Data Analysis: Competition Pattern And Development Trend Of Chinese Sportswear Industry

China's sportswear industry is limited by its national conditions and started to develop late. But domestic brands once occupied the dominant position in the industry. A consumption revolution and spanformation began in 2012, making the difference between domestic brands and international giants, and the distance between the leading brands of the state is farther and farther away. Today, Nike and Adidas are firmly in the top two in the Chinese market. Anta has grown to be the leader of domestic sporting goods companies through the spanformation of the company's sales and operation mode. Lining, 361 degrees, XTEP and Anta are getting bigger and bigger. In the future, competition in China's sportswear industry will continue to intensify, and smoke will rise again among giants.

Twists and turns, international giants reach the top

China's sports wear industry started late as a result of national conditions. In the 90s of last century, Lining founded the Lining brand in Beijing. At the same time, Anta was founded in Jinjiang, Fujian, and there were many sporting goods enterprises on both sides of Jinjiang. Entering the new century, thanks to the great influence of China's successful Olympic bid, China's sporting goods industry has been in a period of rapid development. During this period, China's state-owned brands once exceeded the Nike and Adidas which entered the Chinese market. In the post Olympic era, due to the blind expansion of enterprises, the lack of understanding of the actual situation of consumers, the wholesale spanformation to retail mode was not timely, the Chinese sportswear enterprises experienced great impact, and began to seek spanformation, and a group of enterprises gradually faded out of the consumers' sight. In 2014, under the policy of encouraging the whole nation to keep fit, the state owned brand revenue began to resume growth and entered a new stage of development.

In the first ten years of the new century, Nike and Adidas, the two largest international sporting goods giants that have entered the Chinese market, have gradually improved their sales layout in China, laying stress on the management of retail channels and consumer information analysis, changing the sales mode and reducing inventory. In 2012, the domestic sportswear brand enterprises set a leading position in the Chinese market because of the stock price problem breaking into the performance decline and the mode adjustment stage. According to European and international data, in 2012, the share of Nike and Adidas in sportswear market in China was 13.7% and 13.3% respectively, and fierce competition in the following years, but the overall market share is rising. In 2017, Adidas had a market share of 19.80% in China's sportswear field, while Nike declined slightly over the previous year and its market share was 16.80%. The market share of Anta is only 8%.

The gap between domestic giants is bigger.

In 2012, the sports wear industry in our country had been blindly expanding the wholesale channel and increasing the inventory. Under the backlog of sales which was less than expected, the domestic sports brands such as Lining and Anta had been seriously affected. Through the spanformation of wholesalers to retailers, Anta achieved the breakthrough of domestic brands, and the sales scale gradually surpassed Lining. In 2017, Lining realized sales of 4 billion 172 million yuan in sportswear, while the sales of Anta sportswear reached 9 billion 116 million yuan in the same period, which surpassed the total of three enterprises of Lining, 361 degrees and XTEP.

In the first half of 2018, the sales of four brands of Anta, Lining, 361 degree and XTEP in sportswear were 6 billion 65 million yuan, 2 billion 300 million yuan, 1 billion 209 million yuan and 902 million yuan respectively, representing an increase of 64.6%, 30.7%, 8.1% and 24.1% respectively. Anta is still far ahead of its sports wear sales revenue or growth rate, which is close to two times the total sales of the other three enterprises, while XTEP, which is almost the same as the 361 degree sportswear sales, has lagged behind. The gap between domestic giants has been gradually widening.

Some enterprises leave the field, and the competition of domestic sportswear industry will continue to intensify.

The market size of China's sporting goods industry and sportswear industry is expanding, but the concentration of the industry is also improving. According to the international data, China's sports footwear industry CR10 has increased from 58.6% in 2012 to 68.9% in 2017. The concentration of the industry has been raised by the departure of a number of sports brands. In 2018, Jinjiang's del Hui company paid off its creditors, while the former left the company. Chinleck and Meck and other brands have gradually fade out of the consumer's attention.

In order to achieve good development in the process of adjustment, domestic sports brand enterprises have entered the outdoor field. In 2013, it reached a strategic cooperation with the Nordic outdoor brand One Way Sport, and established a joint venture to design, produce, distribute and promote One Way products in Greater China region in 361. In 2016, Anta and Japan's outdoor sports brand DESCENTE reached a joint venture agreement; in February 2017, Anta announced that its wholly owned subsidiary ANKO and Korea's well-known outdoor brand Kolon Sport reached a joint venture agreement. In May 2018, PEAK sports acquired OZARK and entered the field of professional outdoor sports. The expansion of domestic sports brand will undoubtedly further expand the scale of operation, but at the same time, it means that the competition in sportswear industry is more intense.

With the increase of consumers' demand for product quality and the increase of brand identity, the domestic sportswear enterprises must strengthen investment in product research and development, strengthen the application of science and technology, and build brand at the same time. However, small and medium enterprises will not be able to continue in the situation of rising manpower and raw material costs. And Anta, Lining and other domestic famous brands will compete fiercely in a number of fields. Anta may catch up with Nike and Adidas in the domestic market and enter the first tier. Lining, 361, XTEP and other brands as the second tier team may further widen the gap with the first tier in the spanformation process; and brands such as gold lake and Meck gradually disappear in the sight of consumers, which are gradually squeezed. With the establishment of production factories in Southeast Asia by Nike and Nike enterprises, many small and medium-sized sports OEM enterprises will face greater pressure to survive. Author: Li Yifan