Text: Wang Huiying
Edit/Midnight
Walking down the street, it is already a common phenomenon to come across a pedestrian wearing sun-protective clothing, sun-protective glasses and a sun-protective hat.
With the enhancement of consumers' awareness of sun protection, the concept of "raising children does not prevent aging, but sun protection prevents aging" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. "Star-drenching people" are eager to be fully armed to avoid exposing their skin to the sun.
The trend behind this is that consumers are paying more and more attention to the efficacy attributes of sunscreen, and traditional smeared sunscreen can no longer fully meet the needs of consumers, and more effective and convenient physical sunscreen has become the "favorite" of consumers.
The demand for "hard-core sunscreen" has driven the growth of the sunscreen market, and the market size of China's sunscreen clothing market is expected to reach 95.8 billion in 2026. Among them, sunscreen clothing has become an important part of the sunscreen clothing market with a market share of more than 50%.
The demand is exploding, and the user's functional demands for sunscreen clothing are more diverse, and the performance that needs to be measured has become more. Many consumers spend a lot of time doing research in order to find the right sunscreen, which leads to a longer decision-making process and may even end up abandoning the purchase.
The root cause of these problems lies in the lack of standardized and unified standards and transparent parameters in the sunscreen clothing industry, in other words, the standardization speed of the industry has not kept up with the speed of changes in user needs. Under the information gap, although some brands have the awareness of disclosing the standard value, the standard is not uniform, and the phenomenon of opaque information still exists.
What does a "good" sunscreen clothing look like? Jiaoxia keenly paid attention to the pain points of the industry, and jointly released the "White Paper on China's Sunscreen Clothing Industry Standard" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper") with iResearch, and jointly initiated by China Consumer Daily, for the first time put forward the bottom line standard of sunscreen clothing.
Based on the insight into industry trends and consumer needs, Jiaoxia tries to work with its peers to promote the development of the sunscreen clothing industry in a more transparent, safer and more standard direction.
1. Demand is exploding, and chaos is coming
In economics, there is a concept called the "one-degree effect", which refers to the fact that every time the temperature changes by 1 degree, the sales volume of goods will change accordingly. As the temperature gradually rises, the sunscreen clothing market has also ushered in an explosive period.
At first, the inspiration of modern sunscreen clothing first came from the skin windbreaker/windproof jacket produced by an outdoor brand in the United States, and after 2007, Jiaoxia transformed European and American outdoor products to create modern sunscreen clothing, and China's sunscreen clothing market entered the domestic research and development period.
In the following years, with the awakening of the awareness of Chinese people and the enrichment of sunscreen scenes, the demand for sunscreen of Chinese people has grown rapidly, and the consumer group of sunscreen clothing has also been expanding, and the male and child groups have grown rapidly.
Wired Insight searched on social platforms and found that there were more than 10,000 notes about "men's sunscreen clothing" and 290,000+ notes on "winter sunscreen".
Nowadays, with fierce competition, asymmetry between supply and demand, and opaque parameters, the sunscreen clothing market is in a period of industry standardization, which is full of opportunities and challenges.
Since the development of the industry, with the explosion of demand and the participation of many players, the sunscreen clothing market has shown diversified competition. There are not only outdoor lifestyle brands such as Jiaoxia, but also regular clothing brands such as Uniqlo and Bosideng, traditional outdoor brands such as Arc'teryx and Camel, as well as Internet celebrity/e-commerce white label brands, vertical sunscreen brands, and sports brands, which together form the situation of competition among the six mainstream types of sunscreen clothing in the market.
What cannot be ignored is that the "influx of nuggets" of players has boosted the development of the sunscreen clothing industry, grabbing the market and users, and brands have done their best, which has also intensified the fierce competition in the market, but many players are still in the "blind nuggets" stage, and the challenges of the industry have also followed.
For example, in terms of sun protection index, some brands confuse the concept of UPF and UPF AV in the UV protection test, so that the sun protection value of the product is inflated. It is important to distinguish that the former represents the lowest value of the test sample, while the latter represents the average value of the test sample, in other words, it may not be accurate to measure the sun protection capacity of a product with UPF AV;
From the material point of view, some brands claim that the product uses raw yarn sunscreen, but they do not provide laboratory test reports, which lacks a certain degree of convincingness, because only products that have passed the washability test and meet the standards can confirm the true reliability of raw yarn sunscreen;
From a functional point of view, some brands overemphasize a single sunscreen function, which may lead to a poor wearing experience for consumers. The white paper points out that many consumers pay attention to breathability, cooling and other properties in addition to sunscreen when buying sunscreen clothing, but the relevant data of many brands are not disclosed, which causes confusion to consumers' choices, and the products they buy cannot really meet their needs.
Lack of standardization, lack of test reports, lack of comprehensiveness and data transparency, these three chaos affect consumer decision-making. Neither brands nor consumers are willing to see the chaos in the industry, because this will not only make consumers unable to buy suitable sunscreen clothing, but also affect the healthy development of the entire industry.
Between the rapid development period and the industry standard period, there is a set of "standards" between the sunscreen clothing market. In this context, in order to reduce the occurrence of chaos in the industry and provide consumers with a full range of sunscreen services, the "White Paper" launched the industry's first quantifiable parameter standard, which opened the door to the unified standard and healthy development of the sunscreen clothing industry.
2. Consumers need a "purchase guide" with more transparent parameters
What should a good sunscreen clothing look like? For a long time, most consumers had no concept of this. But nowadays, with the development of the sunscreen industry and the market education of brands, consumers' awareness of sunscreen is advancing.
White Paper It shows that consumers' awareness of sunscreen clothing can be divided into three stages: 5-6 years ago, the public's awareness of sunscreen clothing was relatively weak; to 3-4 years ago, the industry gradually popularized consumers, and consumers' awareness of sunscreen clothing gradually increased, and they began to try to buy sunscreen clothing with sunscreen function, but at that time, the sunscreen clothing industry emphasized the sunscreen power of products, resulting in poor overall wearing experience of consumers; 。
From the demand side, a few years ago, the market dominated consumers, and consumers passively accepted; at the current stage, consumers are "changing" the market, based on the diversity and urgency of demand, so that users have a "both want" demand for sunscreen clothing——
It should be worn in all seasons to meet the different wearing needs of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and can be worn indoors, outdoors, offices and other scenes, and in addition to the functional needs of sun protection, it should also have a breathable, lightweight, cool and other body feelings.
Therefore, on the whole, skin feel, comfort, style, breathability, etc. have become factors that consumers consider when purchasing sunscreen clothing.
More segmented needs have increased the decision-making cost of consumers' purchases, so how to choose a suitable sunscreen clothing has become a worry for many consumers.
According to the survey conducted by iResearch Research Institute, 66% of users believe that the current product introduction is mostly a perceptual description and lacks quantitative numerical reference; 48% of users believe that the concept of sunscreen clothing industry is complicated, the cost of understanding is high, and it is easy to confuse;33% of users believe that it is difficult to judge the advantages and disadvantages of sunscreen clothing of 100 yuan and 200 yuan.
The essential reason behind this is that the industry lacks a transparent, unified, and quantifiable parameter standard to assist users in decision-making. At this time, a simple, intuitive, comprehensive and accurate "purchase guide" of sunscreen clothing is particularly important.
As pointed out in the white paper, a qualified sunscreen clothing needs to meet the needs of consumers in different weather, body feeling, functions and scenarios in six dimensions: UPF value, ultraviolet blocking rate, cooling coefficient, air permeability, washing resistance and gram weight, so as to bring consumers a comprehensive and scientific sunscreen experience.
As we all know, the most basic function of sunscreen clothing is sunscreen, and if you want to "not tan, not sunburn", you must isolate ultraviolet rays. According to the latest survey data, the average annual sunshine hours across China are 3-8 hours, but in the summer, when the demand for sunscreen clothing is high, the number of sunshine hours is even longer. Taking Beijing as an example, the sunshine duration on the summer solstice can reach 14 hours, so sunscreen clothing can provide 12h+ of sun protection is the best. According to the white paper, a UPF50+ and 99% UV blocking rate can provide comprehensive sun protection.
According to the Chinese textile industry standard FZ/T74007-2019 "Outdoor Sunscreen Skin Clothing", the UPF value of sunscreen clothing is > 40, and the UVA transmittance in ultraviolet rays is less than 5%, it can be called "ultraviolet protection products". UPF50+ is the highest grade and can be marked with the highest grade for sunscreen clothing as stipulated by the state.
Formula for calculating the amount of radiation from a baseline sunburn
The relationship between the time of sunburn and the transmittance of ultraviolet rays
As sun-protective clothing gets closer and closer to "regular wear", consumers wear sun-protective clothing for an average of 4.6 months per year, of which 2.3 months are worn frequently. Combined with the above data, the cleaning frequency of high-frequency sunscreen clothing should be 1.7 times/week, and the average annual cleaning of sunscreen clothing is 15.6 times. In the process of repeated washing, the sun protection value of the sunscreen clothing is not discounted, which is the basic requirement that needs to be met from the technical level and the use level. The white paper pointed out that the washing resistance of the current sunscreen clothing should meet the requirements of "30 washes, still UPF50+".
At the same time, in other dimensions, the White Paper also makes comprehensive and detailed distinctions.
In terms of air permeability, the air permeability value of sunscreen clothing can reach 180mm/s, so as to ensure that it is not stuffy while protecting from the sun;
Different grades of breathability
In terms of cooling coefficient, the flat nylon material has a better cooling effect, and 0.18-0.20 is the basic cooling coefficient of sunscreen clothing.
In terms of unit weight, 75-190g/m² is the result of meeting the requirements of sun protection, breathability and lightness.
The effect of different weaving processes on the unit weight of sunscreen clothing
It is foreseeable that the proposal of the "six-dimensional standard" will, to a certain extent, promote the development of the sunscreen clothing market in the direction of transparency and specialization.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to bananas, several brands in the sunscreen clothing industry are also actively participating in this trend. Some brands have clear public descriptions of UPF, UV blocking and cooling factors, and a few brands have also stated their washing resistance.
In essence, the "six-dimensional standard for sunscreen" launched in the "White Paper" is the result of Jiaoxia and iResearch's deep cultivation of the consumer market and market demand insight and trend research.
For consumers, with the "purchase guide", they can quickly select suitable and qualified products when purchasing sunscreen clothing; for the entire industry, not only the head players can enhance the influence of the industry, but also small and medium-sized businesses will have the opportunity to enhance their product power according to the "six-dimensional standard of sunscreen clothing", so as to enter the public eye, participate in market competition, and jointly build a healthy and orderly development of the sunscreen clothing market.
3. To attract users, we must rely on "insight" and "product power"
In fact, Jiaoxia announced the first six-dimensional standard for the sunscreen clothing industry, which not only provides the industry with a standard for quantifiable parameters, but also conforms to the development trend of the industry.
As mentioned above, the current mainland sunscreen clothing market has officially entered the industry norm period, and in order to ensure the sustainable development of the industry, it is imperative to establish standards.
The white paper points out that the role of the supply and demand side of sunscreen clothing has changed, and the importance of user demand to market development has become more and more obvious, so the supply side has more responsibility to build a more standardized and orderly consumption environment, which can not only help consumers make decisions and be responsible for their health, but also benefit the stability and sustainable development of the sunscreen clothing industry.
As far as Jiaoxia itself is concerned, it has been constantly iterating around the six-dimensional standard since its inception and constantly upgrading its products. According to internal system statistics, in the past five years, more than 10 million pieces of sunscreen clothing have been sold under Jiaoxia.
As far as the industry is concerned, with the introduction of the concept of "lightweight outdoor", a new outdoor lifestyle and even a new trend culture have emerged.
Lightweight outdoor sports are more free and casual, richer in sports types, and lighter in equipment. In this process, people can not only exercise their bodies, but also enjoy sports, and feel physical and mental pleasure while integrating with nature. The white paper also pointed out that the use scenarios of sunscreen clothing have increased, gradually developing from outdoor sports to daily commuting, leisure and entertainment, daily life and other scenarios.
Coupled with the improvement of users' awareness of sunscreen, the demand for sunscreen has exploded, and China's sunscreen clothing market has shown a steady growth trend. The white paper pointed out that the market size of China's sunscreen market is expected to reach 95.8 billion yuan in 2026. Among them, sunscreen clothing has become an important part of the sunscreen clothing market with a market share of more than 50%, and it is predicted that China's sunscreen clothing market will reach the level of 55.4 billion in 2026.
Behind the growth of the industry, it is the brand's insight ability that is tested. Whoever can keenly see the changes in the market, take the lead in solving user pain points, and constantly adjust themselves to fill the gap in the market will be able to get more users.
Taking Jiaoxia as an example, starting from the sunscreen subdivision track and then to the lightweight outdoor extension, Jiaoxia has formed a multi-functional, multi-scene, and lightweight outdoor product matrix to help users reduce weight and burden, and easily go outdoors.
Among them, sunscreen clothing is the basic category of bananaxia, which has gone through three iterations so far, from the earliest stage of 1.0 to meet the sunscreen effect and ensure its protection ability, to the 2.0 stage of the ultimate protection ability, with both coolness, quick drying and personalized design, and then to now, breaking the barriers between outdoor and life, covering the 3.0 stage of lightweight technology, lightweight design and lightweight package.
In the spring and summer of 2024, Jiaoxia will launch multi-scene, multi-dimensional and multi-functional sunscreen clothing including classic ice silk series, light and thin portable series, customized series, and sun exposure series.
Taking the "exposure level" sunscreen clothing as an example, for women, the widened vinyl brim and fingertip protection design of the sunscreen clothing have the functions of light outdoor, sun protection, and aesthetics, and for men's outdoor people, based on sun protection, the whole line is upgraded with visual and strong breathable design functions, which can cover the multi-level needs of users for a single product.
On the whole, the underlying logic of each iteration of Jiaoxia products is to gain insight into user needs in advance, solve the pain points and category gaps of consumers, and provide one-stop solutions.
According to the data of the Tao platform disclosed by iResearch, in 2023, in the category of sunscreen clothing, Jiaoxia will be in the leading position in the industry with a market share of 26.5%.
For a long time in the past, there were many voices in the market that the market threshold for sunscreen clothing was low and the standards were different. Now, with the launch of the "six-dimensional standard for sunscreen" and the participation of more players, the industry will bid farewell to its wild growth and realize that "an excellent sunscreen clothing cannot only achieve the ultimate in single performance, but should provide consumers with more comprehensive protection." ”
Before the market really matures, preparing a set of transparent, scientific and reasonable standards for sunscreen clothing, promoting the industry to have data to check and standards to follow, and to develop more stable, longer and more sustainably, may be what Jiaoxia really wants to do.
(The header picture of this article comes from Jiaoxia's official Weibo.) ）