Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, January 20 (Wang Jianbing) on December 15, a message was swiped in the circle of friends: China Track and Field Association and Xtep jointly launched the strategy of “national race and national race, among them, the record-breaking Award in the” Chinese race “incentive plan is as high as 1 million yuan, and 10000 yuan will be added for every 1 second of breakthrough.
A few months ago, another message about Tebu was on the Internet: Dong Guojian, the famous Chinese marathon General, wore domestic Tebu running shoes and finished the race at 2 hours 8 minutes 28 seconds in the Berlin Marathon, create the second best result in the history of Chinese men’s marathon.
The deep ploughing Road has been running for more than ten years. Recently, Xtep has frequently brushed the screen to run circles and even sports circles. From “fashion movement” “sports fashion” to “return movement” and “return to sports spirit”, the special step that has experienced many strategic transformation is based on what kind of judgment determines the field of force running, how will it grow with China marathon? What is the methodology behind this?
Xtep’s “road running gene”
“recalling the establishment of Xtep brand, it was 18 years ago.” Ding Shuibo, specially invited vice chairman of China Track and Field Association and chairman and CEO of Xtep group, told Xinhua sports that in 2001, Xtep, “New Arrival”, should avoid homogeneous competition with other brands, to extend the runway to the direction of fashion and life, the positioning of “fashion movement” is proposed.
But after a period of development, by 2015, the old brands of domestic sporting goods began to seek new and change collectively. Just as Anta’s retail reform led by Ding Shizhong, Li Ning’s brand comprehensive rejuvenation and retail refinement reform, in 2015, under the leadership of Ding Shuibo, Xtep also began a radical reform.
Which direction can the reform be changed? Ding Shuibo said, “an industry and a brand must have their own core competitiveness. A sporting goods brand must strive to be the first in a specific field.” With the rapid development of social economy, Marathon is booming under the promotion of national fitness and healthy China. It has been endowed with brand-new social and humanistic values by The Times, and “running China” has become the norm. The answer of Xtep is to run hard.
Xtep took running as the main category in the early stage of brand establishment. In 2015, Xtep announced “return to sports”. On December 15, 2019, Xtep and China Track and Field Association jointly launched the strategy of “national race and national race”, and once again put forward the strategy of “returning to sports spirit”, emphasizing its core strategic position. This change represents Xtep’s return to the essence of sports brands and also includes the prospect of Marathon in China.
With the goal of “the preferred brand of Chinese runners”, Xtep is not willing to invest in research and development. In 2017, Xtep running Science Laboratory started operation. In 2018, Xtep’s more than 1700 square meters shoe research and development innovation center was fully put into operation, with more than 50 research and development personnel covering science, engineering, materials, product design and development and other fields. Tebu also cooperated with suppliers such as Japan Dongli, Dow Chemical, 3M Company and Nvidia company to develop fiber materials, and launched several core running shoes technologies including power nest, shock absorption spinning, and air Mega.
Continuous product innovation directly reflects the results on the marathon track. In the 2020 Xiamen Marathon held on January 5, 2020, the top two men in the men’s group wore special-step running shoes. In addition to working on the product side, Xtep has a deeper layout in the marathon field. Previously, the strategic conference of “national racing, national running” jointly initiated by China Track and Field Association and Tebu was held. As a brand of sporting goods, Tebu’s blueprint for growing together with the domestic marathon industry is gradually clear.
Let more people run and get up quickly
“facing the Chinese marathon, I want to ask three questions.” At the strategic press conference, Ding Shuibo’s words hit the floor. First question, when will the Chinese marathon record be broken again? Second question, when will China Marathon break the Asian record? Third, when will Chinese marathon runners stand on the Olympic podium again?
And the strategy of “race for the Chinese and run for the whole people” was put forward to answer these questions.
To develop Chinese marathon, improving the competitive level is the key. The strategy of “Chinese racing” aims at the athletes in the management area of China Association of Tian ‘an, setting the record breaking award of “Chinese racing”, the breakthrough award of “Chinese racing” and the standard award of “Chinese racing. Those who break the national marathon record will be rewarded with 1 million yuan.
In order to guide the event to pay attention to the competitive level of Chinese marathon athletes, the strategy of “Chinese racing” also puts forward the incentive plan for the event, it is divided into “Chinese racing” competition record award and “Chinese racing” competition breakthrough award.
At the same time, the “Chinese racing” strategy also includes the youth incentive plan, which will hold summer training, winter training and supporting competitions for teenagers aged 12 to 20, select and cultivate the future stars of Chinese marathon in the form of a combination of training camp and events.
On the other hand, in addition to making players “get up quickly” and encouraging more people to “run up”, it is also the meaning of developing China’s track and field career. The strategy of “running smoothly for all” is aimed at the most extensive group of runners, emphasizing the national character and participation of Marathon.
Xtep has established the brand running group “Xtep” and Xtep running club to provide various service support such as equipment, service, social networking and platform for runners to improve running experience, and take this as the basis of the strategy of “running smoothly for all.
321 Running Festival is the primary innovation of the strategy of “running smoothly for all. On March 21, 2016, Xtep Initiated 321 Running Festival to create an exclusive festival for Chinese runners. As a marathon partner of China Track and Field Association, Xtep has also received strong support from China Track and Field Association. Since 2018, the two sides have jointly held 321 Running festivals and are committed to creating a nationwide and diverse running carnival.
In order to facilitate runners to participate more in the competition, the important content of the strategy of “running for All” also includes event sponsorship. Xtep has been in the field of running since 2007. It has sponsored and held more than 1,000 running events and activities, covering a total of more than 0.1 billion kilometers and serving more than 5 million runners.
In June this year, Ding Shuibo was elected as the invited vice chairman of China Track and Field Association. In this regard, he told Xinhua sports, “over the past ten years, Xtep has been developing together with China’s marathon. In the future, Xtep will do more.”
Run out of a closed loop
judging from the layout of Xtep in the marathon field, it has covered many aspects such as events, training, Runner service, etc. The goal of Xtep is to become “the preferred brand of Chinese runners”, which means to integrate its own advantages and open up the industrial chain related to user demand, technology, products, services and platforms, build a complete road-running ecosystem. Among them, creating a product matrix is the top priority.
In 2019, the pace of international mergers and acquisitions of domestic sporting goods brands accelerated, among which there were many special steps.
In March 2019, Xtep and the American shoe-making enterprise announced on Wolverine (Wolverine) that the two sides invested 0.155 billion yuan to establish a joint venture company to carry out Saucony in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao (Saucony) the marketing and distribution of shoes, clothing and accessories under Hele (Merrell) brand.
Ding Shuibo said that the running crowd is very large nowadays, from professional runners to runners, the consumption demand is very diverse. While consolidating the advantages of the main business, Xtep has been seeking suitable targets to expand its brand matrix and respond to the demand of the subdivided personalized market. This is Xtep’s “multi-brand combination” strategy. Xtep’s vision is to build the world’s first brand of sports fashion and become a respected national brand operator.
On May 2 this year, Xtep International announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary XtepGlobalLimited proposed to purchase E-LandWorld of the target company by the seller (E-LandUSA and E-LandFootwearUSAHoldingsInc). All issued shares at a cost of US $0.26 billion. This action is also regarded as the implementation and continuation of Xtep’s “multi-brand combination” strategy.
E-LandFootwearUSAHoldingsInc. Many people are not familiar with this name, but the company’s brand is famous-the company has international famous brands such as gaishiwei (K-Swiss) and Paladin (palladium), with sports, high-performance sports, all Terrain adventure activities and fitness activities design, development and marketing rights and interests of shoes, clothing and accessories and leisure clothing.
From Saucony, Merlot to Galway and Paladin, it is not difficult to find that these brands have several common characteristics. First of all, most of the main products of these brands are footwear. Secondly, these brands are highly professional in one or several fields. In addition, from the perspective of pricing and brand positioning, these brands take more medium and high-end routes.
Judging from the characteristics of these brands, Xtep continues to exert its power on footwear, and through the idea of developing high-end and specialized markets through multiple brands, it has already jumped into the paper.
“Xtep mainly serves mass consumers in the Chinese market. However, taking marathon as an example, there are several different levels of consumer demand. The purpose of our layout is to form a product matrix to adapt to different consumer groups.” Ding Shuibo said. He also said that after running and adjusting, brands such as gaishiwei and Paladin are in good operating condition and are expected to start making profits in overseas markets next year.
“China’s sports industry is a sunrise industry. What a brand needs to do is to focus, innovate and meet the needs of consumers. I am full of confidence in the development of China’s sports industry, road running industry and Tebu itself.” Ding Shuibo said.
I believe that with the implementation of the strategy of “Racing for the Chinese people and running for the whole people” and the gradual formation of Xtep’s products and brand matrix, Xtep can be in the process of China’s marathon development and even the construction of a sports power, leave a deeper mark.