Publish Time: 2025-06-30 Origin: Site
From strengthening its diversified structure to generous internal incentives, coupled with its recent high-profile debut in North America, ANTA appears ready to make a big splash overseas.
On June 25, ANTA released an announcement regarding its nomination committee. It mentioned that the committee should "review the structure, size, and diversity of the board annually," emphasizing the need to "regularly update the board composition to avoid long-term entrenchment of individual members and attract new perspectives."
In early June, ANTA granted equity incentives to executive directors Bi Mingwei, Lai Shixian, Wu Yonghua, and a total of 342 other employees, totaling approximately 10.45 million shares. Based on the company's closing price on the announcement date, the total value of the incentive shares is approximately HK$1 billion, equivalent to around RMB 900 million.
Already "China's number one and the world's third," ANTA is still eager to explore growth opportunities through various means.
ANTA Group excels in mergers and acquisitions, elevating the performance of brands like Kolon Sport, Descente, FILA, as well as Arc'teryx and Salomon to new heights. However, its main brand ANTA has remained lukewarm over the years, becoming a relative weak link in the group's growth.
With Kolon Sport and Descente entering a high-growth trajectory and FILA reaching a stable range, the strengthening of the ANTA brand has gradually been put on the agenda. Half a month after the announcement of the huge incentives, the ANTA brand made a high-profile appearance in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, opening its first North American store. According to ANTA, the store is scheduled to open in September this year.
Located alongside luxury brands like LV and Chanel, ANTA's core shoe models in North America are priced close to those of Nike and On. Industry insiders generally believe that ANTA's North American expansion may intentionally pursue a high-end trendy brand path different from its domestic positioning.
However, in North America, especially the U.S. market, well-known high-end footwear and apparel brands are numerous, with both established leaders and emerging new forces, resulting in extremely fierce competition. Affected by adverse factors such as global economic volatility, weak consumer demand, and rising trade barriers, ANTA's overseas high-end journey may still be long.
A Different Approach
From store location to product focus, ANTA's North American expansion demonstrates its high-end ambitions different from its domestic mass positioning.
Beverly Hills in Los Angeles is a "city within a city," known as the "most prestigious residential area in the world."
Home to numerous Hollywood celebrities, a short walk along Rodeo Drive reveals luxury brands like LV, Chanel, Cartier, Gucci, and Prada, making it a veritable gathering place for wealthy celebrities and a hub of fashion and luxury.
On June 19 local time, ANTA opened its first North American store in Beverly Hills, officially entering the U.S. market. Industry insiders pointed out that settling in Beverly Hills will help ANTA quickly enhance its brand awareness and premium capability in the North American market by leveraging the neighborhood effect of high-end brands.
On the opening day, ANTA's Global Creative Officer and NBA All-Star player Kyrie Andrew Irving attended the event to promote the brand. Notably, the Kyrie series has been an important product helping ANTA achieve breakthroughs in overseas product and channel exploration, laying a certain foundation for ANTA to establish a high-end brand image in North America.
In terms of pricing, according to Yuanmei Hui, ANTA's core shoe models in North America, such as the ANTA KAI 1 and KAI 2, are priced between $125-130, with apparel prices up to $140, basically focusing on the RMB 800-1000 price range.
In China, ANTA's popular sports shoes are priced between RMB 150-300, and the popular PG 7 series in recent years is basically priced between RMB 250-350, showing a significant price difference in key products.
In terms of channel exploration, in September 2024, ANTA officially entered Foot Locker, a giant global sporting goods retailer, with the launch of the ANTA KAI 1 Speed, while the KAI 1 TEAM appeared on the shoe wall of Dick's Sporting Goods. The launch of KAI 1 marked the beginning of the brand's entry into North America.
In March 2025, the second generation of the Kyrie series, ANTA KAI 2, was simultaneously launched in 16 countries and regions across five continents. Among them, ANTA's launch events in London and Paris were held at Foot Patrol, a high-end store of well-known retailer JD Sports.
Through cooperative launches with major chain stores like Foot Patrol, ANTA's brand coverage in Europe and America has continued to expand, and it is being rolled out in an orderly manner with a high-end positioning.
Cautious Penetration
As we all know, North America is one of the most important markets for global sportswear brands.
Euromonitor International data estimates that the global sportswear market size in 2024 was $386.818 billion. Among them, North America dominated with a size of $165.322 billion, accounting for 42.7% of the global market.
However, this market has long been dominated by international giants like Nike and Adidas.
Citic Securities research report shows that the average overseas revenue share of China's top 5 brands is only 13.6%, far lower than Nike's 58%. Especially in the North American market, the home base of Nike and Adidas, many domestic brands have long faced problems such as low brand awareness and difficult channel construction.
Although ANTA has cautiously entered the market with pre-channel layout and boutique store strategies, it still faces challenges of fierce competition with numerous brands and integration into local culture.
In addition to established leaders Nike and Adidas, On Running, which has emerged in recent years with rising performance, currently also has its main market in the Americas. 2025 Q1 results showed that On Running's net sales increased by 43.0% year-on-year, reaching a record 727 million Swiss francs. Among them, the Americas is On Running's largest revenue contributor, accounting for over 60% of total revenue.
American brand Brooks also has considerable influence in its domestic market. In the first quarter of 2025, Brooks' global revenue increased by 15% year-on-year. The brand achieved double-digit growth in all global markets, and according to Justin Dempsey-Chiam, General Manager of Asia Pacific and Latin America International Markets, "the U.S. accounts for almost 80% of our global business."
According to Yuanmei Hui, Brooks' popular sports shoes are priced between RMB 700-1500; Nike's iconic products like Air Force 1 and AJ1 are priced between RMB 800-1000; and On Running's popular running shoes are basically priced between RMB 1000-1500. These all overlap with ANTA's core product price range of RMB 800-1000 in North America, reflecting the significant resistance ANTA faces in widespread promotion in the U.S.
At the same time, products and brands in this high-end price range have not fared well in the U.S. market environment recently.
U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis data shows that U.S. real GDP contracted at an annual rate of -0.5% in the first quarter of 2025, compared with an expected -0.2%. This means the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years.
In the first quarter, U.S. consumer spending growth was only 0.5%, lower than the initial estimate of 1.2%, a sharp slowdown from the previous quarter, hitting the slowest growth rate in more than four years.
Americans' expectations for the U.S. economic outlook have turned pessimistic. Conference Board survey data shows that U.S. consumer confidence index fell sharply to 93 in June from a revised 98.4 in May, significantly lower than the market consensus of 99.
Amid concerns about tariffs and inflation, American consumerism has gradually subsided, and the second-hand economy has risen.
According to the latest report from U.S. second-hand e-commerce platform Thredup, 33 million Americans bought second-hand clothing online for the first time in 2024; by 2025, this market is expected to reach $77 billion. In this context, ANTA's high-end layout in North America needs to be more prudent.
In addition, despite positioning itself as high-end, Chinese brands often face difficulties in fully conveying brand value in overseas markets due to cultural background differences. In the general perception of European and American consumers, "Made in China" is more associated with cost-effectiveness and delivery speed, but does not have advantages in brand heritage, design aesthetics, and professional authority.
ANTA hopes to gradually transform from a cost-effective brand to a trendy cultural symbol by establishing a presence in Beverly Hills, moving from "China's first" to a "global high-end brand player." However, to truly integrate into the North American cultural context, ANTA needs to continue penetrating in terms of product strength, cultural integration, and localized operations to find a new balance.