Introduction
We suggest you refer to our article in the January 2019 issue, “The Evolution of Activewear – Part 1” where we introduced the markets in the U.S., the UK, and China. We also wrote about the opportunities in this category for intimate apparel manufacturers. In “The Evolution of Activewear – Part 2” we focused on the business in the U.S.
For this article, we introduce the business in the second largest market, China, using a lot of charts to explain the situation. The following chart shows you the market share of the ten largest markets.
In 2017, China’s sportswear market grew 12% to $31.5 billion, or 212 billion yuan. According to Euromonitor International, the market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 11% through 2022. At the moment, 40% of the global sporting goods market is in the U.S. China accounts for only 10%. But China has a population four times that of the U.S. and it’s growing very fast.
With the world’s largest running shoe market and the second largest market in sportswear along with the dominance of big international sports brands, Nike and Adidas, China is a very important market in the sports arena. The chart below shows you the ten best-selling brands.
The local brands are also growing their market share on the heels of Nike and Adidas. You can find Li Ning in third place followed by Ante in fifth. This is forcing Adidas, currently the market leader with sales of almost $30 billion a year, to innovate. Its new Asian-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai’s Xuhui district is a digital hub, with a dedicated staff of 50 developing digital capabilities in China. The new site can hold 1,500 employees.