China’s younger generation becomes increasingly interested in a healthy lifestyle, thus the sales of sportswear rose by 12 percent YOY, hitting 212 billion last year. The sportswear market now performs a lot better than the general apparels one (which grew only 4 percent during the same period). The growth of the sportswear market is expected to continue and should reach RMB 318 billion in 2022.
Desire for a healthy lifestyle also led to a growing interest in gym’s. This industry grew by 10 percent CAGR over the past five years and might reach USD 6.9 billion by the end of this year.
Currently, the Chinese sportswear industry is dominated by Adidas and Nike, which have market shares of 20.8 and 20.1 percent respectively. But there are also chances for smaller players, especially if they are unique, high-end brands.
Examples of such brands are Maia Active or Particle Fever. Maia Active is a startup from Shanghai which focuses on clothes specially designed for slimmer Asian bodies, Particle Fever focuses on fashionable high-performance sportswear.
Some other brands that are becoming increasingly popular in China are Supreme and Off White, which position themselves as a mix of luxury and streetwear.
Nike had to learn an important lesson regarding the marketing: they branded their products as clothes for sport, which didn’t work well and hurt the growth of sales. Adidas, on the other hand, branded its clothes as lifestyle clothes and thus enjoyed considerable success.
