In a culture that, for decades, has placed more importance on academics and achievement than leisure and play, China is welcoming new dimension to athletics. While the country is known to excel in individual and indoor sports, this shift expands the category to see more growth in team and outdoor sports.
At the same time, outside of serious competition where it was worth sacrificing precious study time to train, there is little room for leisure. This is changing, especially among the youth, in alignment with the government’s double reduction policy which aims to reduce the burden of homework and after school tutoring. While still encouraging competition, the whole sports category is benefiting from a societal shift towards wellness and fun.
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This new era is reflected in consumption, especially during a time when many Chinese are tightening their spending. According to China’s national bureau of statistics, in the first half of 2024, spending on sports and recreational articles was up 11.1%, and was the second fastest growing segment tracked after telecom communications at 11.4%. Comparatively, food up 10%, and shoes hats textiles is only up 0.5%, and cosmetics only 0.3%.
Team sports are picking up
In 2015, Xi pushed to put the country on the map in soccer (football) with hopes to become a soccer superpower by 2050. The initiative, was characteristically Chinese: children holding soccer balls and reciting the rules of the game. Eight years later, this approach, evidently, hasn’t worked. In fact, it’s drastically different from the grass-roots approach to soccer of Latin American countries where youth self-organize on nearby fields to kick a ball around. One example is Costa Rica, whose population is that of a single large tier-3 city, yet currently ranks 52 spots ahead of China in soccer.
However, team and contact sports are seeing a fresh start in China, this time being consumer-driven. While contact sports are gradually losing their stigma, rugby and (American) football are gaining traction, in the form of tag and flag football. With lower physical contact, less emphasis on body strength, tag sports have become more popular than their tackle counterparts. The social media mentions of American Football and Rugby (both called 橄榄球, or “olive ball” in Chinese) grew 162% year-on-year between March-July 2024.
Adventure reshapes outdoor sports in China
There are countless factors that drive young Chinese to the outdoors: busy urbanites seeking relief from daily life stresses, the post-COVID impact of people having travelled to less dense areas and realizing they enjoyed it more, and a consumption downgrade that encourages finding entertainment away from shopping malls.
While the hiking category is growing overall, more niche outdoor adventures rise such as multi-day treks and river tracing.
Online discussions of rock climbing rose 212% year-on-year, which is not find surprising after a recent trip to Shenzhen where the busiest store was an indoor rock-climbing room, filled to the brim with families. The docufilm Free Solo, the debut of rock climbing as an Olympic sport at Tokyo 2020 have also contributed to the rise of the sport.
From extreme mountaineering on the north side of Everest, to the abundance of vertical mountains for climbing in Guilin, and the new ski resorts popping up in Xinjiang, China is abundant in terrain for outdoor and winter sports, and it has only just begun to tap into this market.
The leisure category of sports consumption has blown open
Daxue consulting’s social listening identified the drivers for doing sports, and found that the portion of conversations regarding doing sports for recreation and leisure grew from 39% in 2023 to 60% in 2024.
While top-level athletes shape trends, the casual athlete is the bread and butter for the sports apparel and equipment industry. A large part of the consumer base for fast rising performance running shoe brands brands like Hoka, On, and Salomon, are wearing them for fashion, comfort, or even gifting to elderly parents.
One might think of the youth when they think of leisure sports athletes, however the 50+ age group and the silver influencers encouraging retirees to stay active, can’t be overlooked.
Download the full report on China’s summer sports market by daxue consulting here: https://daxueconsulting.com/china-summer-sports-market-report/
