Young Chinese show growing interest in outdoor activities

Young Chinese consumers have shown a growing interest in outdoor activities such as cycling, fishing and hiking, enabling them to get closer to nature as the weather warms up and driving a rapid growth in sales of outdoor sporting equipment and accessories.

Besides traditional outdoor sports brands that focus on pure outdoor activities and emphasize the professional attributes of their products, a growing number of new outdoor sports brands have emerged in China over the past few years and they have integrated with more outdoor lifestyles and related mentality, said LeadLeo Research Institute, a market research provider.

With the rise of outdoor sports as a lifestyle, Sanlitun Taikoo Li, a shopping complex in downtown Beijing, is gradually transforming its underground level of the south area into a gathering place for outdoor sports brands.

Domestic outdoor gear and apparel maker Uppervoid has launched its first brick-and-mortar store in North China at Sanlitun Taikoo Li. Before that, outdoor sports brands such as New Balance and tennis sporting goods maker Wilson opened their stores in the same area in a bid to attract more young customers.

"Chinese consumers have been paying more attention to the design and styles of outdoor sports products and participants have shifted from professionals to the general public," said Zheng Zijiong, an analyst of LeadLeo. "Both professional and leisure settings of outdoor sports have their own participants, and the niche and mass markets have coexisted. Many young female consumers living in top-tier cities have become the main group of consumers."

This year, the market size of the outdoor sports sector in China is expected to top 3 trillion yuan ($413 billion), according to a report on the development of the country's outdoor sports sector released by the General Administration of Sport of China late last year.

Taking a short trip to suburban areas and going for outdoor activities have become a popular weekend lifestyle for young people, driving growing demand for outdoor sports gear.

In the first week after the Spring Festival holiday this year, the online search volume of cycling equipment such as bicycles and helmets surged 284 percent over the previous week, and the search volume of fishing equipment jumped 93 percent week-on-week, according to Xianyu, Alibaba Group's online trading platform for secondhand goods.

Compared with purchasing new products at their original prices, young people have been interested in buying secondhand outdoor equipment or renting goods to save money and achieve circular consumption. Besides outdoor sports gear, drones, Polaroid, Fuji cameras, and other types of camera equipment for spring outings have also seen growth in sales, Xianyu said.

Besides growing demand from the public, the outdoor sports sector has also gained support from favorable government policies.

Earlier this month, a new guideline said that China aims to develop its outdoor sports sector and cultivate new economic growth points by building about 100 high-quality outdoor sporting venues and destinations by 2030, according to the National Development and Reform Commission and the General Administration of Sport of China.