On August 8, 2008, the 29th Olympic Games was held in Beijing, China.
At the opening ceremony, Li Ning held up the torch in the air, "running in the air" around the stadium for a week, came to the main torch tower, he lit the lead, and the flame immediately circled up along the torch tower.
Immediately, the Olympic flame was lit at the "Bird's Nest", reflecting the sky above the stadium in a brilliant way.
This scene stunned countless people, and the whole scene instantly boiled up.
The reason why Li Ning was chosen to light the main torch is because he represents our Chinese sportsmanship.
He witnessed the transformation of Chinese sports from weak to strong, and also witnessed the transformation of Chinese sports clothing from weak to strong.
And he is not only a witness, but also a creator.
Along the way, Li Ning had stood at the peak of infinite light, and had also fallen into the darkest trough.
Li Ning was born in 1963 in Laibin City, Guangxi Province, and his ancestral home is Foshan, Guangdong Province.
When he was very young, Li Ning's father wanted to train him to become a musician.
But helplessly, Li Ning was born with a special interest in gymnastics.
At the age of 8, he climbed to the window of the gymnastics school and peeked at the students practicing flipping. He was fascinated by the sight, and as soon as he got home, he spread the quilt on the ground and began to practice turning his head.
After that, his father had to send him to the gymnastics team.
At the age of 17, he was appreciated by Zhang Jian, the coach of the national gymnastics team, and was invited to join the national gymnastics team.
Since then, he has embarked on a glorious "gymnastics history".
In 1982, at the World Gymnastics Championships, Li Ning won 6 of the 7 men's individual events, and the remaining one won the third place.
This result is the best result in the history of gymnastics in the world, and Li Ning is known as the "Prince of Gymnastics".
In his more than 10 years of career in gymnastics, Li Ning has won hundreds of awards, and the gold medal alone is as high as 106 pieces.
Later, Li Ning was selected as the "Best Athlete of the Twentieth Century" and reached the peak of world sports together with superstars such as Boxing King Ali and Flyer Jordan.
This is the brilliant side of his gymnastics, and this figure who has been "canonized" has also been accused and insulted by countless people.
Li Ning was 23 years old that year, and in the field of gymnastics, this age was "old", and it was difficult to make difficult moves.
Coupled with the high-intensity training accumulated over the years, he has accumulated a lot of injuries.
Li Ning is well aware of his physical condition and plans to retire this year.
But at this time, the gymnastics team is not picking up, if Li Ning goes at this time, the core competitiveness of the Chinese gymnastics team will be gone.
Li Ning had no choice but to postpone his retirement and give his share of gymnastics.
But it backfired, but this kindness made him face a huge "disaster".
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Li Ning reduced the difficulty of his movements in order to ensure that he could play normally.
On the spot, he successfully completed all the prescribed actions.
After watching it, the teammates were relieved for him and felt that this time it was stable.
But in the blink of an eye, Li Ning was thrown out of the ring.
What's harder is that Li Ning wanted to pin his hopes on the next event vaulting competition.
But he lost again, failing to stand firm when he landed, and sat heavily on the cushion.
After successive defeats, Li Ning did not lose his demeanor, smiled, and then walked out of the field.
These two mistakes directly ruined his chances of winning medals, and also made the Chinese men's gymnastics team "defeated like a mountain".
After seeing Li Ning's mistake, many people exploded the pot and directly attacked him verbally: "What gymnastics prince, is the dead son of gymnastics", "Lose and laugh, throw away the dead".
People who understand him don't think so, the original gymnast vault champion Lou Yun said: "Li Ning's laughter seems to be indifferent, but we know him, we all know that this laugh is worse than crying." ”
What's more serious is that someone sent him a blade and a sling after knowing his address.
One failure wiped out all the achievements of the past. Those who blame him at this point may have forgotten that he had set a record of 14 world championships and won 106 gold medals for the mainland.
When he returned home after the Games, the winners walked to the hall to receive cheers, but Li Ning did not dare to step off the plane, and he waited until there was no one before choosing a trail to go back.
But fortunately, there is another person waiting for him with flowers in his hand, and this person is the founder of Jianlibao, Li Jingwei.
Li Ning was very moved, he couldn't control himself, and tears fell down hot.
He took the flowers and walked with Li Jingwei to their "new world".
After returning to China, Li Ning announced his retirement.
With the help of Jianlibao's group, Li Ning held a "Farewell to Sports" party at the Shenzhen Gymnasium. At the scene, he choked on his voice and sang a song called "Hard to Say Goodbye".
After retiring from the military, Li Ning originally wanted to open a gymnastics school in Shenzhen.
But under the influence of Li Jingwei, Li Ning entered a new field.
Li Jingwei told Li Ning: "An American athlete made a lot of money advertising for a shoe company after retiring. Later, he set up a company that specialized in shoes, and even used his own name. ”
After Li Ning listened quietly on the side, he didn't feel it.
Seeing that he did not react, Li Jingwei directly explained the intention: "You can also make a Li Ning sports brand, China now has no sportswear to hand." And I've created a business that can help you. ”
Li Jingwei's words went directly to Li Ning's heart.
Because Chinese athletes participate in the World Games, they wear foreign costumes on stage every time.
Li Ning has participated in gymnastics for more than ten years and won numerous awards, which he deeply understands.
Perhaps because of his sports-specific feelings, Li Ning rejected all those who invited him to develop with him, only agreed to Li Jingwei's proposal, and was determined to let Chinese athletes wear their own national costumes to receive the award.
He first joined Jianlibao as an assistant general manager, and personally starred in a sports advertisement for Jianlibao on CCTV.
This advertisement cost 600,000 yuan, but earned 30 million yuan back for Jianlibao.
After that, Li Jingwei invested 16 million yuan to help Li Ning set up Li Ning Company, specializing in sportswear.
At the beginning of the establishment of the company, Li Ning made full use of his popularity in the sports world.
At that time, China's first Asian Games was about to begin, and the relay of sportswear advertisements, major international giants fought for each other.
Because of this advertisement, it is likely to bring excess profits and fame to the enterprise.
Li Ning started a business from the sports world and naturally knows the importance of this advertisement.
However, the contractor clearly marked the price, which cost 3 million US dollars. Li Ning's company was founded not long ago, and he did not have so much money at all.
Li Ning was very anxious, he ran directly to the contracting party and said to the staff: "Chinese athletes receive awards at their own doorstep, how can they wear foreign brands of clothes?" ”
In the era when Chinese sports brands are lagging behind, a former Olympic champion may have a special meaning when he said such a sentence.
In the end, the organizer decided to give up the high advertising price, directly reduced the price by about 10 times, and gave Li Ning 2.5 million yuan for the sportswear advertisement relayed by the Asian Games.
At the Asian Games, Li Ning wore a white Li Ning brand sportswear and received the Flame of the Asian Games from a girl.
This scene has caught the eyes of hundreds of millions of Chinese and foreign people.
After that, the Li Ning brand instantly swept China, and just after the Asian Games, Li Ning received a huge order of 15 million yuan.
Subsequently, orders large and small continued to pour in.
Li Ning's company was lined up with people who came to pick up the goods, and the shoes were immediately pulled away by the dealers before they entered the warehouse after the production was completed.
With the popularity of the Li Ning brand, at the 1992 Olympic Games, the Chinese Olympic delegation no longer wore foreign brands to appear, but wore Li Ning's sportswear and received awards.
When Li Ning saw this scene, he couldn't suppress his tears and said excitedly: "Seeing them wearing the Chinese Li Ning brand to receive the award, such a sense of honor is better than the feeling of winning the gold medal before!" ”
As the company grew bigger, Li Ning found that the company had to reform.
Because when he came out to start a business, he was surrounded by comrades in arms of the gymnastics team, as well as relatives and friends.
In order to make Li Ning develop and grow, he decided to resign as the general manager of the company and hand over this "handover baton" to the old general Chen Yihong, and he went to Peking University to study.
Before leaving, he persuaded all his relatives and friends to leave the company, including asking Chen Yihong's relatives and friends to leave the company.
For these decisions, Li Ning later said in an interview with the characters: "Family businesses can do small businesses, and it is not okay to do billions, or even tens of billions of businesses, and professional teams can run the company more efficiently." ”
After transforming the family business into a modern enterprise, Li Ning Company has grown at a rate of more than 50% per year.
In 2004, Li Ning was listed in Hong Kong, becoming the first listed sports brand in China.
In 2008, as the "leader" in the sports and sports clothing industry, Li Ning was selected as the main torchbearer of the Bird's Nest Ignition.
As Li Ning lit the Olympic flame at the Beijing Olympic Games, the Li Ning brand has also become the object of everyone's pursuit.
At its peak, Li Ning's sales reached 9.278 billion, surpassing Adidas and becoming the "big brother" of domestic sports brands.
While making crazy money, Li Ning also actively participated in public welfare undertakings, investing 211 million yuan in 2008 and 2009.
The Rapid growth of the Li Ning brand into a domestic giant is inseparable from the aura of Li Ning's "Prince of Gymnastics".
But behind the rapid growth, there are often hidden crises.
As the aura of the Olympic Games dissipated, Li Ning's company experienced an unprecedented crisis.
There is an old saying that when you are proud, you should be more cautious, because people are always easy to fall into the light of success.
After Li Ning lit the main Olympic torch, the number of branches continued to increase, reaching 8,000.
In hindsight, it is clear that the expansion is too fast.
After the Olympic Games, Li Ning's popularity gradually dissipated, many store clothing could not be sold, in 2012, the number of stores closed as high as 1821, Li Ning company also accumulated a large amount of inventory.
On the other hand, the sportswear market is becoming more and more fiercely competitive, on the one hand, Adi and Nike in the high-end market, and ONTA, which is similar to its positioning, on the other hand.
The Li Ning brand can be described as "belly and back enemies".
In order to win the market again, Li Ning gave up the middle-aged and elderly market, aimed his design style at young people, and produced a post-90s Li Ning.
But at that time, the eldest post-90s was only 20 years old, and many people did not have real consumption power. After the failure of the transformation, the Li Ning brand fell into a greater dilemma.
In the case of failed transformation, fierce market competition and inventory backlog, Li Ning Company has lost more than 3.1 billion yuan for three consecutive years.
Some netizens even commented on the Li Ning brand: wearing it out on a blind date will be rejected.
In the face of this situation, the company's shareholders and executives have asked Li Ning to come out and sit again. Because they believe that letting the founders appear can not only stabilize the hearts and minds of the military, but also carry out drastic reforms without hesitation.
Li Ning had no choice but to re-emerge from the mountain, he said: "Life is inevitable highs and lows, reality is very painful, my pressure is huge. ”
After the return, Li Ning held a conference. An old employee recalled that in the past, he used to be kind to us, and he was very grim at the meeting that day.
In the case of serious losses, Li Ning carried out strict cost control.
There is a detail that reflects this, before Li Ning Company held annual performance meetings at Shangri-La and JW Marriott Hotels in Hong Kong.
After Li Ning's return, Li Ning moved to the office conference room in Central.
In addition, he also cut 210 million yuan in advertising and marketing expenses, nearly half of management consulting expenses by 37 million yuan, and travel and hospitality expenses by 16 million yuan.
Under the crisis of the enterprise, Li Ning also had to lay off employees and implement flat management, saving 26 million yuan in employee costs.
In addition, in order to keep up with the pace of the times, Li Ning opened Weibo, and grasped hot topics, took photos with celebrities, etc., quickly accumulated 3 million fans, and played a great role in the company's promotional activities.
Moreover, he transferred the company's core business, took e-commerce as the focus to develop, and paid great attention to the use of the Internet.
Taking the sneaker design of "Wade China Trip" as an example, Li Ning collected more than 1,000 wonderful design drafts from all over the country, and Wade approved the champion to achieve the "Internet +" strategy.
Under a series of operations by Li Ning, the company turned a profit of 14.3 million yuan in 2015.
It can be said that this small profit for Li Ning Company is saved by Li Ning's strict control of costs.
Some people in the outside world always say that Li Ning's return has the meaning of "fighting fires", and even uses the term "resurrection from the dead" to describe it.
But when it comes to this issue, Li Ning does not recognize that he plays a role in "reviving the dead" for the company.
In his opinion, although he is not directly in charge of the company, he also pays attention to all aspects of things.
The first three years have been losing money, mainly in the digestion of the problems accumulated in the past, this process, it is very normal to generate losses.
Although it is not enough to use the "resurrection of the dead", the enterprise crisis is still very large, and Li Ning's series of practices have put the development of the enterprise back on track.
By 2017, the company's profit has reached 500 million yuan, running out of the crisis.
But what really made Li Ning turn against the wind was the New York fashion show in 2018.
In 2018, Li Ning participated in the New York Fashion Show, and as soon as the model appeared, she surprised everyone.
The model wore a very Chinese style of "tomato scrambled eggs" and "Chinese Li Ning", which made netizens marvel: "I may have bought a fake Li Ning before", "I also want to buy the word China", "The original Li Ning is so fashionable".
After the event, the social topics and praise brought by the fashion show products brought Li Ning brand back to the peak state of that year.
Li Ning's stock price also soared more than half afold, from 12 billion to 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The success of this seeming outbreak is actually a preparation for many years.
Because when Li Ning positioned young people in 2010, many of the post-90s were not yet minors, and 8 years later, this consumer group has all become adults and has the right to make consumer decisions.
Therefore, at this time, the positioning is young and ushered in real success.
Since Li Ning caught up with the trend, shoes are also very popular, from time to time rushed to Weibo hot search, and even some people after grabbing the limited amount, resold to others, making a lot of money.
This result is also directly reflected in the financial report, from the revenue in 2019 and 2020, it can be seen that the development of the next two years is very stable and has been in the rising stage.
At the 2021 Olympic Games, Li Ning, who has only been dynamic for a long time, suddenly became active and repeatedly posted articles to cheer for Chinese athletes, which may be the feelings of a sportsman.
When he was young, he won numerous awards for the national sports industry, and after starting a business, he successfully let Chinese athletes wear their own clothes.
Some people say that if li ning is the most contributing to Chinese sports, Li Ning must be among them; if it is to lead the development of Chinese sports clothing, Li Ning must be counted as one.
This nearly 60-year-old man is undoubtedly admirable.
Resources:
Jing Bao: Li Ning from the prince of gymnastics to the business giant
People's Daily News: Li Ning: The legend of Chinese brands
Lazy Bear Sports: With a huge loss of 3 billion to more than 6,000 stores and a revenue of more than 10 billion, how does Li Ning turn defeat into victory?
Character: Li Ning: I am willing to be Li Ning, do whatever I want| dialogue
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Author: Small Ocean
EDIT: Songs