Anta Sports, the leading Chinese sports brand, wants to turn global football into one of the most important categories for its development in the coming years. It has adopted a “Play is All” strategy that ranges from the development of adjusted products for China's young players to increased investments to support football infrastructure and participation.
Football development has gained much impetus in China in the last two years, with the implementation of the Football Reform Plan, increased support from the Chinese government and sports brands. Xi Jinping, the country's president, is a football enthusiast who has repeatedly aired his ambition to bring the football World Cup to China.
Earlier this year, both Nike and Adidas announced partnerships to support the development of football among China's youth. Anta's involvement could have significant repercussions as well, since it surpassed Li Ning in 2011 to become the largest Chinese sports brand.
Anta has formed a strategic partnership with the Jiangsu Province Administration of Sports to establish the Jiangsu Youth Soccer League and promotional activities such as training camps. The company hopes to replicate this partnership in other provinces. The Jiangsu Youth Soccer League should involve an estimated 20,000 youngsters competing in more than 200,000 league matches, covering 1,000 elementary, junior and senior high schools.
Another partnership was sealed with the Evergrande Football School, to which Anta will provide gear to the academy and to the school's elite soccer team. The two partners have agreed to launch four soccer training courses and coach training classes every year, with the Evergrande Real Madrid coaching team training elementary and high school coaches. The program is expected to produce 2,000 professional youth soccer coaches in the next three years.
The third partner is Shuhua Company, which specializes in fitness equipment. Anta and Shuhua have agreed to develop soccer facilities, using Shuhua's modular cage soccer (PKO) pitches to make up for the shortage of playing fields in China, and promoting soccer on campuses and schools across the country.
Finally, Anta is hoping to cash in on the development of football through special football footwear for Chinese players. The company boasts that it has collected data on the feet of 16,000 youngsters to come up with the most suitable fit for local players.
Anta is preparing to launch in the fourth quarter a full series of children's boots for different types of pitches, from natural and artificial turf to gravel, boarded floors, crumb rubber and cement. The prices are aligned with Anta's positioning as an accessible quality sports brand with prices for children's boots starting from 199 Chinese renminbi (€28.6-$31.3). Football footwear for teenagers and adults is to be launched in the first quarter next year, at prices from RMB 299 to RMB 599 (€43/86-$47/94).
Anta is also teaming up with several famous Chinese football players to back up its strategy. Zheng Zhi, the current captain of China's national football team and Asian Footballer of the Year, has been appointed as Anta football promotion manager. Fan Zhiyi and Xu Yang, both former Chinese national football team players, have become Anta coaches.
Separately, Anta announced that it achieved a low double-digit increase in the wholesale value of orders at its trade fair in September, for products to be delivered in the second quarter of 2016. The company added that same-store retail sales for Anta stores run by distributors and franchises for more than one year increased at a high single-digit rate in the third quarter, compared with the same quarter last year.
