Rich Chinese splurge on sportswear as luxury's lustre dims
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E-mail China Daily, February 19, 2016
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This year China will host its first Ironman events after Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin bought World Triathlon Corp for US$650 million. [Photo/China Daily] |
That compares with traditional luxury titans like Italy's Prada - a maker of fancy handbags - which sank 45 percent on the Hong Kong exchange last year as Beijing's clampdown on corruption and China's slowest economic growth in 25 years forced China's elite to change their spending habits.
Some of the money once spent on French wine and Italian leather now appears to be flowing into high-end heart-rate monitors and running shoes.
China's sportswear market will surpass the luxury goods market by 2020, according to Euromonitor, with double-digit growth each year to 280.8 billion yuan ($43.10 billion) compared with luxury's single digit growth to 192.4 billion yuan in the same period. Europe's sportswear market, by comparison, would be worth $64 billion by 2020, it says.
And China's market is only just starting to flex its muscles. The sports sector contributes 0.67 percent of China's total gross domestic product, compared with 2.2 percent in the European Union and 3.5 percent in the United States, according to Oriental Patron Research.
GETTING PHYSICAL
In Hong Kong, a typical GPS sports watch costs up to HK$2000 ($257) with top brands charging closer to HK$4000, while a pair of compression tights averages about HK$900.
"I spend mostly on sports shoes and sports watches," said Gu Xiaojiang, 36, a keen marathon runner who works in the finance industry in Shanghai.
"From an expenses point of view, not including transport fees ... I spend a few thousand yuan a year. But if I start biking, then I suspect I'll start spending a lot."
Those who want to look sporty without actually working up a sweat are increasingly buying "athleisure", a mix of athletic and casual clothing that has grown popular even in formal settings like offices in the United States.
As Chinese customers become more affluent they are becoming more demanding when purchasing, said Shakeel Nawaz, director at Escapade Sports which sells sportswear and nutrition products mainly to the Hong Kong market.
"The mainland customers we get are very, very focused. They know exactly what they want in our stores. It hasn't gotten to the watershed moment when it becomes a mainstream thing, but they are catching up," he said.
($1 = 6.5154 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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