Sporting goods brands are transforming how they approach Chinese New Year, moving away from zodiac-themed product launches toward culturally embedded storytelling that positions athletic gear as tools for personal development rather than competitive achievement.
The narratives this year are increasingly cinematic, anchored to everyday settings, and emotionally dense. They strive for a life philosophy approach. In a society that has experienced mounting social pressures around status and success over recent decades, this inward movement acts as a counterbalance. Brands normally associated with performance and competition are embracing an anti-performance approach.
This may seem paradoxical, but it reveals what sporting goods companies are learning from consumers worldwide: the next big thing is living well with yourself. Mind, body, family happiness and community connections are what sports and fitness are now asked to promote, rather than competition and an obsession with self-measurement. In this gallery, we examine how Western sporting goods brands approached their Lunar New Year activations – visually, product-wise and in messaging.
- Lululemon’s be spring again: finding renewal in repetition
- On: This New Year, start with a rhythm that belongs to you
- Nike: Sport against social pressure
- Salomon: Retracing the ancient Tea Horse Road
- Arc’teryx: Technical gear as cultural currency
Lululemon’s be spring again: finding renewal in repetition
Lululemon partnered with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and actor Zhu Yilong for its third consecutive “Be Spring” campaign, exploring renewal through repetition. The film draws parallels between Ma’s lifelong relationship with Bach’s Prelude and the daily practice of movement, framing spring’s annual return as an opportunity for personal rebirth. The accompanying capsule collection features zodiac motifs and gold embroidery, but the emphasis remains on finding the extraordinary within routine. The brand positions athletic practice as meditation rather than self-improvement.
On: This New Year, start with a rhythm that belongs to you
On took a deliberately anti-performance approach with its “New Year, Your Pace” campaign, which rejects elite athlete imagery in favor of traditional markets, neighborhood barbershops, and city squares. The messaging centers on finding ease at your own pace, positioning the Swiss running brand as a lifestyle partner for everyday movement. The campaign plays on the Chinese phrase “马上” (right away/on horseback) while using earth tones and subtle motion cues rather than bold zodiac graphics.
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Check out the CNY On page, and switch on the sound: city sounds can be as relaxing as music. The message on On’s Chinese homepage is worth reading—and reflecting on: “This New Year, start with a rhythm that belongs to you. / It can be fast, or slow, urgent, or gentle. Passionate, or calm, setting off, or pausing. / Rhythm is not a pace set by the outside world, it is the state where body and mind are most at ease. / In the new year, blessings to everyone who finds their comfortable rhythm.”
Nike: Sport against social pressure
Nike released its “Breaking Through with Sport” film series to address Chinese New Year’s most uncomfortable ritual: family salary comparisons. The campaign abandons zodiac imagery in favor of social commentary.
The first film centers on Beibei, who returns from a run to face relatives competing over income figures. When asked her salary, she answers “200k”—letting the number register as a status victory before revealing she means kilometres, not yuan. The second film shows children ranking parents by corporate titles until one declares his father is “MVP,” reframing the hierarchy entirely.
The approach reflects Nike’s reading of younger Chinese consumers who increasingly reject external status markers. Running and basketball offer alternative identity frameworks—a softer antidote to social pressure. Sport becomes less about competition and more about personal autonomy.
Salomon: Retracing the ancient Tea Horse Road
Salomon looked to China’s own geography for its “Ancient Tea Horse Road” collection—a campaign that doubles as the localized expression of the brand’s broader “Shaping New Futures” repositioning. Rather than leaning on adrenaline or alpine aesthetics, the brand turned to the historic Yunnan-Tibet trade route, a network once traversed by merchants moving tea, salt, and culture across some of the world’s most unforgiving terrain.
The result is a campaign steeped in homage rather than hype. Salomon frames the collection as a return to ancestral exploration—quiet, deliberate, and rooted in place. The visuals echo that restraint: muted tones of almond milk, deep lichen green, and desert tan mirror the Lancang River Gorge and Mangkang Salt Wells, while the silhouettes—XT-Quest, X Ultra 360, and XT-Whisper—are treated less as technical gear and more as artefacts of a journey. Materials nod to the textures of the trade network itself, blurring the line between product and pilgrimage.
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Arc’teryx: Technical gear as cultural currency
Leaning into its status as a premium outdoor leader, Arc’teryx launched the limited-edition “Year of the Horse Rush” series. Priced at over $1,000, the campaign employed high-contrast, dramatic visuals with fire and shadow to highlight red-and-yellow horse motifs. The collection sold out instantly. As we have reported at Sporting Goods Intelligence and discussed in previous webinars, technical gear functions as much as a cultural status symbol as weatherproofing for premium outdoor consumers in China.
The bottom line
Across product releases, grand or familiar narratives, and social-first campaigns, one common thread emerges more clearly this New Year than before: emotional resonance and cultural fluency increasingly determine brand success alongside product innovation and distribution strength. And cultural fluency is no longer about copying shapes and styles or using zodiac graphics – it’s about deep empathy toward the pains, desires, and spirit of Chinese new generations, squeezed between social expectations and sport and outdoor life as a space for physical and mental freedom.
Happy New Year, China. May the fire horse bring you energy and prosperity!
