HEALTH AND FITNESS IN CHINA: A GROWING TREND IN CLOTHING TOO
During 2022 many sportswear brands such as Nike, Lululemon, Li Ning and others showed strong signs of recovery in the sector in China. Data from Nike’s CFO show that Gen Z demand for Nike products on Tmall rose 45% during the Singles’ Day shopping festival alone. Likewise, Lululemon’s sales keep climbing, and its three-year revenue growth rate in the Chinese market is now close to 70%. Meanwhile Li-Ning also posted high single-digit growth in the third quarter of 2022.
The Chinese sportswear market boasts an annual growth rate of over 9% and was worth 52 billion dollars (372 billion RMB) in 2021. Needless to say, China is a goldmine of opportunity for athleisure and luxury brands. Many factors are bringing sportswear into Chinese people’s daily lives: growing health awareness, government initiatives and major sporting events such as the Olympics have all fuelled a desire for an active lifestyle. In April 2022 alone, 67 million Chinese people were using fitness apps to work out at home. The choice to buy sportswear is also driven by the fact that the collections combine sporty and casual styles, so they can be worn outside of workouts too.
In particular, Chinese women are increasingly taking up sports hobbies or going to the gym. Exercise has become a growing trend among women, who make up more than 56% of active users of domestic sports and fitness apps. Women show a strong preference for specific clothing such as yoga pants, sports bras, loose training T-shirts and more. Brands that played their cards right are now reaping the benefits, such as Lululemon, a maker of luxury yoga pants for 25 years, which overtook Adidas and secured a good share of the market to become the second-largest sportswear brand in the world. Outdoor activities such as camping, frisbee, cycling and paddle sports are becoming ever more present in Chinese social life, which benefits sports brands too.
Luxury houses are also competing for this thriving sector. For example, jewellery brand Tiffany recently teamed up with Nike to release a pair of sneakers in its iconic Tiffany blue. In recent years many luxury houses have partnered with renowned sportswear companies to embrace the changing shopping habits of Gen Z.
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