The national tide is surging: Can sports domestic products enter the era of 100 billion?
China News Weekly reporter / Meng Qian
Published in the 1067th issue of "China News Weekly" magazine on November 7, 2022
The Double Eleven melee has started, and sports shoes and clothing have become one of the most important battlefields every year.
Recently, major e-commerce platforms have released pre-sale records one after another, and sports shoes and apparel brands such as Nike, Anta, Li Ning, and Adidas are fighting fiercely.
Among the top 20 brands on the list, there are many domestic brands such as Anta, Li Ning, Xtep, 361 Degrees, Hongxing Erke and Peak.
The sales of professional running and other professional sports equipment on major e-commerce platforms are booming, and the pre-sale orders for basketball shoes, running shoes, and sports down jackets have increased by dozens of times.
The booming sports shoes and apparel market is one of the manifestations of the increasingly fierce competition between international and domestic brands in the Chinese market.
In the first half of 2022, the pattern of China's sports shoes and apparel market has been completely rewritten.
After surpassing Adidas (China) in 2020, Anta beat Nike (China)'s 23.681 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of this year with a revenue of 25.965 billion yuan, and won the first position in China's sports shoes and apparel market.
Li Ning also leads Adidas China's revenue of 12.191 billion yuan with a revenue of 12.41 billion yuan, taking the third position in the Chinese sports shoes and apparel market.
Last year, the four major domestic sports brands, Anta, Xtep, Li Ning and 361 Degrees, achieved a total revenue of 87.8 billion yuan and a net profit of 13.7 billion yuan. The total revenue in the first half of this year was 47.711 billion yuan. As the third quarter performance continued to rise, Revenues have basically achieved double-digit growth, and the annual revenue is expected to break through the 100 billion mark.
This means that the era of 100 billion sports domestic products is coming.
Since the second quarter of 2020, the quarterly growth rate of domestic sports brands has always been higher than that of international brands, and they have begun to break the "Iron Curtain" of Nike and Adi's giants to achieve breakthroughs.
However, on the other side of the rapid growth, the per capita consumption of sports shoes and clothing in China is much lower than that of European and American countries, and the industry penetration rate has great room for improvement.
In the past two years, with the rise of the national tide and the upgrading of consumption, the demand for diversified sports has skyrocketed.
Niche sports such as cycling, Frisbee, and Lu Chong are very popular, and the Chinese sports shoes and apparel market has developed from popularization to specialization and segmentation.
For Chinese enterprises, this is not only an opportunity to surpass, but also a huge challenge from "demanding speed" to "seeking quality".
Only by taking out a real killer product, can you advance to a higher-level arena and compete with giants.
Behind this, companies need to find core technology categories, maintain long-term and continuous R&D investment, build a stronger moat, and become a future-oriented brand.
How to adapt to the needs and changes of the sports consumer market and achieve quality growth is testing Chinese sports shoes and apparel companies.
"2012 Chinese sports brands collectively taught a lesson"
For sports brands in the Chinese market, the summer of 2008 was a summer worth looking forward to.
That year, all sports brands were doing one thing: betting on the Olympics.
Winning 2008 has become the common understanding of the industry.
In fact, as early as July 2001, after Beijing's successful bid to host the Olympic Games, the Chinese sports industry ushered in rapid development, and the industry was already in full swing.
Li Ning, a sports brand founded by retired gymnast Prince Li Ning, was founded in 1989 and has appeared in the Asian Games and the Olympic Games one after another.
After the first 10 years of exploration, it ushered in rapid development in the early 21st century, and gradually moved to the core position in the Chinese sports shoes and apparel market: in 2002, Li Ning's revenue was less than 1 billion yuan, and in 2009 it reached 8.387 billion yuan. The growth rate has basically reached more than 35%.
Nike and Adidas entered China in 1980 and 1997 respectively. Due to the insufficient development of the Chinese sports shoes and apparel market, foreign brands did not perform well in China at first.
In 1999, the sales of the two in the Chinese market were only 300 million yuan and 100 million yuan.
But after Beijing's successful bid for the Olympic Games in 2001, Nike and Adidas experienced a period of rapid development. In 2003, Nike's sales in the Chinese market surpassed Li Ning, and then Adidas also surpassed Li Ning.
During this period, Li Ning made a comprehensive effort from products, channels and brands, benchmarked against international sports brands, and tried to seize the market.
Li Ning has rapidly expanded its stores through the wholesale model. The number of stores has rapidly increased from 1,985 in 2003 to 7,915 in 2009. It has always ranked first among Chinese sports brands, and the proportion of franchised stores was as high as 95%.
A senior practitioner pointed out that the first period of real rapid development of China's sports shoes and apparel market was actually from 2004 to 2008. At this stage, international sports brands Nike, Adi and domestic sports brands Li Ning, Anta, etc., are all making efforts. , mainly through the wholesale model, opened stores, and tried to seek listing capitalization.
"This is the easiest and most effective way."
According to public data, from 2004 to 2008, the compound annual growth rate of China's sportswear industry reached 25%.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the industry growth rate reached 32%, which also reached the industry peak.
In the sponsorship competition for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, domestic brands were far from Nike and Adidas, and the sponsorship was basically distributed to these two international brands. Adidas defeated Li Ning with 1.3 billion yuan to become the TOP sponsor (i.e. Olympic Global Sponsorship). Business), Nike sponsored 22 Chinese national teams in 28 competitions, and Li Ning only sponsored 4 Chinese gold medal teams in diving, gymnastics, shooting and table tennis.
However, Li Ning himself ignited the fire at the opening ceremony, allowing Li Ning as a national brand to temporarily overshadow the style of these two giants.
"At that time, everyone was optimistic about the rise of sports and betting on the Olympic Games." Cheng Weixiong, an independent analyst in the footwear and apparel industry, told China News Weekly that Nike and Adi invested a lot in sponsoring the Beijing Summer Olympics, and Li Ning put a lot of production into the Summer Olympics. One of the more aggressive brands.
Not only Li Ning, but many domestic sports brands were preparing for the Olympics at that time.
"When the 2008 Olympic Games came, the entire sports market was crazy about it. At that time, everyone thought that this would bring about a follow-up sports carnival for the whole people. From the demand side, the market took it for granted that the people had an unprecedented enthusiasm for sports, and everyone's future It is necessary to strengthen the movement. On the production side, this has resulted in a result that the company is running at full capacity to produce, and the wholesaler is increasing the stocking." Anta related person told "China News Weekly" about the situation at that time.
In fact, many brands benefited in the short term due to the Olympic Games, and their performance peaked at that time.
In 2009, Li Ning's market share in the domestic sports shoes and apparel market reached the second place, second only to Nike.
Li Ning was very optimistic about the development prospects of the entire market at that time and continued to expand.
In addition, taking Kappa, an international brand that entered the Chinese market in 2002 as an example, from 2006 to 2009, its revenue in China increased from 860 million yuan to 3.97 billion yuan. In 2010, this figure reached 4.262 billion yuan, and the number of stores reached 4,000. Family.
However, after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the desired prosperity did not materialize.
What followed was the downturn of the overall market. According to public data, after the growth rate of China's sports shoes and apparel market reached 32% in 2008, the growth rate of China's sports shoes and apparel market declined sharply in 2009, until 2012, In 2013, the overall market size still fell by 1.8% and 3.3% year-on-year.
"When an industry's development heat reaches the highest point, that is, when it collapses, 'prosperity and decline' is an unbreakable truth." The above-mentioned senior practitioners said that after the sports shoes and clothing market changed, the entire market fell into an inventory crisis .
According to public data, after the Beijing Olympics, Li Ning experienced two years of performance growth. In 2010, the turnover was close to 10 billion. However, in 2011, the inventory crisis further aggravated.
In 2011, the company's inventory was 1.133 billion yuan, an increase of 40.6% over the previous year. The proportion of inventory revenue increased rapidly from 8.5% to 12.7%. The average inventory cycle increased from 52 days in 2010 to 73 days.
This year, Li Ning suffered billions of losses.
Not only Li Ning, but the entire industry ushered in a deep crisis at that time.
At that time, the high-end sports brand Kappa, which was a smash hit, had a sharp drop in revenue, and its revenue in 2013 was only 1.41 billion yuan.
Anta, which is relatively conservative and has low expectations for the Olympic Games, has not been spared. In 2012, Anta's revenue was 7.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.4%.
Cheng Weixiong pointed out that many companies bet on the Beijing Olympic Games, believing that the Olympic Games will have a catalytic effect on the market, but in fact the market has not really been catalyzed.
The company's expectations are too high and the investment is too large, resulting in a relatively large inventory risk.
At that time, sports lifestyles did not become mainstream, and people's lifestyles were still dominated by leisure, and there was no real awareness of how professional sports were.
"Many companies subjectively believe that this market is infinite and unplanned, essentially because people are not in awe of the market." He further pointed out that at that time, many business model problems and industrial upgrading problems had not been solved.
"This inventory crisis has actually taught a collective lesson to Chinese sports brands, that is, sports shoes and apparel companies must focus on improving internal efficiency and have strong control over channels."
Anta overtakes Li Ning behind
In 2012, in the post-Olympic era, China's sports shoes and apparel industry shrank sharply due to excessive expansion in the early stage, detonating an inventory crisis, and the sports market was also hit hard. Major sports brands entered a five-year adjustment period.
In May 2013, Li Ning, Ding Shizhong, Ding Shuibo and other sports shoes and clothing brand leaders gathered in an industry forum, where they exchanged the current situation faced by the industry and reached a consensus on how to solve the industry crisis and abandon the past. business model.
Wang Yiran, a senior analyst at Mojing Market Intelligence, told China News Weekly that the main reason for the inventory crisis in 2012 was oversupply, store expansion was much faster than industry growth demand, retail management capabilities were weak, and the channels for companies to handle inventory were not yet mature. , resulting in a long time to clear the inventory.
In addition, the concept of "just wholesale, regardless of terminal" for sports brands for a long time is the fundamental reason.
In fact, after the inventory crisis in 2012, major sports brands have formulated relevant adjustment plans to focus on adjusting channels.
In 2012, Li Ning formally proposed to transform from wholesale operation to retail (direct operation)-led model. On the one hand, it closed down low-efficiency stores, and on the other hand, it accelerated the construction of self-operated stores.
Since 2012, due to inventory problems, Xtep's net profit has continued to decline. Therefore, in 2015, Xtep also began to adjust its channels to "flatten the distribution level", "real-time monitoring", "improve store image" and "use big data". Improve retail operation efficiency.
Through channel integration and product strategy adjustment, Peak continues to move from extensive to refined management, improving single-store performance and strengthening R&D.
In addition, brands such as 361 Degrees and Guirenniao have their own channel strategy adjustments, and the most important thing is to decentralize the wholesale business model.
Wang Yiran pointed out that at that time, sports brands ushered in a wave of store closures.
Taking Li Ning as an example, as of December 31, 2013, the number of Li Ning's regular stores, flagship stores, factory stores and discount stores was 5,915, a net decrease of 519 compared with December 31, 2012.
In the same year, Peak authorized a net decrease of 471 retail outlets.
361 Degrees closed the most stores, with 783 fewer adult sportswear retail locations, and Xtep closed the least, with a net decrease of 150 retail stores.
"Li Ning actually slowed down in 2015. Strictly speaking, Li Ning faces a relatively large challenge in this inventory crisis. This is related to their ordering mechanism, and the control over franchisees is very weak." Cheng Weixiong said that initially, domestic sports shoes and clothing brands were all imitating Nike and Adidas to engage in franchising, only making brands and products, not channels.
In this way, when the market is booming, as many goods can be sold, but once the market is not ideal, the inventory problem will become larger and larger. Once the inventory cannot be removed, it will affect the development of new products, and the enterprise will fall into a vicious cycle.
In fact, Nike and Adi did not meet the expected performance in this inventory crisis, and made adjustments one after another.
Adidas has actually expanded its offline retail stores from 550 cities to 1,400 and added 2,500 stores during the five-year adjustment of domestic brands.
Nike also implemented channel sinking and opened factories and stores to solve the inventory problem.
"The wholesale model doesn't work. On the one hand, the collection of information is lagging behind, and on the other hand, there are too many compartments to adjust production in time. At that time, the entire sports industry brand was too far away from consumers." Anta relevant personnel analyzed that a brand at that time There are too many layers between merchants and consumers, and they are very insensitive to changes in the needs of the entire consumer terminal.
The above-mentioned person in charge emphasized that when there is a real inventory crisis, a large amount of goods have been accumulated in the warehouse, and the accumulation is difficult to return, and it cannot be sold.
Anta related sources revealed that after 2012, Anta realized that it had to switch from brand wholesale to brand retail. At that time, it took the first step of DTC (abbreviation of brand business model that directly reaches consumers), and actively carried out retail sales. In the reform, the brand will directly contact the store to understand the inventory situation.
At that time, Anta changed more than 8,000 stores to a separate ordering model and made timely adjustments.
"Once you find out which product doesn't sell, stop producing that product immediately."
Observing the market share and ranking of China's sports shoes and apparel, from 2012 to 2019, the market shares of Nike, Adidas and Anta, which can better handle the inventory crisis, have basically increased. Li Ning, Xtep, 361 Degrees, which are more affected by the inventory crisis market share is stagnant.
"Sports brands have actually been in a cyclical development stage. Previously, this cycle may have been as long as 18 months to two years, but now it has been shortened to one year." Li Shuangfu, founder of Rilakkuma Sports, told China News Weekly that in During the inventory crisis in 2012, Anta took advantage of the crisis to improve the efficiency of the entire distribution system.
At that time, Anta also took this opportunity to seize the window period and overtook Li Ning.
In 2011, Anta's revenue basically matched that of Li Ning. In 2012, Anta's revenue surpassed Li Ning for the first time, about 1 billion yuan higher.
After seizing the opportunity, Anta took advantage of the situation and continued to expand its plate. By 2019, its annual revenue had exceeded Li Ning by 20 billion yuan.
Consumer innovation has far surpassed international brands
It is worth noting that according to the financial report data, Anta’s DTC business revenue in the first half of 2022 accounted for as much as half, e-commerce revenue accounted for 34.2%, and traditional wholesale and other business revenue accounted for 16.1%.
In the previous year, the figures were 35%, 34.1% and 30.95%, respectively.
Two years ago, Anta announced that it will promote the transformation of DTC. The core is to convert dealer stores into directly-operated stores. According to the financial report, as of the first half of 2022, the number of Anta's main brand stores will be 6,600, half of which are directly operated by brands.
From the data point of view, Chinese sports brands have seized the opportunities and advantages of online e-commerce. The contribution of e-commerce channels in the performance of major brands can basically reach about 30%, and it is still rising sharply.
Wang Yiran said that sports brands generally have online business methods such as brand official websites, apps and third-party e-commerce.
The core concept of DTC is "consumer-centric" business thinking.
The core advantages of DTC are mainly reflected in being closer to consumers, paying more attention to the research of consumer behavior, and paying more attention to the grasp of consumers' lifestyle.
From the perspective of consumers, they can enjoy the price without middlemen, and from the perspective of brands, they can get more timely and effective data feedback due to direct communication with consumers.
Cheng Weixiong said that for Chinese sports brands, it has come to the era of omni-channel operation, which is the commercial innovation of Chinese enterprises on the consumer side. The development in this area has far surpassed that of international brands such as Nike and Adidas.
Weimeng has carried out digital transformation for some sports shoe and apparel companies. The relevant person in charge told China News Weekly that five years ago, some traditional companies had a “testing the water” mentality for digitalization, and most companies were in a wait-and-see state.
But in the past 2-3 years, especially under the impact of the epidemic, digital transformation has become a general consensus and important productivity for enterprise development, and the sports shoes and apparel industry is no exception.
At present, there are many problems faced by the digital transformation of the sports shoes and apparel industry. For example, at the data level, the business environment is changing rapidly, and it is easy to form data islands within the enterprise; at the operational level, brands need to cooperate with the frequent promotion rhythm of the e-commerce model and the peak shopping season. Frequent handling of incoming goods, returns, and restocking, etc., for brand owners who started with a distribution model, the difficulty of digital operation is even higher; at the talent level, there are many brand practitioners, and the management under the traditional model is relatively extensive, making it difficult to cultivate practitioners digital thinking, etc.
The above-mentioned person in charge pointed out that in terms of channels, the intermediate channels under the traditional model are redundant, and digitalization has given brands the basis for channel transformation. Some domestic brands have shifted from traditional distribution/dealer to DTC model to improve user experience and operations. Efficiency, and ultimately achieve brand direct-to-consumer.
Cheng Weixiong observed that in China's sports shoes and apparel market, the consumption levels of first- and second-tier cities and low-tier cities are very different: in first- and second-tier cities, local sports brands face fierce competition from international brands, and it is difficult to take root; In third- and fourth-tier cities, international brands and local brands are basically divided into two parts of the world; if you go to county-level cities, then it is the world of local brands.
Therefore, digital layout is extremely important. If these three or four levels of consumer coverage can be achieved, then Chinese sports brands will have an advantage.
"In the past, Nike and Adidas basically relied on wholesalers and distributors. Many brands did not have the strength to compete with their grid power, but now relying on DTC, many sports brands may achieve corner overtaking."
Xia Shuang, strategy director of Ruiyide, told China News Weekly that Nike and Adi are mainly direct sales in first- and second-tier cities, and the rest of the market will rely on distributors to deploy, especially the sinking market.
Taobo Sports is the largest distributor of Nike and Adidas in mainland China. Its 2022 interim financial report shows that its revenue is 13.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.1%; its net profit is 1.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.9%; its net profit margin is 8.7 %, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5 percentage points.
Regarding the decline in performance, Taobo said: "Sudden and changeable epidemics continue to affect many parts of the country, and fluctuations in the retail environment continue to pose challenges to daily operations in multiple dimensions."
In fact, both Nike and Adidas belong to Topsports' "main brand" sector.
In the last fiscal year, the revenue of this segment fell by 12.3% year-on-year, which also caused the total revenue of Topsports to decline for the whole year.
In recent years, Chinese sports brands have opened large stores one after another. According to incomplete statistics, from the end of September to the beginning of October, more than 100 Li Ning stores have been opened nationwide.
However, it is worth noting that about half of these stores have an area of more than 300 square meters. Combined with the number of closed stores, the total number of Li Ning stores will not change much in 2022, but the total area continues to increase.
Xia Shuang told "China News Weekly" that in recent years, with the continuous emergence of domestic sports brands such as Li Ning and Anta, they gradually started from the overall strategy and began to build flagship stores and image stores in order to build a stronger brand influence. The control of various channels also reflects the development trend of DTC in recent years, attracting more people through large stores, and conducting more effective store management through consumer data, pursuing the integration of product and efficiency.
Wang Yiran further analyzed that the opening of large stores has been verified as an effective way to promote the long-term growth of the brand. These large stores are not only a place for transactions, but also a place for the brand to display its own image, reflect the brand culture and spirit to attract consumers. The way.
Unlike e-commerce changing consumer behavior, the entertainment and social attributes of offline retail space have become significantly stronger.
Under the national tide, the traffic is surging
Innovation on the consumer side has also created the advantages of domestic sports brands in controlling users.
In the sports community, Hupu users are also paying unprecedented attention to domestic brands. The discussion of domestic brands Li Ning and Anta is more popular than international brands Nike and Adidas.
Unlike the performance of domestic sports brands, Nike and Adidas have suffered frequent setbacks in China in the past two years.
Since the 2020 fiscal year, Adidas's latest quarterly reported net profit fell by 62.6% year-on-year. In the Chinese market, its performance has declined for six consecutive quarters, and the Greater China market has recorded double-digit declines. Both the previous two quarters fell by 35% year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, Nike sales fell by 1% to $12.2 billion, and sales in Greater China fell by nearly 20%.
"Compared with the past, today's Chinese consumers like to have a 'Chinese feeling'", Adidas CEO Rosted said publicly that Adidas did not find this "Chinese feeling".
In recent years, giants such as Nike and Adidas have lost their former advantages in the Chinese market. This is not unrelated to the surging consumer sentiment after the Xinjiang cotton incident. In addition to the rise of the national tide in recent years, domestic brands are trying to take advantage of this shareholder wind to attack the city. plunder.
In some research reports, the interpretation of Guochao is a trendy style formed by integrating Chinese cultural elements into clothing design.
A survey data shows that in the past ten years, Chinese consumers' attention to Guochao has increased by 528%, far exceeding the attention to foreign brands.
In the field of sports shoes and clothing, the more prominent performance is that in 2018, Li Ning landed in New York and Paris fashion weeks for the first time. In the traditional Chinese elements inspired by Zen philosophy, yin and yang and Chinese landscape painting, it has attracted the attention of many young people in China. .
Driven by the "China Lining" series, Li Ning's sports fashion category has achieved rapid growth, and sales and new product sell-out rates have increased significantly.
From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of Li Ning's sports fashion revenue has increased from 25% to 39%.
Wang Yiran pointed out that the core reason for the trend of the national tide is that the cultural confidence of Chinese consumers has been greatly improved, so the core control is still the consumer's mind.
Excellent design and excellent quality are of course the foundation. The main means of controlling consumers' minds is marketing, which includes but is not limited to the use of celebrity effects and user incentives.
Previously, Hongxing Erke, a veteran sports shoes and clothing brand, caused fans to "wild consumption" by donating 50 million yuan of supplies to Henan. Millions of people poured into the live broadcast room, and Hongxing Erke became popular overnight.
However, in front of Hongxing Erke is how to turn short-term dividends into long-term benefits.
Brands such as Xtep and 361 Degrees have followed up on Guochao products. These moves are to strengthen the brand awareness of young consumer groups.
Zhang Zhipeng, secretary general of the Advertising Spokesperson Committee of the China Advertising Association, told China News Weekly that after the Xinjiang cotton incident, domestic sports brands actually took off faster and were more in line with the minds of the Chinese people, especially under the influence of the national tide, this kind of consumption The essence is an emotion.
However, the application of this trend needs to be combined with the brand's positioning and genes.
Recently, Li Ning was criticized by public opinion for a new set of down clothing.
At the autumn and winter new product launch conference at the end of September, this new product was accused of being suspected of being a Japanese military uniform.
Li Ning, who was silent for a few days, responded, saying that he is highly concerned about the recent discussions on the Internet about some products of the "Dream Walk" show, and sincerely apologizes for the confusion and doubts caused by the design and shape of the related products.
Li Ning also explained that the controversial flight cap design originated from ancient Chinese helmets, outdoor protective caps and cotton caps.
"The core vision, values and sense of mission of an enterprise are all very important. No matter how the market changes, it is particularly important to express the core concept, convey the spirit of its own brand, and solidly plan the development of its own brand." Zhang Zhipeng emphasized, "In order to obtain Traffic, unconventional, doing a lot of things that deviate from the core spirit, it is easy to take detours.”
Cheng Weixiong said that for a sports brand to extend fashion, the premise is that the brand needs to have sports genes. If there is no further improvement in functionality and technology, then it will be pale to talk about Chinese culture.
Even under the national tide, the brand still has to find the fulcrum of the core sports category to support the premium.
He further pointed out that "all kinds of joint names and elements are actually relatively unfamiliar to the public. These cultural contents must be reflected in the design, layout, and surface accessories, and can only gain a firm foothold by concentrating on research and applying them to the core categories."
"There is more to use"
Looking back over the past 30 years, Chinese sports shoes and apparel companies have experienced three development stages from low-end processing, imitation production to independent research and development.
The huge population size, diverse consumption soil and structural growth opportunities have prompted consumers to constantly switch between functional needs and scene needs of products. Sports domestic products have gone through the arduous process of rise, growth, crisis, transformation and revival.
In this process, the key investment of Chinese sports brands in professional sports basically revolves around core categories such as basketball and running.
The investment and research and development of professional sports products have not only made Li Ning, Anta, etc. gain solid sales, but also gradually pulled in the technical distance with Nike, Adidas, etc.
The cutting-edge technology used in sports shoes such as Li Ning's Li Ning and Anta's Nitro-Speed should not be underestimated.
Taking Li Ning as an example, the basketball series started to develop rapidly in 2018, and gradually became the category that contributed the most to Li Ning's professional sports.
In the field of basketball shoes, cushioning and rebounding technology is the core technology with obvious differences between brands and crucial to overall performance.
In 2019, Li Ning launched a new flick sports technology - ; Peak's independent innovation technology launched at the end of 2018 - intelligent adaptive shoe midsole "state pole technology", which can realize adaptive cushioning and instant shock according to different sports states. Rebound function, multi-category sales ranks among the top five in the industry; 361 degrees has core technologies such as ENRG-X technology and QU!KBALANCE.
An international sports brand sneaker designer told "China News Weekly" that more than ten years ago, the Boost series of sports shoes launched by Adidas, that is, "popcorn" technology, is basically the underlying technology source of sports shoes in the current Chinese market.
The designer emphasized that many domestic sports shoe brands are attached to this EVA material to change the shape of the shoes.
"If there is no such breakthrough, then basically all the midsole technology does not exist, just like the recipe for cooking has not changed, but the ingredients are different."
"Take professional sports running shoes as an example. After product development, professional athlete testing and competition testing, and then feedback to modify the production, this top design generally takes 22 months." The above designer also pointed out that in recent years, many people have also Will complain that Adidas is too slow to keep up with market feedback.
The designer emphasized that domestic sports brands are based on the economic advantages of Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and are closer to the supply chain and have a shorter product design cycle. They can quickly perceive popular colors, trends and styles.
"For example, the recent popularity of sneakers has been very popular from last summer to this year. Every brand is doing it, but Nike and Adidas have not done it until now. Nike and Adidas are actually slow to respond, which is based on their own The comprehensive consideration of brand and influence, thinking in the design is more of 'driving force', which means to lead new things, rather than 'follow the trend'."
A public report once stated that the total number of Nike patents reached 4,534, about 8 times that of Anta, and the number of patents worth more than $5,000 reached 661, about 22 times that of Anta.
The above designers pointed out that Nike has comprehensive patent protection, including materials, technology and carbon plate process.
In the international market, Nike and Adidas have been competing on patents.
However, the patent designs of domestic sports brands in this area mainly focus on practicality, which is the so-called form design patent.
"Sports brands have relatively high technical requirements. At present, Chinese brands are not enough in the control of core categories. They use more doctrines, and they focus on the research of styles. The development path is not so clear." Cheng Weixiong believes that if you want to truly grow Up, it is still necessary to return to technical capabilities and build a real moat.
Ke Ying, an associate professor at the School of Design of Jiangnan University, told China News Weekly that domestic sports brands are not only different from international brands in sports shoes, but also have no advantages in apparel fabrics, especially high-end fabrics. The core breakthrough point is materials.
At present, most of the clothing of domestic sports brands is to pursue style with some functional ingredients, but foreign high-end professional fabric factories have been bound more closely with giants such as Nike and Adidas, and it is difficult to break through the original pattern.
“耐克、阿迪达斯某些特有竞技服装在一定程度上可以提升专业运动员的成绩，相应的这类服饰的研发成本也会更高，随着人们对专业运动需求提升，国内企业对舒适性、功能性关注越来越多。像Lululemon这样做瑜伽的品牌，在专业性方面做到了极致，这也是消费者需求塑造产生的运动场景。但国内企业面临的问题是核心技术的缺乏，同质化比较严重，很多时候就看哪个品牌市场反应快，反应快就可能占领这一领地，这也是一种生存之道。”柯莹谈道。
不过黎双富指出，国内运动品牌的拳头产品近年来也可以在NBA等顶级赛事中出现，因此这从产品的研发和矩阵上来看，说明中国产品在这方面已经紧跟上了耐克和阿迪达斯的步伐。对做品牌出身的国际巨头来说，只需要做品牌和研发两件事即可，对国内品牌来说，则需要做全能厂商，从产品设计、供应链、物流到营销等，全要把控在手中。因此，在研发方面必定不会像耐克、阿迪达斯那样投入巨大，目前还无法拿出海量的资金来做这个事情。
走向世界主流市场仍有挑战
中国人口基数大，对运动鞋服有稳定的需求。根据公开数据显示，2021年我国运动鞋服整体市场规模达3718亿元，2015年到2021年复合增长达到14.28%，有望在2024年突破5000亿元，这个速度在全球范围内处于领先位置。
尽管在中国市场取得了优势，但是国内运动品牌与耐克、阿迪达斯等国际品牌的体量仍有不小差距。耐克2022财年营收达到467亿美元，阿迪达斯2021财年营收则是212亿欧元。正如安踏相关人士所言，区域市场的体量总会出现增长天花板，想要持续增长，需要走到世界舞台上。
中国运动品牌的国际化之路开始于本世纪初。从2005年开始，匹克陆续赞助美国NBA休斯敦火箭队、雄鹿队主场、欧洲全明星赛、斯杯、钻石杯等多项国际赛事。匹克相关负责人告诉《中国新闻周刊》，相比其他行业，中国体育品牌的国际化算是比较早的。两个奥运周期，也为中国品牌带来了机遇和增长。
李宁曾经也在十余年前开始国际化之路，曾经在新加坡、中国香港等地开设李宁羽毛球旗舰店和专卖店，还将门店开到了美国波特兰市，并且以高额营销在国际化头部赛事中展露头角，赞助顶级球星韦德。不过时至今日，国际化之路也并不通达，根据2022年上半年财报显示，李宁的收入构成当中，中国市场的营收占比为98.5%，而其他地区的占比则只有1.5%。这意味着中国市场的营收占了大部分，海外市场收入几乎可以忽略不计。
安踏则以“单聚焦、多品牌、全球化”战略，将“买买买”贯彻到底。2009年，为了提升在市场上的地位，安踏从百丽集团手中花了3.32亿元收购意大利品牌FILA。收购当年，FILA的营收是负增长，到了2022年上半年，FILA的收入达到107.77亿元，成为安踏的现金牛业务，对整体营收和毛利率贡献极大。此外，安踏还瞄准了一系列中高端运动品牌：2016年安踏收购英国户外品牌迪桑特，2017年收购滑雪品牌可隆，2019年则将拥有始祖鸟等品牌的亚玛芬集团收入麾下。
不过，安踏2022年上半年财报显示，FILA的营收同比下滑0.5%，第三季度虽然实现低段增长，但仍然很难保持往年的业绩飙升。安踏相关负责人告诉《中国新闻周刊》，“接下来要做一些长期主义的事情，代表中国品牌在世界舞台上和耐克、阿迪达斯掰一掰手腕”，上述负责人强调，安踏目前正在走一条多品牌策略之路，在此之前并没有成功案例。
实际上，市场上很多人对此表示质疑，近期安踏收购的品牌始祖鸟引发行业关注，来源于高管曾表示要将始祖鸟全面对标奢侈品。安踏集团财报显示，除了安踏主品牌和FILA之外，目前来自迪桑特、可隆等品牌的营收，目前只占安踏营收的8%左右。安踏相关人士提到，如果算上包含始祖鸟的亚玛芬体育流水，中国市场以外的海外业务占比已超过40%。不过财报显示，到了2022年，亚玛芬体育全球业务收入同比增长21.1%至96.7亿元，依旧有亏损。想要通过押注户外国际品牌找寻到与巨头掰手腕的方式，恐怕仍要下苦功夫。
Cheng Weixiong observed that Nike and Adidas had a continuous technical investment period in the past. In this process, there may not be hope. It may be necessary to pay tuition fees, but in the end, a product pyramid must be constructed, among which there are main models and technical models. There are also image models.
"To conquer leading technologies, we make products for the future. When the future comes, it will be too late. We can't just give consumers a fast food culture."
"Among the real high-end sports shoes and apparel products with top technology content, there is currently no domestic product that can compete with Nike and Adidas in the mainstream market in the world." Cheng Weixiong believes.
In fact, in recent years, except for Nike and Adidas, which have stalled in the Chinese market, the market shares of brands such as Skechers and Lululemon have been increasing.
In addition to looking overseas, the Chinese sports shoes and apparel market itself is also changing.
Ma Pibo, a professor at the School of Textile Science and Engineering, Jiangnan University analyzed that the future of sportswear is people-oriented, "An enterprise that wants to have a long-term foundation needs to have a certain amount of determination, focus on technological innovation, and focus on original innovation, breakthrough innovation, and iterative innovation. Guided by innovation demand, we will promote high-quality and continuous innovation of high-end sports products in the future."
"China News Weekly" Issue 41, 2022
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