Why Do Lining'S Running Shoes Sell For 2099?

In September 2019, Li Ning Co held a racing running shoe conference in Shenzhen. It is rare that both the founder Lining and the new joint CEO Qian Wei attended the new platform.

The main theme of the conference is two pairs of top pair of running shoes, namely "flying power" and "Tianma", which aim at the professional marathon race. They carry the latest "Lining?" (b ng ng) flick technology platform, priced at 2099 yuan and $1299 respectively, creating a new high price for domestic running shoes.

For the 10 billion scale Lining brand, the new running shoes are not just a product, but a professional pursuit of a domestic brand. After the "Lining China" detonated the scenery of the country, the company did not rush towards the direction of the trend.

One

And the pinnacle

The motive force for building a new platform is rooted in the deep-rooted spirit of sport.

In 2016, the Chinese running boom has become a common practice. The business scale of Lining's running shoes has increased rapidly. From 2014 to 2017, the annual compound growth rate of running categories reached 34%.

Rao is so, the team's heart is still holding a breath, the heart is unwilling: international brands occupy the high-end market, most domestic brands can only say "cost-effective."

"Users draw a line to the domestic brands psychologically. Why do we have to be cheaper than international brands? Why do the foreign countries have a better moon than China?" asked Li Dan, director of the running shoes of Lining group.

At that time, Lining had been acting CEO for over a year, and the founder of the athlete came into charge of his daily operation. His vision of mission became increasingly evident. That is, "Lining" should represent China and become a world class brand.

As early as the end of 2014, when it came back to the management front line, the top priority was to cut off non functional product lines and focus on five major areas (basketball, running, badminton, comprehensive training and sports fashion).

The position of the founder was passed to the executive layer. In 2016, Hong Yuru, who was promoted to the company's CPMO (chief product marketing officer), took the initiative to open up his mind for the team and set up his strategic goals. "To be a world-class player, the strategic positioning of the brand falls to specific categories, and there must be a matching first-rate product." Your competitors determine your true level. In the arena, you only remember the first place, the first represents the highest level and the first in the field.

"The product is set at a cheap price segment, taking into account the preferences of the market, there are certain sacrifices and compromises. It is a kind of inertia thinking. If consumers think so, are we not breaking through under such self constraint? Now, the goal is to make first-class products, so we need to take international brand benchmarking. This is not a slogan, but a fundamental change in thinking, and a standard of our work." Li Dan explained.

In the five core categories, the professional foundation and development momentum of Lining's running shoes are good: the first running shoes, named "Lining 001", were born in 1991 - the next year when the Li Ning Co was founded, professional accumulation was almost in sync with brand years. As early as 10 years ago (around 2006), Lining shoes had already served the provincial track and field teams, and signed the Sultan track and field team with strong strength in the field of long-distance running. In many subdivision sports fields, running covers the largest number of people, the business scale is large enough, the radiation effect of the professional is large enough, and the professional radiation effect is also large, which can enhance the connection between category and brand.

Beginning in 2016, Lining's running Department reorganized the product line, put in a professional product line, and built a "comparable world-class Pyramid product" in the product mix. Specifically, on the commercial goal, it was necessary to win the "elite runner" crowd in the Professional Marathon product line -- those male runners who could finish the race in 3 hours or the 3.5 hour race women runners.

The so-called "shoulder to shoulder world class", there is a simple and clear sign on the product, that is, let the top athletes of Kenya who dominate the marathon wear Lining shoes in the competition.

Previously, in the formal competition, few domestic brands allowed those top athletes to get on their feet. For them, a logo can be printed on vests and shorts, and shoes can help to win or improve their performance.

Let the finicky Kenya top athletes wear shoes, they must speak professionally, and the Lining team quickly starts the development of new technology platform. "You have to know how high the Mount Qomolangma is and how to climb, so that you can really reach the highest peak." Li Dan said.

Being a top marathon race line is a hard nut to crack. The target group is very fragmented and highly functional. At that time, Li Ning Co just broke even, the performance pressure is not small, conventional product line profit margin, inventory, turnover speed and other KPI examination is very strict.

However, management has given green light to the running shoe team, and the professional product line does not need to consider any performance related indicators, so long as it can produce professional products that are truly recognized by runners.

Two

The 13 iteration

Lin Yongjia, director of the sports science research center of Li Ning Co, joined the company in 2010 and has been working in sports science, biomechanics, structural engineering and other fields for a long time, and has always been a key member of the product development team.

His team has built a database of shoe covers with wide coverage, and has carried out a comprehensive assessment of all the running shoes on the market, subjectively felt, sports technology evaluation, product technology dismantling, and thorough analysis both inside and outside.

To launch the top grade running shoes series, we must only be critical to verify the data. "A running shoe has many dimensions in evaluation, shock absorption, stability, light, comfort, skid resistance, stretching efficiency and durability. A single index is very simple, and all dimensions need to get full marks, but it is very difficult. Finally, what is the main function selling point and demand? What we need to do is that the products can really be ranked first in terms of the individual language ability and the consumer experience. Lin Yongjia said.

The team set the core selling points of the new running shoes equipped with Lining Technology: two items: light and elastic. The marathon is 42.195 kilometers long, time-consuming and light, and can lighten the burden of athletes.

Of course, key indicators such as shock absorption and skid resistance can not be weakened. "People who run marathons know that their shackles, shorts, waist bags and other shackles can't be taken away, and the energy loss of running is reduced by light weight. This is the core demand." Li Dan said.

In order to achieve performance overtaking, we must achieve real material modification and process innovation. At the first level, we must find a new material.

In 2017, Lining's running department and R & D team often meet and think about what new materials can meet the basic functions and make them lighter and more flexible.

With suppliers constantly coming to the door, the team of Sports Science Research Center will ask about screening. What are the advantages of materials? Is it unique? Has competition been used? For a whole year, compared with various materials, the formula was constantly adjusted until the end of 2017, when they found the new material that meets all the demands: bead foamed PEBAX.

Compared with the traditional EVA and E-TPU materials, the PEBAX is lighter than 50%, even if the light weight EVA of the high performance running shoes is lighter than 33%, the energy rebound is as high as 80%, and the energy consumption is reduced by 27%. After adopting the supercritical bead foaming process, PEBAX has lighter weight, better rebound effect and stronger durability. Even after a long time compression, it can basically not deform, equal to the first half and the half of the marathon, and the feeling of wearing is consistent, which does not cause unnecessary energy loss.

In order to bring the material ability to the extreme, the team combines biomechanics, athlete's running posture and motion scene research, and uses the running action of sprint for 100 meters sprint. The design concept adopts the idea of "heterogeneous carbon plate", which helps athletes speed up through the toughness and resilience of carbon plates.

The carbon fiber itself is lightweight, tough and strong, and the carbon plate can make the running shoes better resilience. The use of Lining's "flying power" for carbon plates is not simply embedded in a single carbon plate. Instead, it lays different structural carbon fibers in different directions according to the different functional areas of the sole, and the performance of different regions is different.

"Running is usually landing on the outside side of the heel, which is too stable in the middle, and finally efficiently pedaling. We restore a coherent process to 3 state needs, and use 3 materials and structural combinations to achieve it." Lin Yongjia raised his hand to imitate the soles of his feet and gave a demonstration to 21CBR reporter.

The structure of heterogeneous carbon plates has undergone six versions of iteration, from double fork carbon plate to full palm carbon plate, then to the front palm cutting carbon plate, then to U carbon plate, then to the whole palm built-in carbon plate, and then to U type built-in carbon plate.

Because of the high cost of carbon fiber, only top level running shoes are often used, and complex technology also pushes up the cost of running shoes.

This way of subverting traditional running fields is ultimately tested.

In order to achieve the best test results, Lining invited 62 top marathon athletes to participate in the actual combat test, covering more than 10 events. Li Dan team even sent professional athletes to Shanghai for a month closed training, seeking advice with actual combat, and then revising accordingly.

"Any part of the change, such as weather, athlete's height, weight and running posture, will affect the feedback of shoes. We need severe racing kilometers and a lot of data collection to complete the product change." Li Dan told 21CBR reporter.

The R & D team took 2 years to complete the product development of "flying power" and "Tianma". As of the first half of 2019, a total of 13 versions were debugged. Usually, a conventional running shoe was born to stereotype, but it changed 3 versions.

According to Li Dan, the early research and development of running shoes is only the design of drawings, and the number of versions that Hong Yuru is beating back is numerous. This is both pressure and motivation. "Whenever he gives us a little compromise, we will not continue to challenge ourselves at the same strategic height, and do not take the initiative to break the yoke, you will never know that you have such a capability".

Lining himself is also very concerned about this. He has participated in the communication and discussion sessions of product ideas and stereotypes many times. The details of product matching, packaging and so on have been asked one by one, giving many commercial insights. Because the product positioning has a very high strategic level, Lining specifically instructed "simplification and simplification", and asked the designer to express the core technology confidence directly.

As a Chinese brand, Lining is the representative of Chinese naming technology. The blood and pride of Chinese culture flow in the brand.

The team still used Chinese characters in the name of science and technology, but the "strange" word has really confused everyone at the beginning. After careful study, it found that "Lei" means big thunder and strong energy, which is strongly related to Lining's scientific and technological strength, and the shoe material beads are made up of particles. The word "4" is similar to the word "Lei". Many people do not know it, but the identification is high enough.

Moreover, the word "Zi" draws inspiration from the soil of Chinese traditional culture, like "flying power" and "Tianma", and does not cater to the imitation of Western English naming system. This is also the attitude that Lining brand always hopes to pass. Because of curiosity, consumers have come to understand "science and technology" all the time.

It is said that Lining himself is satisfied with the naming of "?".

Three

Sport background

At the end of 2018, the Lining team began to provide the top athletes with the "R & D" of the R & D status. They did not know the new brands at first, some resisted, and were not willing to venture to try the formal competition.

Lining's team has repeatedly persuaded that professional athletes should try it out when they are training, get feedback and then revise it, then come out with the new version of the iteration, and then communicate with the athletes immediately. If it is repeated, slowly, there will be Kenya players who feel good experience and are willing to play.

In June 2019, the Guiyang marathon and Kenya Stanley Kiprotich Bett wore a series of electric running shoes (which had not yet been released).

He and another player are good friends, usually training is always together, the results are the same, that day coincided with the rainy day, the other side is wearing international brand shoes, when two people walked side by side, he heard the other side of the shoe skidding, and he felt safe and steadfast. When he ran to the end of the road to look back, he had already left his companion far away, so he came back to become a "fan". At that time, Kenya Serem Elijah Tirop won the title in Guiyang, and his feet were also a pair of electric running shoes.

2 months later, the Harbin marathon, Stanley Kiprotich Bett, won the championship successfully and refreshed the match record with the score of 2:10:30. After reporting, Li Dancai knew he was wearing his own shoes.

Before and after, many marathons in Hangzhou, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Ningbo, Qingdao and so on were all flying electric running shoes. As the domestic brand, they first boarded the North Korean podium, and began to gain more and more professional recognition. The confidence of flying power pricing is coming from the product performance.

In terms of pricing strategy, there is controversy in the running team, and some have doubts about the price above 2000 yuan.

In Li Dan's view, "flying power" has reached the industry's leading role in the two major functions of light and missile, its weight is only 177 grams (male code US9), the international brand matching product is 182 grams, and the "flying power" has a rebound performance of 80%, which is better than that of the international brand. The power structure of the carbon board can also avoid sports injury, and the performance and abrasion resistance of the wetland are all equal.

"Since the performance is better, why do we not have the confidence to set the price? Flying power is a start. We should constantly break through the cognition and look at the Chinese brand in a different way. Consumers are not buying Lining because they are cheap, but the products are really good and represent the first level of their minds before they choose us." Li Dan said.

Although the product has been successfully released, the process of absorbing improvement has not been slackened. Li Ning Co specializes in the professional testing of people who focus on product service in Beijing. The platform will expand its product line in 2020, and promote it to the runners and runners, presenting a more plentiful category and product matrix.

Not only is running, but based on the strategy of category focusing, Lining has been a world-class sports brand in many subdivision fields. For example, badminton has been established as a strategic category since 2012. Its racket, ball clothing and sports shoes are the official equipment of the Chinese national team and the highest professional recognition in the industry. Its basketball products are also increasingly appearing on the high level matches of CBA and NBA.

Even so, Lin Yongjia believes that product innovation is endless. Lining has a certain advantage in professionalism, but it can not be taken lightly. In his product development WeChat group, after 6 to 11 o'clock after work, it is still very busy. Various functional departments talk about shop feedback and talk about factory solutions. "Testing will never be carried out in one step, even if the feedback from small problems is valuable to R & D, we will record every little detail in different stages, and the next generation of products can be more standardized and better".

Li Danyi felt the same: "market change and consumer growth are faster than you know. We are like top athletes running marathons, not practicing and forcing themselves, and will soon be outdated."

In the first half of 2019, Lining, who made better profits, increased R & D expenses to 133 million yuan, an increase of 115% over the same period last year, and the proportion of R & D in revenue has exceeded 2%. The company, which is prosperous and prosperous, has clear strategic consciousness, and always puts the key of settling down in professional sports.

Hong Yuru told reporters, "professional can be in the trend, and the positioning of Lining sports brand will never change."