In recent years, sales of China’s homegrown brands, including those of sportswear, have been greatly boosted, which has led to the continual “rise” of domestic products.
The online market share of domestic brands in China reached up to 72 percent in 2019, according to a report released by the Ali Research Institute. Among them, the market size of online Chinese brands in the health & medicine, beauty & makeup care and food industries registered a year-on-year growth of 38.5 percent, 36.7 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively.
Furthermore, statistics from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce indicated that there were a total of 434 stores opened for the first time under a commodity brand (including flagship stores) in Beijing in the first half of the year, of which 360 were Chinese brands, accounting for about 83 percent.
Chinese sporting goods giant Li Ning recently reported a net profit surge of 187.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, sales of domestic sportswear company Erke skyrocketed by up to 52 times over and above normal levels after its donation to the flood victims in Henan province in July went viral on Chinese social media.
In stark contrast, however, German sports brand Adidas, which announced its financial results a few days ago, experienced negative growth in Greater China. Chinese citizens are now more inclined to purchase apparel produced by domestic brands as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon in purchasing the foreign products that they used to purchase, noted the company’s CEO.
The rising popularity of domestic brands among young people not only reflects a more rationalized concept of consumption, but also demonstrates China's cultural confidence, explained Huang Weiping, a professor of economics at Renmin University of China.