassadors suitable for the brand, or formulate the digital strategy of the brand, in the market competition, the brands need to think about how to keep pace with the times, how to adjust measures to local conditions, how to better integrate the brand with the localization of China, adapt to the market environment of China, and make effective and effective changes in response to the changing needs and expectations of consumers.

Author: Chen Jing