CHINA RISING (Part 2)

Last week you read about the emergence of Chinese athletic brand Li Ning, there well designed products and their coup d'etat that snatched D.Wade from the formidable Jordan Brand. This week we bring you, yet another chinese brand also poised for a takeover, we bring you ANTA. (HEEEE-YAAAA!!)

ANTA was established in 1994 in Jinjiang, and roughly 16 years later they bought the 'Fila' trademark in mainland China, Hong Kong  to run the Fila business in these three areas. Since then, the company, (and I quote), has expanded to more than "7,500 franchise brand stores(/shops) in the world, penetrating 15 countries and regions including Italy, Turkey, Czech Republic and Serbia in Europe, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines in Asia" as well as sponsoring "152 sports teams with a total 4,000 person/times annually, engaging over 300 different product lines and over 200,000 items."

All this for a brand that turns 20 this year. Talk about pushing hard and fast.

Whats interesting to see, is what the brand is doing for marketing their business,...exactly what LiNing did, get popular International athletes to wear your brand and poof..sales!sales! and more sales. The sport in question, Basketball! ...the player(s) in question, Rajan Rondo of Boston Celtics Championship fame and,...wait for it,.....KEVIN GARNETT !!!.

So why the all caps for KG?, well aside from the the fact that he's an unstoppable 7 foot beast on the court, Mr.Garnett also had a  $2 million-a-year LIFETIME deal with, wait for it again.....Adidas. So how does an upstart chinese brand get a championship winning NBA Allstar to leave a lucrative lifetime deal with one of the 3 top athletic brands in the world? simple...pay him more.
I don't know what the numbers add up to, but i'd be a monkey's uncle if that wasn't the strategy.
(Worthy of note is the fact that KG had previously been signed to Nike and AND 1 before his Adidas adventure)

Garnett's signature Nikes.

Garnetts signature And 1's.

Garnetts signature adi's while with the timberwolves

One of Garnett's last signature shoes with Adidas while with the celtics

Frolicking with yet another adidas lifetime deal signee,..DAVID BECKHAM

A very memorable ad with Adidas, very memorable indeed.

signed, sealed, delivered

Kevin Garnett....AS A MANGA!!

ANTA KG 1

ANTA KG 2

ANTA KG 3

 To see sketches and ideas for the anta KG 3 (pictured above) go to this place. (hee hee)

Anta TV Spot with Garnett(s)

ANTA KG 4

Rajan Rondo is yet another athlete the anta brand scooped from Nike. RR promoted the Nike Zoom Hyperfuse and was usually seen rocking these on court, but he never really had his own signature shoe...until now. 

 Anta not only gave the championship point guard his own shoe, but like KG, they are seeking to possibly craft a brand around him. Though at the time Rondo was recovering from a torn ACL, and didn't wear them to play when launched, the Anta RR 1 are a nice pair of shoes and just as durable as any other big name brand.

Rondo's logo with anta

Looking at all of this, one thing is certain, Chinese brands are not letting the world sleep on them and are effectively and tirelessly positioning themselves as brands that can do battle with the big boys. It may take a while before they truly get the market share that the likes of Nike and 'em current command, but a billion (plus) chinese customers is far from being a bad start.

Interested in patronising the brand? check out their online basketball store (understanding hanzi or mandarin may be a requirement for navigation, lol)