Old Players Out Of The Circle, New Forces Rise: Where Is The Trend Of Chinese Sports Brands?

On July 24, Chinese shooter Yang Qian won the first gold medal in Tokyo Olympic Games.

When the 21-year-old Yang Qian, wearing a small stand collar and a Chinese style button, held up the trophy, Anta, as the designer and manufacturer of the award-winning dress, had a market value comparable to that of Adidas in the global capital market.

On the same day, Hongxing Erke, which had been out of public view for several years, went out of the circle quickly because of material donation, and the sales volume of shaking sound studio exceeded 100 million yuan in three days.

Although the atmosphere of the Tokyo Olympic Games venue is cold after the outbreak, the international event is still stimulating Chinese people's sports awareness and consumption enthusiasm.

With the holding of the Tokyo Olympic Games and the approaching of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, a new sports trend is beginning, "double Olympics" has also led to the market's attention to sports brands.

In China's sports brand market, 2021 is of great significance for many brand enterprises. For 30 years, Fengdeng shoe factory in Jinjiang, Fujian Province has been renamed "peak peak". Anta, which has ushered in the 30th anniversary, is also standing at a "new starting point for upward development".

While the old brand sports shoes and clothing enterprises are catching up, the emerging sports shoes and clothing brands are driving into the fast lane. Since 2020 alone, a new round of financing has been completed by uminifier, Maia active, particle feeder particle mania, fajo Zanthoxylum planet and sumday athletics.

Thirty years of ups and downs of local sports brands

Different from Adidas and Nike's 60-70-year history, Anta and Li Ning, the leading enterprises in China's sports brand field, have just established themselves.

The popularity of domestic sportswear can be traced back to the 1980s. The blue bottomed and white bar sportswear and the white soled and red lined return shoes were the trendsetters' logo of that era. The rapid development of the industry will take place in 2007 before the Beijing Olympic Games. Some analysts believe that this year is the first year of China's sports shoes and clothing industry.

In the past 30 years, Chinese consumers have changed from few sports habits to the current love of running, swimming, yoga and other sports, from not paying attention to sports wear to now purchasing various equipment for different scenes.

According to the statistics of Euromonitor, the retail scale of China's sports shoes and clothing market has increased from 79 billion yuan in 2007 to 316.6 billion yuan in 2019, corresponding to a CAGR of 12.3%. It is estimated that the scale of China's sports shoes and clothing market will be close to 600 billion yuan in 2025.

In terms of the growth rate of each sub industry, the market scale of the domestic sports shoes and clothing industry will reach 315 billion yuan in 2020, and the growth rate of sports shoes and clothing in the clothing industry in the past three years ranks first.

Sports shoes and clothing industry includes manufacturers, brands and distributors. Among them, the gross profit rate of sports brand is the highest, which directly promotes the development of sports shoes and clothing industry.

In addition, by combing the annual reports of Anta and Li Ning, it can be found that these brands have been frequently optimized in terms of channels and brands in recent years, among which the typical action in brand positioning is to add weight to sports fashion.

Anta acquired FILA's business in Greater China in 2009. As a high-end sports fashion brand, Anta has become Anta's performance driver in recent years. On the basis of professional sports, Li Ning launched the sports fashion series "China Li Ning" in 2018, and got on the express train of "national trend" by appearing at international fashion week and cross-border co branding.

With the popularization and popularization of the movement, more and more young people are participating in the movement. The 21st century economic reporter learned in the interview that investors and entrepreneurs have seen opportunities for new brands in sports related clothing, accessories and equipment.

Sun Wei, partner of Huaying capital, is an investor in Maia active and edco small triangle of outdoor sports clothing brand, and is looking for new investment opportunities in skiing, fishing, swimming and other racetracks.

"There is no absolute niche in China, and the market for new brands is not limited to China." Sun Wei believes that the scale of China's consumer market is huge, coupled with the extension of sports wear scene, new brands are facing a broader incremental market.

New generation of sports consumption brands

In the late 1990s, a Canadian Sports guru named chip Wilson fell in love with yoga. At that time, there was no "Yoga suit" category in sportswear industry, so Wilson and his friends had to train in dance clothes.

The unsatisfied consumption demand means that the new product may open up the market. As a result, he founded lululemon in Vancouver, where he obtained investment from Anhong capital, highland capital and Brooke private equity advisors.

Lululemon's initial target user positioning was clear“ She's fashionable and can pay for high quality. " According to Wilson's user portraits, these "super girls" often travel for work or leisure, returning to their apartments when they stop for company with meows.

Today, lululemon has a market value of more than $50 billion and once surpassed Adidas to become the world's second largest sports brand by market value.

Back on this shore of the ocean, China, as one of the world's largest consumer markets, is welcoming a number of emerging sports brand enterprises.

Some of the founders of these enterprises come from overseas sports brands such as lululemon and Nike. They are familiar with the industry chain and have high aesthetic taste of products; Some have worked as FMCG giants, reusing the ability to build brand awareness and channels to new categories; There are also entrepreneurs with internet background, whose advantage is that they have user thinking and can carry out rapid product iteration based on consumer demand; In addition, there are also investors who start their own businesses, and their strengths are the ability to integrate capital and resources.

It is worth noting that there are not only start-up enterprises, but also large Internet factories in the local market. For example, Netease launched yessing, a sportswear brand, in 2018, emphasizing the light sports concept of integrating sports into life and freely switching multiple scenes.

From the perspective of capital, 21st century economic reporter found that Sequoia Capital, hillhood capital, Huachuang capital, Huaying capital, Zhenge fund, Qingliu capital, etc. have made layout in new sports shoes and clothing brands and related fields.

"They are able to innovate successfully and win the favor of consumers, mainly because they have grasped the general trend that the participation of young consumers in the movement has increased significantly." Yu Yue, head of consumption investment of Huachuang capital, who invested in fajo pepper planet, observed that the new generation of consumers' understanding of sports is not only limited to the "sweat" of competitive sports, but also love the aesthetic experience and health value that sports can bring.

In recent years, the main consumers of many new sports brands are female groups. Yu Yue said: "especially for female consumers, what they pursue is fashion, health and beautiful life style."

Sports into lifestyle

In conclusion, China's sports shoes and clothing industry is affected by the national policy support, national health awareness enhancement, wearing scene extension, industry consumption upgrading and other factors, the penetration rate in the clothing market is on the rise, and the market growth rate is higher than the overall situation of the clothing industry.

Statistics show that in 2017, China's sports population (reporter's note: a social sports index, usually refers to the number of people who often participate in physical exercise) was 434 million, accounting for about 34%. According to the "outline of building a strong sports country" issued by the general office of the State Council, by 2035, more than 45% of the people who regularly participate in physical exercise will participate.

For the entrepreneurs and investors of new sports shoes and clothing brands, the opportunity of emerging sports brands lies in the incremental market brought by the extension of sports shoes and clothing wearing scenes.

Pang Xiaomin, founder of fajo pepper planet, told reporters that the lifestyle of the new generation of young people is staggered and changeable. They are no longer two-point, three-point and one-line when their parents were young. They also hope that their daily life can freely switch between work, leisure and entertainment.

Before founding the new sports shoe brand "fajo pepper planet", Pang Xiaomin was in charge of sports events and commercialization in LETV sports, and also founded a content e-commerce "reject basic".

"For most young people, it's not necessarily because they love sports that they love to wear sportswear." It is such observation that Pang Xiaomin decided to make a "product that will be worn without consideration when it is taken out of the shoe cabinet".

In 2016, "athleisure" was written into Webster's dictionary as a new entry, defined as: "casual clothing designed for sports and daily use." From a global point of view, because it can take into account professional sports, leisure and entertainment, workplace commuting and daily life scenes, sports leisure style is rapidly occupying the market in recent years.

"There is no trend that can better meet the changing habits of this generation than" sports and leisure. " Pang hopes his users will be able to cope with life more easily. As a result, his team's new brand of sneakers combines functionality and fashion, which not only matches most clothing styles, but also applies to a wide range of scenes.

In fact, for the emerging sports and leisure brands, they pass the concept of healthy life to consumers through products, and the recognition of brand culture directly drives the user stickiness of products. Especially for the new generation of young people, whether wearing sports fashion or fashion domestic brands, is a manifestation of national cultural confidence.

"They can be understood as lifestyle brands with sports functions, behind which is a larger incremental market." Yu Yue believes that the new generation of sports brands brings consumers a lifestyle update, which also means that their entrepreneurship will not be driven by the supply chain in the early years, and will be able to embrace more diversified product innovation space in the long run.

It is also worth noting that, in the eyes of investors and entrepreneurs, the opportunity market for China's new brands is not limited to China. New brand entrepreneurs are telling their stories about China to consumers in Asia and even the rest of the world.

"We focus on the theme of going to sea. For example, fishing, skiing, swimming, the supply chain of these products are all in China, and the market potential of several vertical categories is also very large. " Sun Wei believes that the ability of the new generation of entrepreneurs and the foundation of China's supply chain are enough to support the new brands of Chinese sportswear to expand their territory in the global market.

(this paper is the research result of the industry investment and financing of the Innovation Capital Research Institute in the 21st century.)

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