Dressing up is an essential part of life. For women who love beauty, trend elements are changing rapidly, and how to keep up with the rhythm of fashion is a "big" thing. But there is one piece of clothing that has become popular in recent years, and that is yoga clothing.
Yoga clothing, originally an exclusive sportswear worn during yoga exercise, but because of its refreshing and breathable, slim fit and sculpting effect, it has exploded for a while, becoming a trendy item that can be seen everywhere on the fashion runway and on the streets, whether it is celebrities, Internet celebrities or the general public have worn it out on the street, which shows the vastness of its market.
The girl is a big fan of yoga clothes, from black, white and gray basic models to designs with different colors and unique cuts, she has bought nearly 10 sets of yoga clothes.
According to research on yoga wear brands, Wan Wan also often shares views on social platforms: for people with limited financial resources, the quality of MAIA is guaranteed, which is much better than the flat Lululemon that only costs tens of yuan on the market at present.
The post received 2000+ likes and favorites. Many netizens said that the "flat replacement model" is not allowed to wear, or you have to buy "brand goods".
It is understood that MAIA was registered in 2016 and claims to be a sportswear brand "designed for Asian women", and has a certain consumer group in the field of women's yoga in recent years.
Nowadays, big brands are also targeting women wearing yoga clothes. On October 16, ANTA Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ANTA) announced that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary entered into certain sale and purchase agreements with certain shareholders of MAIA Active (hereinafter referred to as MAIA) to conditionally purchase 75.13% of MAIA's equity interest. Upon completion of the acquisition, MAIA will become an indirectly non-wholly-owned subsidiary of ANTA Group.
After being acquired by ANTA, can MAIA rise to the next level like FILA? Can it be the next Lululemon?
MAIA stores.
"Flat replacement" chasing "brand goods""According to the attributes of sports, it can be divided into fitness sports, competitive sports and leisure sports, and yoga is a leisure sport." Mr. Bao of Beijing Sport University introduced this.
"Yoga clothing was originally a loose fit that fully stretched all parts of the body, but in recent years it has become tight." Teacher Bao told the China Business Daily reporter that a few years ago in physical education class, students still wore wide sportswear, but now not only in class, but also on campus, students wearing slim yoga clothes can also be seen everywhere.
In recent years, with the popularity of the Canadian brand Lululemon, yoga clothing has become a new wind vane in the mass aesthetic trend, and young people are especially fond of it. The yoga wear track has become an important way for sports brands to occupy the sports women's wear market.
And Anta's acquisition of MAIA this time is also to take advantage of this trend of yoga clothing to quickly "get out of the circle". Its target group is women in first- and second-tier cities, pursuing product comfort and fashion from the aspects of craftsmanship and appearance. The brand positioning of "designed for Asian women" has attracted a large number of young women who pursue quality and cost performance.
Yoga wear products.
From the current yoga wear market, major brands are making efforts.
According to incomplete statistics, FILA, which focuses on fashion trends, launched "small man's waist" yoga pants, Li Ning launched "kneading soft pants" and "upright pants", Puma and head fitness blogger Pamela released a joint series of updated yoga line products, and Nike launched yoga clothes such as "empty" and "angry" to target different fitness scenarios.
At present, in the Chinese yoga clothing market, foreign brands are still the mainstream. Canadian brand Lululemon and Japanese brand Descente, acquired by Anta, compete for the high-end market, while Alo Yoga, Sweaty Betty and Lorna Jane are selling hot on e-commerce platforms.
The data for the whole year of 2022 shows that more than half of people who buy yoga clothes choose Nike, 48% choose Uniqlo, and 39% choose Decathlon. Nike and Decathlon became the most popular sports brands for consumers to buy yoga wear. When the China Business Daily reporter visited the store, he found that in the offline exhibition area of sports brands such as Li Ning, Puma, and Adi, the number of yoga clothes was small and the number of buyers was small. In professional yoga clothing brands such as Lululemon and MAIA, there are more consumers. In contrast, the most people buying yoga clothes at Lululemon stores have the most traffic.
It is understood that the price of Lululemon yoga pants ranges from 750 yuan to 1080 yuan, and the vest fluctuates between 400 yuan and 500 yuan. MAIA prices are much lower. Relevant data show that for fitness clothing tops, the price acceptance of mainland female consumers is between 100-500 yuan, accounting for 63%; For fitness pants, the proportion between 100-500 yuan is 71%. From the data, MAIA is closer to the expected price of consumer psychology than Lululemon, but its popularity is far less than Lululemon.
Why did ANTA buy yoga clothes?In recent years, Anta has gone further and further on the road of "acquisition". The acquisition of MAIA is also another exploration of the women's sports market by ANTA.
Cheng Weixiong, a brand management expert in the footwear and apparel industry and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told China Business Daily reporter: "Anta entered MAIA because it wants to get involved in the yoga wear market segment and fight head-on with Lululemon, so as to occupy a place in the yoga wear market and eventually grow into a full-category sports brand." ”
It is understood that Anta has continuously invested in brand marketing and enterprise acquisition in recent years. In terms of marketing, ANTA has actively co-branded with international sports events and become an official partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and its "pattern marketing" has attracted wide attention from the outside world. With two Olympic marketing as leverages, ANTA successfully upgraded its brand.
On the other hand, ANTA actively acquires sports brands to promote the upgrading of the sports territory of all categories. Since 2009, ANTA has acquired or jointly ventured with Italian sports brand FILA in China, sports brand Sprandi in Russia and Eastern Europe, Descente, a high-end sports brand in Japan, KOLON SPORT, a Korean outdoor brand, Amer Sports, the world's top sporting goods company, and MAIA, a local yoga brand.
Consumers shop for yoga clothing.
Hong Jianping, associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Sport University, said: "ANTA's strategy of continuously acquiring foreign brands is somewhat similar to Tencent in the gaming industry, and both are very prominent in the internationalization of domestic brands. ”
Based on past experience, ANTA has helped to improve the profits of acquired enterprises. Today, FILA has become the "trump card" of ANTA's main fashion sports. According to the half-year report, ANTA's revenue in the first half of 2023 was 29.645 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%.
Liu Yaping, a scholar of sports culture at Beijing Sport University, believes that with the increase in acquired brands, Anta should also consider the overall capital layout from the perspectives of input, output and sustainable development.
Can MAIA be the next Lululemon?"The yoga wear market has continued to accelerate since Lululemon entered the market, and some domestic entrepreneurial brands have also competed for parts and have begun to take shape." Cheng Weixiong said frankly, "Lululemon is dominated by social marketing and offline stores, and has become synonymous with yoga in the first- and second-tier markets, and is highly sought after by female users. ”
After being included in ANTA, can MAIA become the next Lululemon?
"The market demand for yoga modules is actually not large, and it is not certain whether MAIA can become a domestic Lululemon." Clothing analyst Yang Dajun said that Lululemon is the only company in the world that makes yoga a "big business", but in fact, yoga is only a niche sports sector, Nike and Adi have been in the yoga market for many years, but the revenue is minimal.
Lululemon store.
Yang Dajun admitted that in essence, Lululemon's popularity has not increased the number of people participating in yoga sports, and the market share of professional yoga exercise modules has not expanded. According to the statistics of the yoga industry in 2023, the number of people participating in yoga exercise in the mainland will reach 12.5 million in 2023, accounting for about 0.9% of the total number of people in the current mainland. Compared to events such as marathons, yoga is still a niche market.
"The reason for Lululemon's success is that it closely integrates yoga with the lifestyle of young people, making yoga a mass-driven way of consumption." Yang believes that Lululemon has turned yoga clothing into a popular fashion and part of lifestyle. And when this lifestyle began to take off, the yoga market around the world was almost monopolized by Lululemon.
Liu Yaping said that the yoga clothing industry presents a user stratification, one type of consumer group such as Lululemon pays special attention to the brand, and the other focuses on quality or functionality. Anta needed help MAIA to position itself.
"The trend of yoga clothing will always pass, and when the lifestyle is matched with 'fashion', its life cycle will be shortened. When this consumer trend passes, whether MAIA will still perform well in the market is the key question. Yang added.
(China Business Daily reporter Zhou Ziyun, trainee reporter Wang Yifei text/photo)