Looking at the outdoor market pattern in 2024, how should brands of all sizes attack?
For a long time in the past, "rich and free" was the public's impression of outdoor enthusiasts, after all, only this group of people would invest in professional equipment, clothing and footwear.
In the past few years, with the changes in people's lifestyles, more and more young people have chosen to go out and embrace outdoor sports. According to Xiaohongshu's "2023 Outdoor Life Trend Report", at the end of 2021, the number of outdoor sports participants in China reached 400 million, and the daily activity of outdoor users in October 2023 increased by more than 100% compared with January, and it is expected that by 2025, the total scale of the outdoor industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan.
With such a large market size, how do outdoor brands dominate the market, and which brands dominate the market? Today, we classify and inventory the main outdoor brands on the market, and select the brands that are quite representative in terms of product sales and consumer awareness, and study their market performance in detail.
"One Bird, Two Elephants, Three Rats"
The outdoor beasts are divided into three parts of the world, and the pattern has been decided
Consumers who often buy outdoor brands must have heard of the three major outdoor mythical beasts "one bird, two elephants and three rats", which refers to the three leading outdoor brands of Archaeopteryx, mammoth, and mountain climbing mouse.
Even if you haven't bought Archaeopteryx, then you must have swiped a group of consumers who call themselves "Birdman" on Xiaohongshu wearing Archaeopteryx and posing in cool poses. According to relevant data, in 2022, the notes related to Arc'teryx on Xiaohongshu will increase by more than 1,200% year-on-year, and the search volume will increase by more than 7 times.
The reason why Archaeopteryx has triggered a consumption trend is because it focuses on clothing and equipment, and its products have strong scientific and technological capabilities. On the other hand, there is the "anti-fashion" attitude of the brand, while most brands are happy to hold hands with fashion brands, Arc'teryx always emphasizes its outdoor attributes, rather than taking a line with trends.
For example, last year, Archaeopteryx and Songtsam launched a joint brand, the product series is named after the main peak of the Meili Mountains "Kawagebo", incorporating a unique local cultural color matching style, and inviting professional rock climbers to convey the image of Archaeopteryx to consumers with the will of peaks and mountains.
The excellent quality of the brand and the anti-routine marketing have kept it at the top of the outdoor brand pyramid.
I believe that outdoor veteran players have heard the phrase "hard-shell to see birds, soft-shell to see elephants", and mammoths are experts in soft-shell outdoor sportswear. Mammoth's self-developed SOFTECH™ shell fabric has strong wind resistance and breathability, and the brand has always focused on mountaineering and rock climbing activities since its establishment, and its classic products are mostly hardcore products for extreme outdoor environments.
As a foreign brand, Mammoth broke into the Chinese market by opening brand concept stores in popular landmarks and co-branding with trendy fashion designers to expand its popularity. LAST OCTOBER, MAMMOTH AND HIROSHI FUJIWARA CREATED A CROSSOVER COLLABORATION TO CREATE A SPECIAL EDITION BASED ON MAMMOTH'S BARRYVOX® AVALANCHE SEARCH TRANSCEIVER.
One of them is the story of Fujiwara Hiroshi himself, when he first learned to ski, he would bury a beacon somewhere in the snowy mountains, and everyone used a search transceiver to find it, but Fujiwara Hiroshi came into contact with mammoth products at this time, and has an indissoluble bond with mammoths. In addition to the transceiver, the collaboration also features new clothing items such as sweatshirts with the logo of this collaboration.
The collision of hard-core outdoor and pure street made this 162-year-old mammoth penetrate into the minds of young people and have a new understanding of the brand.
Among the three outdoor brand giants, "Groundhog" is slightly inferior in fame, but it is still in the top three with the use of high-tech fabrics, first-class workmanship, and high cost performance. Its self-developed softshell technology fabric, DriClime, is known as the "god clothes" in outdoor circles, which can compete with mammoths.
In terms of product SKUs, groundhogs are also quite rich, including clothing, sleeping bags, gloves, tents, backpacks and other products, with a total of hundreds of styles in the category. Times are changing, and consumer expectations for products are constantly changing, and today, groundhogs are constantly enriching their product lines and betting on new fabrics to launch new products.
And while most outdoor brands are embracing trends, Groundhog is more about the practicality of consumer needs, and it tries to communicate with consumers in its own way.
As one of the head brands, the "mountain climbing mouse" is a little low-key, it has always relied on its unique version design concept, asymmetrical coat cable design and functional wind, which has become an irresistible reason for consumers to buy, and has also captured some middle-class consumers.
In addition, environmental friendliness is also one of the characteristics of the climbing mouse, which more than a decade ago stopped using PFOIC (a compound commonly used in the manufacture of waterproof fabrics), becoming the first outdoor brand in history to achieve 100% fluorocarbon-free products. In terms of brand promotion, the climbing rat does not co-brand too much with hipsters, but more cooperates with environmental groups to encourage other brands to take similar actions.
Compared with the three giants of outdoor brands, the climbing mouse is more inclined to product research and development itself, the brand concept is more natural, and the product is more hardcore.
In fact, outdoor sports can be traced back to the 18th century European exploration and scientific research, so the European outdoor brand layout is the earliest, in research and development and consumer mental education are extremely advantageous, which is also the "one bird, two elephants and three rats" three outdoor beasts, the root of the unshakable market position.
From specialization to trendiness
Mid-waist outdoor brands are embracing the masses at an accelerated pace
In the situation that the head outdoor brand is divided into three parts of the world, the mid-waist outdoor brand is also eager to try and seize a place in the market.
The mid-waist outdoor is represented by brands such as North, Columbia, and Kellerstone, even if they are slightly weaker than the head brand in the product line, but they are not inferior to the head brand in terms of professional product level.
The North Face has always appeared in everyone's sight in the past two years, and you can always see the colorful north face when shopping, and "five steps to one north, ten steps to two north" has become a consumption phenomenon.
The earliest popularity of the North can be traced back to the 2017 hit period of "China Has Hip Hop", when a traffic artist wore a joint costume between the North and Supreme, whose unique tonality and fashion design made the public remember it and pushed the brand's voice to a climax.
At that time, Supreme was one of the most well-known trendy brands in the European and American markets, and it was bound to help the famous American outdoor brand North Face open up its recognition at the public level. In the same year, the snow-capped mountain-themed NUPTSE, which was co-branded with Supreme, was hyped to five figures after its launch.
With the laying of brand content, North Face has also completed a collaboration with Taiwanese fashion store INVICIBLE, luxury brand Gucci, and legendary artist KAWS, which is in the limelight.
When domestic and foreign celebrities have worn the north, more and more consumers have followed suit to try. "Its basic style is versatile and timeless, and my favorite artists are wearing it", these consumer voices come and go, and Beimian has really entered the circle of young consumers.
Colombia, a long-established outdoor brand, has also embarked on a brand refresh in the past year, with the brand trying to lead the masses to escape from the urban environment and heal themselves in nature. In January this year, Colombia and actor Jiang Qiming filmed a promotional video for the brand "Transit Walk Through the Series", focusing on showing the state and experience of people walking through the city and the mountains, while showing the differences between the city and nature, and skillfully conveying the core of the Transit Walk Series's "both urban functional style and outdoor function" to consumers.
It can be seen that outdoor brands not only provide consumers with functional and practical clothing and equipment, but also try to call on everyone to return to nature in various ways such as trendy brand co-branding and celebrity linkage.
The business experience of the tail outdoor brand
The "disruptors" of the outdoor market are attacking
Taking advantage of this "outdoor trend", the outdoor brand that was once criticized for "soil" has also begun to have a new look.
In the past, when you heard about tail outdoor brands such as Pathfinder, Decathlon, and Skylar, you might have put it directly into the shopping cart list of the older generation, and this kind of "earthy and cheap" brand is not worthy of urban elites such as us.
In the past, you ignored these brands, but now you may issue a "real fragrance" warning. Located at the head of Decathlon's "three artifacts", the MH500 jacket is better than the Arc'teryx's thousand-yuan jacket, but the price of 599 yuan is the quality of the thousand-yuan product.
Different from the joint branding and product promotion of the head outdoor brands, Decathlon rarely gets involved. According to public data, Decathlon's investment in content marketing accounts for less than 1% of the total investment, and this part of the cost is almost negligible.
Also taking the "quality-price ratio" route is Skyl. Skyler focuses on professional outdoor products as the core, focusing on product research and development, making breakthroughs in the application of advanced fabric technology and process improvement, and successively launching professional product technologies such as SUPER-TEX protection technology, omnidirectional elastic technology, QUICK DRY moisture absorption and quick drying, etc., and pays more attention to bringing consumers a comfortable and pleasant wearing experience.
As more and more outdoor sports are "out of the circle", Skyler realizes that different outdoor sports need different clothing in different scenarios. Rooted in the outdoors, with simplicity and comfort as the starting point, Skyler has launched a hiking series, a travel series, a running series, and a camping series, each of which has a certain degree of functionality.
In terms of marketing, Skyler gathers the outdoor sports methods of urban elites, and tends to focus on various urban outdoor sports challenges, travel TV variety shows or documentaries, and carries out deep cultivation of vertical user circles.
In fact, there are many tail outdoor brands that have invested in subdivisions to create professional outdoor products. Even if it is slightly inferior to the head brand in terms of brand power, it is not weak in product power at all.
For example, the Ocasso brand, although the brand recognition of the public is not high, it has actually been in China for 28 years, benchmarking international brands, and the price in the Chinese market is also in the high-end positioning. Focusing on the field of climbing, Okasso has established the Tibet Mountaineering School and the CMDI China Mountaineering Senior Talent Training Course, which continues to provide excellent equipment to outdoor enthusiasts, and has been recognized and favored by many outdoor enthusiasts and professional athletes.
There is also an outdoor brand Mu Gaodi that started with alpine tents, at the beginning, it mainly did ODM and OEM trade exports of camping products, and launched the first generation of light and ventilated cold mountain series tents when outdoor camping just emerged in China, so as to develop into the "darling of the camping industry", the brand creates new camping scenes such as home camping, overnight camping, and exquisite picnics for young people, leading the new exquisite camping consumption.
It can be seen that large and small outdoor brands have their own ways of survival, strengthen verticals in their respective fields, and continue to subdivide scenarios to launch new products with consumer demand. When the head brand fights in the market with brand power and out-of-the-circle marketing, small and medium-sized outdoor brands can still break out in the niche circle with excellent single products.
Nowadays, domestic outdoor brands are ushering in spring, and the major brands are concentrating on their efforts to run forward on their respective tracks, although the competition is fierce, but they can always have a place in the market. In recent years, there seem to be some "disruptors" in the outdoor market, and indoor sports brands and lightweight outdoor brands have also moved to deepen the outdoor market.
As a leading brand in the field of yoga equipment, lululemon began to follow the more challenging exercise methods of mass consumers and expanded its product line in the field of outdoor sports equipment such as outdoor hiking, rock climbing, and skiing.
Jiaoxia, a lightweight outdoor brand focusing on sun protection, has also begun to expand outward with sun protection as the core, covering clothing, umbrellas, hats, other accessories, and shoes, building a diversified product portfolio. It seems that Jiaoxia is expanding the circle, but in fact, it is just subdividing the needs according to the same group of people and in the same scene. Banana, which originally had a certain outdoor population base, is bound to expand in the outdoor market should not be underestimated.
It seems that outdoor brands need to resist the market impact of other categories of brands while maintaining their core competitiveness by focusing on product strength and co-branded marketing. The market has always been cruel, and what the head outdoor brand should think about is how to innovate in technology, exert efforts in functionality, and not be diverted by brands that focus on a single outdoor product at the head and tail.
The middle and tail outdoor brands should seize the trend of "refinement" and "high-end" in the outdoor market, and the products are more fashionable on a professional basis and more in line with the aesthetics of Generation Z. Today's "disruptors" in the market are undoubtedly not aware of the needs and pain points of users in more subdivisions, and how experts in these subdivisions can quickly tear off the label, actively expand SKUs, and embrace the public is a problem that needs to be considered urgently.
In the future, the outdoor market will only become more and more volatile, and whether it can always step on the tuyere depends on the comprehensive strength of the brands.
Author: Put
Producer: Fan Yi