Two major events occurred 500 years ago: one was Sun Wukong causing havoc in Heaven, and the other was Columbus discovering the New World. Five hundred years later, numerous brands from Europe and America now regard China as the New World. Starting from three hours after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979, when Coca-Cola announced its entry into China, the giants have been setting up their golden mining equipment in China.
Major Western outdoor brands seemingly missed the last decade of the 20th century. During those ten years, sportswear brands like Nike and Adidas became omnipotent in China, establishing extremely high brand recognition. At that time, however, the concept of outdoor brands barely existed in China.
Over the past decade, with the rise of China’s sports market, the ISPO China Expo, the world’s largest sports exhibition, has been held annually in Beijing. This has become a rare opportunity for key domestic and international outdoor, winter, extreme, and sports professionals to make a pilgrimage to Beijing.
(I)
The outdoor brand scene is truly a complex world. Chinese people often ask, what’s the best brand? People have long grown accustomed to answers like “Lu is first, Zhao is second, Dian Wei is third, Guan is fourth, Ma is fifth, and Zhang Fei is sixth.” In the sportswear realm, the tripartite dominance of Nike, Adidas, and Puma is enough to resolve most of the questioners’ doubts. Brands like FILA, Li-Ning, and Anta are akin to the isolated Goguryeo in the northeast—never really getting a chance to compete with the big three.
Sportswear is generally about clothes and shoes, but outdoor brands have complex product lines: clothing, footwear, ropes, sleeping bags, tents, helmets, goggles, harnesses. Master any one of them well enough, and you can sustain an entire company. No one really bows down to anyone else. It’s much like the Water Margin—martial prowess varies, but everyone serves different functions. Guan Sheng is great with a saber, Lin Chong excels with a spear, Dai Zong is a marathon runner, and even the lowly-ranked, faceless Jiao Ting can knock Li Kui flat on his back.
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Brands like The North Face, Columbia, Jack Wolfskin, Toread, and Camel are familiar to many Chinese, but they don’t represent the full scope of outdoor brands. In China, these brands are primarily bought for cold weather protection. Take Toread, the top-ranking domestic brand, for example—over half of its sales come from northern China. Bear in mind, climatically speaking, northern China is cold in winter but has no mountains to climb. Speaking of which, I picture this scene: a dusty black Jetta parked at Beijing’s China World Trade Center, the driver wearing a bright red two-piece windbreaker, yelling, “50 kuai per person, get in now, heading to Tongzhou and Yanjiao!”
Looking back in history, one must mark 1995, when Camel opened its first store in Beijing, as the year the Chinese outdoor industry was born. This company, founded by Chinese entrepreneur Wan Jingang, dominated streets and alleys across China’s third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities over the following 20 years. Children born in the 1980s surely remember the loudspeakers blasting songs outside Camel stores.
(III)
Although they missed out on the early advantage of rising alongside sportswear brands, more mainstream Western outdoor brands have made significant moves into China over the past decade. This is the decade when Chinese people began to prosper. Neither too early nor too late, they arrived just in time, gently greeting China with a simple, “So, you’re here too.”
Starting in 2004, Swire Properties began representing the Columbia brand in China. Within ten years, Swire had propelled Columbia to the top spot among international brands in China by sales volume. Don’t be naive enough to think Swire built its fortune solely by representing Columbia. This long-established Hong Kong trading company boasts a wide array of subsidiaries including shipping, aviation, real estate, construction machinery, and more—from cube sugar to airplanes, even the Coca-Cola consumed by four hundred million people worldwide is distributed by Swire. It’s fair to say, Swire made Columbia.
Although Columbia is currently the top-selling international brand in China, and even in North America, the company’s fatal flaw lies in its inability to clearly define what it excels at. Columbia’s branding approach is as all-encompassing as its name—it could be the name of an outdoor brand, a broadcasting company, a university, or even a country. Really, it wants to say it’s great at marketing, but it just can’t come out and say it. It’s like asking a chef, “What dish do you make best?” and the chef replying, “I’m not particularly good at anything, but everyone comes to eat anyway, so I can’t help it.”
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If we’re talking about prestige, there are indeed some true icons in this industry.
Patagonia is renowned for having the best fleece products in the industry. It’s also a brand with a story. The owner of Patagonia spends nearly six months of the year not in the office, but rock climbing, surfing, or fishing around the world. Under his leadership, every employee is allowed to drop work and go surfing; employees who’ve just completed one year can apply for a two-month paid sabbatical. Industry rumors say Patagonia’s leadership creed is to keep the company’s growth rate under 5%.
Patagonia’s most remarkable contribution is the “Earth Tax.” In 1985, Patagonia initiated the “1% for the Planet” campaign, where participating companies voluntarily donate 1% of their annual sales revenue to environmental causes. To date, the organization has 728 member companies globally.
ARC’TERYX, translated into Chinese as 始祖鸟 (Shǐzǔniǎo), or “the first bird.” Experience tells us that no brand with a dot in its name should be underestimated—this is akin to how Hermès has become a symbol of prestige in China. ARC’TERYX focuses primarily on product R&D. Despite having countless retail outlets worldwide, this company, founded in 1989, currently operates only about a dozen company-owned stores. Bear in mind, it was established in 1989. In an era where many industry leaders claim their companies were founded by their great-great-grandfathers, it’s truly rare to see such a young rising star.
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Speaking of great-great-grandfathers, we really must mention the European legends. Mammut, a brand as ancient as the creature it’s named after, was born over 150 years ago at the foot of the Alps in Switzerland. Starting with ropes, it has since grown into a hall-of-fame company in the outdoor industry. With Europe’s many snowy mountains and high-altitude landscapes, European brands represented by Mammut focus more on hiking, ice climbing, and alpine trekking. In Switzerland—a miraculous country almost entirely built at the base of the Alps—buying a rope to climb a mountain or a sleeping bag to spend the night on one is as ordinary as buying a bicycle.
Another amazing thing about Mammut is its setup of its Chinese subsidiary. Normally, a company driven by passion wouldn’t flaunt it—they’d just go for the feeling. But Mammut is different. Given its deep emphasis on the Chinese market, it directly established a wholly-owned subsidiary in China that reports directly to headquarters, rather than following industry convention—first finding an agent to test the waters and make some risk-free profits. This enthusiasm is truly thought-provoking, like a beautiful, fair-skinned European woman holding the hand of a silly Chinese lad every day and saying, “Wo ai ni.”
Haglöfs, which just celebrated its 100th birthday, originated in Sweden. Since its market previously focused mainly on the Nordic region, its product line is primarily geared toward snow sports and high-altitude mountain and forest trekking.
Fellow Swede Fjällräven, known for its backpacks and hunting apparel, was even appointed by royalty, becoming a luxury brand with prices comparable to Arc’teryx. Their iconic multi-colored backpack—the Kånken—is so classic that trendsetters worldwide feel they can’t face people without it.
Beyond these legendary veterans, the ISPO China Expo, to be held in Beijing from January 28–31, will gather even more brands related to sports, outdoor activities, skiing, and fashion. Perhaps in the next decade, these brands still walking the tightrope between art and niche appeal will follow in the footsteps of Nike and Adidas a decade ago and step into the mainstream.