ASICS gears up for China expansion

With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics drawing near, Japanese sportswear maker ASICS is bringing diverse products to the World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2019 to accelerate the rapid development of China's winter sports industry.

Not only products designed for winter sports, but also professional outdoor equipment from Haglöfs, acquired by ASICS in 2010, are shown at the expo, said Hilda Chan, Executive Officer, ASICS Corporate, Director, ASICS China Trading, and Managing Director, ASICS Greater China.

The snow and ice sports sector has also been seeing momentum in the run-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. China is expected to see more than 300 million people involved in winter sports by 2022.

"As a sports brand with a history of 70 years, ASICS has been the inheritor of the Olympic spirit and the transmitter of Olympic culture, helping athletes to improve their level of competition," Chan said. 

ASICS is the official partner of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"Technological innovation has always made ASICS a core driving force in the highlands of the industry," Chan said.

"The ASICS Institute of Sport Science was officially established in Kobe, Japan in 1990," Chan said. "Over the past 20 years, the ISS has launched a number of technological products such as Kayano, Metarun and Metaride, helping more people to enjoy sports in novel ways."

"The Chinese market is dynamic, and its pace of change is very fast," Chan added. "We believe the Institute of Sport Science in Kobe may not keep up with a fast-growing market like China."

In order to make inroads into the Chinese market and create comfortable and trendy sports equipment for Chinese consumers, ASICS established a product development and design center in China in 2019, she said.

The market size of Chinese professional sports shoes is expected to increase by 10 percent in 2019, reaching 56.3 billion yuan($7.94 billion), according to data from Euromonitor International.

Not only focused on their products, ASICS has also carried out several projects, such as tennis training camps for Chinese teenagers to help the development of Chinese sports.

ASICS has reached cooperation agreement with the Chinese national triathlon team to help the team improve their performance in 2016, Chan said.

"As a leader and pioneer in the field of running, ASICS has continued to promote running in China and has sponsored the Wuxi Marathon and the Xi'an International Marathon," she added.

Such ongoing efforts are echoing the country's plan to boost the development of the sports industry.

Inspired by increasing public sports participation, China has pledged to further promote fitness and sports consumption through a plan issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, in September.

The plan has encouraged sports consumption and optimized the sports consumption environment to support innovative development of the sporting goods manufacturing industry.

ASICS has observed the rise of sports and leisure style and actively explores the lifestyle of Chinese youth, Chan said.

"Constant innovation can provide Chinese consumers with more choices outside the sports field," she added. "ASICS has already cooperated with fashion designers Kiko Kostadinov and Vivienne Westwood to launch a variety of shoes with both trend and technology to make hipsters release their individuality."