As more and more people engage in outdoor activities such as hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing, and exploration, "backpacking" across the Tianshan Mountains has become a healthy and fashionable pursuit. However, the outdoor gear market is uneven, with some products even lacking national standards, making "backpacking" fraught with risks that leave travelers feeling uneasy.
Outdoor Gear Stores Emerge with the Trend
Outdoor travel is both healthy and fashionable, making it increasingly popular. Jin Yingjie, head of the outdoor department at the Xinjiang Mountaineering Association, said the outdoor travel craze continues to surge year after year.
With over 180 popular outdoor sports routes, including vast deserts, grasslands, and canyons, Xinjiang has become one of the main destinations for outdoor enthusiasts to hike, travel, and explore.
It is estimated that there are currently over 300,000 outdoor sports enthusiasts in Xinjiang, with more than 60,000 people participating in outdoor activities each year through local outdoor websites like Little Sheep Legion Outdoor Network.
Outdoor gear stores in Xinjiang have emerged with the trend. As early as 1997, the first outdoor gear store appeared in Xinjiang, and since 2002, the number of such stores has been on the rise. By 2011, there were over 170 registered companies and individual businesses selling outdoor gear in Urumqi, according to the Urumqi Administration for Industry and Commerce, including more than 60 individual businesses. Industry insiders estimate that there are at least 200 outdoor gear stores in Xinjiang.
Reporters found that outdoor gear stores can now be seen in major shopping malls in Xinjiang’s major cities and prefectures, with sales models such as chains, franchises, and online shopping rapidly developing.
Outdoor Gear: Hard to Distinguish Good from Bad
With the rise of outdoor sports, the outdoor gear market has flourished, but many consumers know little about product quality.
Hiker "Colorful Butterfly" was picking out a windbreaker at an outdoor gear store on Renmin Road in Urumqi. She planned a "backpacking" trip for the weekend and had visited several similarly sized outdoor stores. The jackets looked similar on the outside, but prices could vary by hundreds of yuan. She couldn’t judge the quality or performance, let alone which ones were windproof or waterproof. She could only decide whether to buy based on price, feel, and the seller’s description. Telling genuine products from knockoffs was even harder for her.
"So far, there haven’t been any accidents in Xinjiang due to equipment issues, but that doesn’t mean no one is worried. I’ve been a hiker for nearly 20 years, and in Urumqi, only two or three outdoor gear stores sell real products—the rest are fake. The market is very chaotic," said veteran hiker Wang Xinyi, expressing frustration with the current state of the outdoor gear market.
"People who love outdoor sports often go out for a day or two, or even a week or longer. If the equipment isn’t up to standard, it can be disastrous," said Wang Xinyi’s wife, who has been hiking for ten years. She said that during weekend hikes, she often encounters hikers with subpar gear—either shoes that aren’t breathable, leaving feet sweaty and pale after just a few hours, or sleeping bags that don’t keep warm, making it impossible to sleep through the night.
Reporters visiting the Urumqi market found that while outdoor sportswear comes in a wide variety, there is little information about the functional features of the products. Some products even have less detailed labels than regular clothing, with descriptions only in foreign languages like English or Korean and no Chinese. Prices also vary widely.
Outdoor Gear Needs to "Get Stronger"
Outdoor travel often comes with risks. In recent years, reports of hikers getting stranded or killed have been frequent, and Xinjiang is no exception. It’s easy to imagine how much greater the risks become when using substandard gear.
Wang Xinyi said that outdoor activities involve a lot of movement, sweating, and occasional exposure to wind, snow, rain, and fog, as well as traversing mountains and rivers. This requires outdoor clothing to have good breathability, ventilation, windproofing, waterproofing, and warmth, as well as being lightweight, stretch-resistant, tear-resistant, stain-resistant, antibacterial, and odor-resistant. He believes that given the nature of outdoor sports, the quality standards for gear, including clothing and footwear, should be even stricter.
But the reality is different. Lei Yongkang, deputy head of the Regulations Department at the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Fiber Inspection Bureau, said that China currently has no national standards for outdoor sportswear, but there are two standards for textile quality: voluntary standards (recommended standards), which are not mandatory and can be adopted at the discretion of any organization, with no legal or economic penalties for non-compliance; and mandatory national standards, which must be strictly followed once enacted, with economic sanctions or legal liability for those who cause serious consequences by not complying.
Lei Yongkang said that businesses decide what materials, dyes, and styles to use, and the authorities only check whether they adhere to the standards they claim to follow. For example, we check if a garment has excessive formaldehyde, odors, or if its colorfastness and pH levels meet national requirements—but we can’t control whether it’s made of cotton or synthetic fibers.
According to statistics from the Outdoor Products Branch of the China Textile Commerce Association, China’s outdoor gear industry had a shipment value of 5.43 billion yuan and a retail value of 10.76 billion yuan in 2011, with year-on-year growth rates of 69.16% and 50.91%, respectively. But at the same time, regions like Shandong and Henan have repeatedly reported a lack of standards in the outdoor gear market, with many manufacturers mixing genuine and fake products.
Outdoor sports need to "eliminate risks," and safe, reliable outdoor gear is one of the prerequisites. Some outdoor gear business operators and consumers interviewed said that as the outdoor gear market matures, specific standards for outdoor gear are needed, and relevant industry standards must be improved. The state should quickly establish industry standards to prevent counterfeit and shoddy products from flooding the market, regulate business sales practices, and make it easier for consumers to seek redress.
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