Olympics-Winter goods win as Games spark buying rush in China

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh

BEIJING (Reuters) – The beginning of the Beijing Winter Olympics has triggered a gold rush for winter sport items in China, with on-line purchases of apparatus and clothes from manufacturers equivalent to Anta Sports activities and Descente surging, and bodily shops stripped naked.

The Chinese language e-commerce agency JD.com’s stated gross sales of ski merchandise on its platform for the interval from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4 – the day of the opening ceremony – tripled from the identical interval final yr. Ski goggle gross sales jumped 15 occasions and gross sales of determine skates and ice hockey sticks additionally jumped.

Over the identical interval, gross sales of ski gear and skating merchandise on Alibaba Group’s Tmall market rose 180% and 300% respectively, the corporate stated.

Neither platform offered gross sales figures.

Gross sales of down jackets made by China’s Anta and Descente of Japan in the identical interval doubled from the earlier yr, JD.com stated.

Huang Xiaohu, a 34-year-old businessman within the northeastern metropolis of Dalian, stated he had pushed to his native Decathlon retailer the day after the ceremony in quest of a snowboard and ski garments, solely to depart empty-handed.

“Every little thing was bought out,” he stated. “There have been solely socks left, however the alternative of these was restricted too.”

Anta, an official sportswear companion of the Beijing Video games, led a gaggle that paid 4.6 billion euros ($5.3 billion) three years in the past for Finland’s Amer Sports activities, whose portfolio consists of European ski manufacturers Atomic and Salomon, and Canadian outerwear model Arc’teryx.

Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like life-style content material platform, reported a spike in searches for Workforce Canada’s purple and white outfit and its producer Lululemon after the opening ceremony.

Makers of winter sports activities clothes and gear have been speeding to increase their presence on the earth’s second-largest economic system, betting that the Olympics kindle enthusiasm past the Feb. 20 shut in a nascent market.

U.S.-based Spyder, KJUS and Mammut of Switzerland, Helly Hansen of Norway, Templa of Belgium, and Rossignol and Fusalp of France are amongst manufacturers which have expanded into China within the final two years, whereas Goldwin of Japan and Head Sportswear of Austria opened their first shops in China in late December.

China hopes the Video games flip it right into a winter sports activities energy: President Xi Jinping has set a goal of getting 300 million Chinese language concerned in ice and snow sports activities, with the intention of constructing a 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) trade.

German trend group Bogner, which makes upmarket winter jackets and ski put on, opened its first self-operated retailer in Beijing late final yr and goals to open extra 80 brick-and-mortar shops in China in partnership with Chinese language model Bosideng by 2025 that may promote two of its manufacturers, Bogner and Fireplace+Ice.

Its down jackets promote for 8,000 to 22,000 yuan ($1,250 to $3,450) in China.

“China’s ski market is creating in the direction of the high-end and Chinese language shoppers worth individualism,” stated William Yang, basic supervisor of Larger China Bogner. ($1 = 6.3623 Chinese language yuan renminbi)

($1 = 0.8757 euros)

(Reporting by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Enhancing by Kevin Liffey)