Why Is The Sales Of E-Commerce Rush Clothes Crazy

The temperature dropped by 10 degrees overnight, and Beijing quickly entered winter in November. In addition to wrapping up last year's coat and down jacket, more and more people choose more lightweight, crisp and slim assault jacket.

From north to south, this year's winter clothes can be seen everywhere in crowded areas such as subways, business districts and office buildings. Some students teased and said, "There are more 'camels' on campus than in the desert"; Last year, someone classified the original brand of assault suit "Archaeopteryx" as one of the three treasures of middle-aged men.

In addition to summer, a jacket can span three seasons: spring, autumn and winter. It can be worn alone with the outer shell, alone with the inner liner, or in combination. In the past two years, an endless stream of outdoor enthusiasts and the localization and improvement of products have made the assault suit enter more and more scenes - in addition to outdoor, there are daily scenes such as commuting and life.

The new fashion trend has brought huge market opportunities. According to public data, there are more than 8000 enterprises producing and operating assault suits in China. As early as 2019, the market size of assault suits reached 33.987 billion yuan, and may reach 57.45 billion yuan by 2025.
Which platforms and brands have undertaken the explosion of assault clothing?

According to Magic Mirror, Feigua data and the data of major e-commerce platforms, Ebon Power found that the sales of Taobao rush suit reached a peak in the second half of this year, exceeding 1 billion yuan; In the first half of this year, the sales of the Douyin rush suit and pants reached 1.12 billion yuan, about five times the same period last year. The monthly sales in October this year reached 1.69 billion yuan, while the monthly sales in October last year were less than 700 million yuan; During the Double 11, the turnover of the Jingdong platform's rush suit category exceeded * * * on a year-on-year basis.

Trend chart of sales volume of Douyin E-Commerce rush suit from January to November 2023

As for the rapidly influx of players, there are not only clothing brands that are deeply engaged in outdoor sports, such as Archaeopteryx, Pathfinder, Camel, Longya, Anta, and Li Ning, but also clothing brands that have cross-border entry, such as Bosiden, Xuezhongfei, and Senma.

After the sun protection clothes and yoga pants, will the explosion of assault suits also lead to some super brands? Behind the noisy market, where is the core competitiveness of this category? What are the characteristics of various brands and products on the market?

　　 01

It's exploding! Annual sales of new brand 600000 pieces The orders of Bosden soared or exceeded 5 times

The jacket is an imported product. * * * originated from the Nordic fishery and is a kind of raincoat suitable for navigation. It has been more than 150 years since the evolution of raincoat to modern "trench coat", and the style has evolved from the early "large and long windbreaker" to "short and close fitting jacket".

In fact, modern assault jacket is a general term for a large category of clothes with special functions (wind proof, waterproof, cold resistant, wear-resistant, oil resistant, etc.), which is composed of shell and inner liner (cotton, fleece, down, fleece, etc.), and can be used as fashion windbreaker, home clothes, jogging clothes, down jacket, raincoat, leisure coat, etc.

After entering China, the submachine jacket not only retains its practicality, but also greatly enhances its fashion trend attribute. Zhang Han, a fashion design practitioner, believes that the trend of sportswear is driven to some extent by stars, fashion experts and KOL.

"You must have seen such short videos. In a mountain scenic spot, beautiful men and women with high looks carry hiking bags, hold hiking sticks, wear charging clothes and trousers, climb mountains to see the beautiful scenery, and then add the words' poetry and distance '," said Zhang Han, "Most of the overseas market's assault suits are loose in style (emphasizing functionality) and bright in color (easy to be found in the wild), while the domestic assault suits are slim in shape (pursuing beauty) and low in color saturation (suitable for daily wear), which are the core pieces of the popular" mountain wear "in recent years."

There is no age limit for submachine jackets in the Chinese market, which can be worn by men, women, old and young. The data of what is worth buying shows that 60.32% of the 30 to 34 year old consumer group of assault suit, 19.14% of the 25 to 29 year old consumer group, and 17.48% of the 35 to 39 year old consumer group. Among them, males are the majority, accounting for 75.51%.
Whenever the weather turns cool or the holiday is approaching, a stylish, versatile and easy to care jacket will enter the shopping cart of consumers, which can meet the needs of outdoor sports and daily life in multiple scenes. "The trench coat has its own social attribute. When you wear it, people will ask you to link it, which will be topical." Wang Rui (flower name: Pangbing), a partner of Longya brand and the manager of Douyin account "Iron Blood Pangbing", told Ebon Power.

In addition, the assault jacket is a popular category in all seasons. Single layer assault jacket is sold in spring and autumn, and super light assault jacket is the main style in summer. In autumn and winter, there are fleece and down jacket in Canary to choose from. "In the past, the hot selling season of assault suit focused on autumn and winter. With the rise of outdoor sports in various scenes, the anti season hot selling phenomenon of assault suit also appeared in spring and summer," said Han Ye, vice president of outdoor of Toread Group.

Because of the market sentiment and long sales period, many brands of assault clothing have achieved explosive growth in recent years.

Longya, a tactical men's wear brand, was founded in 2011, and its main product line includes assault suits. "Before 2021, among the windbreaker categories with 30 types of products, the sales of Longya assault jacket (only 2 types) accounted for only a single digit, and the number has increased by more than 30% since last year," said Pangbing.

For another example, in the past year, the new brand "Panda" incubated by Camel Group sold more than 600000 pieces of jackets, and the sales of the main brand of camel's jackets in Douyin E-commerce reached 800 million yuan; In August of this year, Bosiden launched the rush suit, and the orders quickly increased. The original plan was to sell 85000 pieces, but now 380000 pieces have been sold. It is expected that the sales will reach 450000 pieces this year.

At present, there are three kinds of brands selling sportswear: one is outdoor clothing brands, such as Archaeopteryx, Pathfinder, Camel, Jiaoxia, Boxihe, etc; One is sportswear brands, such as Anta, Li Ning, and Tebu; Another is cross-border entry of apparel brands, such as Bosideng, Xuezhongfei, Sima, etc.
After the outbreak of assault suit, new entrants tried to enter the market through product innovation. For example, in September this year, Jiaoxia launched the "Air Velvet Shock Jacket", aiming at the professional outdoor shock jacket market within 1000 yuan; Bosiden replaced the inner liner of the assault jacket with "goose down", and the main style is "assault jacket down jacket"; Xuezhongfei regards "redefining ski clothes" as an important part of its product upgrading strategy and focuses on creating "the first ski clothes for young people".

In addition, from the retail price, the above brands range from 100 yuan to 1000 yuan, or up to 10000 yuan. The relatively expensive ones are the Archaeopteryx hard shell jackets with more than 5000 yuan, and the 1000 yuan jackets in the north, Colombia, etc., while the more cost-effective ones are the Pathfinder, Camel, Boxihe and Panda jackets with less than 1000 yuan.

　　 02

Function or fashion? Average gross profit more than 50% 400-600 yuan is the main price range

Behind the market explosion is that outdoor sports such as hiking, mountaineering, camping and so on have gone from niche to public, and more and more people are going outdoors. The use scene of assault jacket is no longer limited to extreme sports, but takes into account home, commuting and light sports.

More people and richer user profiles make this market more rich and complex. Faced with the same market, the characteristics and positioning of different brands are different. Some focus more on product functionality, some focus more on fashion attributes, some focus on the mass market, some focus on the high-end market, some focus on high cost performance, and some highlight the brand premium.

At the moment, a number of brands are also riveted to try to take the opportunity brought by the explosion of this super single product. At present, they are working hard in two aspects: functionality and fashion. The specific selling points involve the performance, appearance, price, brand, marketing, etc. of the assault suit. Each has its own strengths and focuses.
?1? As far as the functional selling points are concerned, the fabric and technology determine the performance of the sportswear, and the average gross profit of the industry is more than 50%.

"The main product difference between RMB 1000 and RMB 100 assault suits lies in the fabric selection and processing technology. The materials of RMB 1000 assault suits are mainly international famous brands and functional technology fabrics developed by domestic brands, and the price is relatively more expensive. RMB 100 assault suits use the general fabrics on the market, which can also meet some outdoor functions," said Han Ye.

Pangbing said that the average gross profit of the sportswear industry is about 50% - 60%, and the premium rate of some brands can reach 5 to 10 times.

In terms of fabric, Archaeopteryx mostly uses high-end fabrics such as Gore Tex, and the cost of a piece of trench coat is up to thousands of yuan. Camel phantom black jacket uses brand self-developed ENFO materials (reduce the thickness by 80%, and increase the warmth retention effect by 5 times), and the price is less than 500 yuan. Toread released "Polar Bionic Technology Platform 2.0" in May this year, including Toread Innovative Ecological Fabric X3 anti-static fabric, TiEF PRO X2 waterproof technology fabric, TiEF WARM X1 thermal insulation fabric, etc.

In terms of technology, the core technology of the assault suit is mainly embodied in two aspects: "film covering" (a layer of waterproof film on the surface of the garment) and "glue pressing" (sealing joints to prevent water seepage). Take the shoulder sleeve connection of the submachine jacket as an example, "this place is actually three interfaces, and the glue pressing can not damage the film, but also press firmly. It is necessary to * * * reach the standard of how many times you can wash", explained Pangbing.

Different consumers have different performance requirements for the sportswear, and brands often use different fabrics and processes to match the corresponding user needs. Taking Pathfinder as an example, its assault suits range from the entry level of 1000 yuan to the professional HIMEX series assault suits of 3000 yuan to 4000 yuan, specifically including HIMEX mountaineering series, HIKING camping hiking series and TRAVELAX travel commuting series.

The data of what is worth buying shows that the price range of sales contribution * * * is 400-600 yuan according to the price of less than 400 yuan, 400-600 yuan, 600-800 yuan, 1000 yuan, 4000-5000 yuan, 5000 yuan and above. In addition, on the Double 11 this year, it is also camel sportswear of hundreds of yuan that has won * * * sales of Tmall's sportswear category.
?2? As far as fashion selling points are concerned, social media marketing, star co branding, and IP co branding are the combustion promoters of the assault suit brand.

In October this year, at the time of "season changing travel", Camel first released a large number of videos of models with high appearance showing goods and professional fabrics to deeply plant grass for the brand's assault jacket, and then promoted various popular assault jacket styles in the multi matrix self broadcast account to widely attract different customers.

For example, CAMEL Camel's official flagship store account is featured with Angelababy, showing the star's style and scene of wearing, attracting fans to transform; The outdoor flagship store of Camel CAMEL sports starts from the style of lovers. Male and female anchors show the wearing effect on the spot, and drive users to buy at a minimum of two pieces, driving up the customer price of the live broadcast room.

For another example, the tactical men's clothing brand "Longya", which focuses on high cost performance, successfully created the popular "Thunderobot" in autumn and winter this year, and 29000 pieces have been sold in the official flag store of Douyin. This Raytheon jacket has been iterated to the fourth generation, upgrading the fabric elasticity, anti-static, bladder filled with PI cotton, arm bag and other details. There are 14 sizes for customers with different shapes to choose from, and the price is 999 yuan.

To be specific, we created an IP account matrix of "Iron Blood Sewing Machine", "Iron Blood Fat Soldier" and "Iron Blood Li Dafang" on the Tiaoyin platform, which focused on different aspects of men's clothing shopping, military tactical science popularization, and fabric evaluation and purchase. In addition to the brand's official account, we accumulated more than 10 million fans' attention across the network, becoming the main source of contributions to Raytheon's blockbusters.

　　 03

Industrial belt OEM meets the problem of premium Upstream fabric process is jammed How far is the super item from the super brand?

Prior to the explosion of assault suit, there were two major categories in the field of outdoor clothing - sunscreen clothing and yoga pants.

"Two years ago, few people on the street wore sunscreen clothes. Now everyone has a sunscreen coat in summer. Although it won't break out so fast as the previous two years, it is still growing steadily. The same is true for assault suits," said Pangbing.

The shock jacket market during the high-speed growth can accommodate many players, but when the industry slows down, the market will naturally be shuffled by the rule of "survival of the fittest". In order to go through the cycle, brands that focus on assault clothing need to think clearly about two major issues - where does the brand value come from? How to build product barriers?

On the one hand, manufacturers generally use the OEM mode. Among the sportswear brands at the same price range, the core is to build brand mentality and premium.

The factories that produce assault suits are mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Sanmen County, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, is one of the storm coat industrial belts. There are more than 300 enterprises and more than 1000 processing points. The annual production of storm coat is more than 20 million pieces, with an output value of 5 billion yuan. The production of storm coat accounts for 60% of the country's total. The white brands such as Semo Outdoor and Lantu Outdoor were born here.

"In the raw material warehouse of the factory, the logos of various brands are hung on the shelves row by row, waiting in Patagonia, the north, wolf claw. Many brands come from the same factory, and the OEM mode is very common in the rush suit industry." The industry insiders said.

Han Ye believes that the product quality of domestic brands is enough to match that of international brands, and what is lacking in comparison is brand premium. As for how to narrow the price gap, we need the long-term principle of brand building, take root in independent research and development, independent innovation, adhere to professional layout on the basis of adhering to the logic of good productivism, and patiently walk every step of the way for a long time to achieve fruitful results.

On the other hand, the advanced and core technologies are monopolized by a few enterprises, and the film covering and glue pressing processes are facing a neck jam.

At present, the more recognized materials in the industry include Gore Tex fabric (America), EVENT fabric (America), Sympatex fabric (Germany), Omni Tech fabric (Colombia), Conduit fabric, WBW-TEX fabric (China), WEI-TEX technology fabric (China), DENTIK fabric (China), FILTERTEC fabric (China), etc.

First tier brands such as Archaeopteryx, Northland, Salomon, Mammoth, etc. mostly use Gore Tex fabrics, while middle and high-end brands such as Columbia, Kellerstone, etc. also use fabrics in the international market. "In contrast, domestic fabrics still have a certain gap in waterproof, windproof, breathable and other characteristics".

Pan Litai, president of Sanmen County stormcoat association, said frankly that the gap between domestic and foreign stormcoat is the added value brought by the fabric. "Our product fabric costs 20 yuan per meter, and what they do is 200 yuan per meter. It is difficult for us to form added value," he said.

Since last year, under the influence of the tension in international relations, the maker of * * * * fabrics of assault suit, American Gere Company, has withdrawn the agency right of a large number of Gore Tex fabrics in the Chinese market. This has led many enterprises to encounter a neck jam problem.

"Domestic brands and factories are forced to independently study the waterproof membrane. The value of the self developed membrane is not as high as Gore Tex, but it is enough to some extent. The waterproof index and air permeability index are above 20000, which is a very high standard," said some industry insiders.

Then look at the process link. Glue pressing is the threshold link in the production process. "There are not many factories with mature and stable glue pressing technology in China, and the production capacity of each assembly line is limited, which will also affect the growth of Chinese brands to some extent", one outdoor businessman pointed out.
Of course, these difficulties are also potential opportunities. At present, the cognition of domestic consumers on the sportswear will also grow together with the promotion of outdoor sports and the development of outdoor brands.

In the future, some super brands may be born in the market of assault suit, just like Jiaoxia in the field of sunscreen and MAIA ACTIVE in the field of yoga pants. However, the premise is that domestic brands must make breakthroughs in brand value and product strength. Compared with the market that is on the rise in an instant and the brands that take advantage of the situation, there is a long way to go.