China'S Sports Footwear Industry Starts The Market Shuffle War

Lining's layoffs have become the "fuse" that stirs up the "earthquake" in the sports apparel industry; the sudden explosion of NBA Chinese American player Jeremy Lin has triggered the "big brands".

Behind the frequent incidents is the hidden "sportswear" of the sports apparel industry?

In 2008, the local sports brand leveraged the Beijing Olympic Games and expanded wildly.

However, after a few years, this business opportunity has gradually disappeared, and the "bombs" buried in the market expansion are all being detonated.

2012 is bound to be a very sad year for domestic sports brands: from high income and high growth to rapid decline, the market structure is accelerating fission.

Some industry insiders said in an interview with reporters that the reshuffle of China's sports industry has started.

In this new round of market shuffling, the Chinese sportswear industry will turn from multi brand coexistence to the national market to a few brands coexist in the national market, some brands will become regional brands or subdivision brands, and the comprehensive national sporting goods enterprises will be reduced to 2~3.

For the enterprises themselves, there is no way out except to clarify the position and seek for upgrading.

Blind expansion and survival crisis

After the Spring Festival, Li Ning Co's layoffs, like a magnifying glass, reveal the gloomy situation of China's sports apparel industry.

"Lining" is

In fact, not only is Lining, many local sports clothing enterprises feel the whole industry development slowed down the chill.

361 degrees, the sales of ~12 in November 2011 dropped sharply, the channel inventory ratio rose to 4.2 times in the fourth quarter, and the number of new stores fell to the slowest pace in history.

The growth rate of Anta also slowed down significantly: there were 958 stores in 2010, compared to 229 in 2011.

PEAK said it would lower its 2012 forecast: the order growth rate of more than 20% will drop to less than 15%, and sales are expected to grow by a single digit. After nearly 1 billion 100 million of the three investment bases are ready to slow down, there are plans to open 700 stores and close 500 stores.

Looking back at the history of local sports brand, it is easy to see that in the 90s of last century, domestic sports enterprises sprung up like mushrooms.

Some famous athletes are named after their athletes, and Lining is one of them.

And a large number of cutting-edge strength, its predecessor is the coastal international sports brand OEM enterprises, directly using mature foreign products.

Relying on the strong "made in China" support, with the help of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the tide of going to Hong Kong, the Chinese sportswear industry has sprang up and expanded rapidly with the support of sufficient funds.

However, the blind expansion has brought about many problems, such as the decline in scale growth, high market concentration and high inventory.

Li Guangdou, a brand strategy expert, said: "at present, the dilemma faced by local brands is that" there are strong enemies before, and then there are soldiers. "In the current serious homogenization of products, local brands did not grow well after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Indeed, the local sports industry in China is carrying the pressure of internal and external troubles. On the one hand, the two premium giants, Nike and Adidas, are firmly controlling the high-end market of the domestic sports brand, and quickly swallow the local market by sinking strategy and people's price. On the other hand, the competition among local brands is becoming increasingly fierce. Meanwhile, the rapidly rising sports and leisure market has a huge impact on traditional sports brands.

Brand upgrade wins shuffle opportunities

According to authoritative statistics, international sports giants Nike and Adidas spend 40 times on new product research and development every year. They are 5%~10% of sales income, which is about twice the R & D investment of Lining, Anta and other local first-line sports brands. Unlike Nike and Adidas, they sell creativity and culture. Local sports brands pay more attention to product sales, blindly copy and imitate, and finally plunge themselves into a blind alley.

The days of cheap labor as the core competitiveness are gone forever. Technological innovation has become the key competitive force for sports brand in the future.

Against this background, Lining's series of cost control measures based on layoffs and the adjustment of the brand image with the opportunity of London Olympics have been questioned by many of the industry as well as the pioneers of the first change. It has opened the curtain of the reshuffle of the local sports apparel industry.

Li Ning Co brand leader told the newspaper reporter that Lining is the industry leader, aware of the industry's problems before other brands, and therefore take the lead in change.

One industry insider told our reporter that Lining's layoffs were a case of change and a landmark event in the industry.

Many local brands such as PEAK, Anta, XTEP and so on have to go through the 2012 year of reshuffling successfully, and constantly enhance their strength in the shuffle and occupy the commanding heights of the industry.

At the same time, with the intensification of industry consolidation, 2012 will inevitably have a merger tide. Before that, Lining, Anta, BELLE and Baosheng have merged cases.

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