China becomes major consumer in sportswear market

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-03 10:33

However, Adidas, the world's second biggest sports supply company challenged the status of Nike in China by also succeeding in becoming one of top sponsors of Beijing Olympics.

Adidas has provided sports clothes to more than 600,000 members of Chinese Olympic delegation and organizing committee, and volunteers. This will greatly build up its reputation among Chinese consumers.

The company set up its first global brand center in the Sanlitun Shopping Center in early July .

"The center was meant to be a milestone of Adidas taking a larger share of the Chinese market," said President of the Adida Brand Erich Stamminger, adding that China is one of the most important markets for his company.

Although young people like Chen Chen liked international brands, older Chinese people still prefer domestic brands for their cheap prices.

"My aunt just bought a pair of shoes and some clothes of 361 degrees, and said they are very comfortable," said Chen.

Xu Yang said Anta has bigger share in the market of small and middle-sized cities than Nike and Adidas. It has also been ranking the first in the country's sports shoes market since 2001.

"Our total sales volume increased by 50 percent in the past two years. We scored more than three billion yuan ($430 million dollars) last year," Xu said.

"There is still a big potential for the development of China's future sports supply market," said Zhang Heng, general manager of Sanfo Company, a Chinese brand name for outdoor supplies.

He said taking sports shoes as an example, latest statistics showed that the average possession of per capita sports shores are about two pairs for Chinese, seven for Americans and about five for Japanese. This showed that the potential for Chinese market was huge.

Statistics from CESSA showed that in 2003, the total sales volume of outdoor supplies was only 100 million yuan ($14 million dollars), while the figure reached 2.6 billion ($370 million dollars) in 2007.

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