Global Market: Football Shoes Replace The Status Of Basketball Shoes

In the 2016 year of the year, the shoe wars continued.

Is there any niche market that can seize the opportunity outside the traditional category? Is there any emerging sport worth investing ahead of time? This is a question that all sports brands will think about.

CrossFit may be one of the answers.

The competition among the main brands such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour is intensifying, but the category of sneakers has not changed much.

In the largest US market, the main share is still running shoes (Running), casual shoes (Casual) and basketball shoes (Basketball).

And in the global market, football shoes have taken the place of

Status.

We have introduced in detail that this is a training program that requires cross functional exercises such as weight lifting and gymnastics (horizontal bar, rings, bounce), aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. It was founded in 2000 by American Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai.

It can be said to be one of the fastest growing fitness exercises in the past 10 years. At present, there are more than 1.3 thousands of Gymnasiums in the world.

According to official website data, 120 have also been opened in China.

The above is only the number of gymnasiums certified by CrossFit.

Similar to running, this fitness program requires no equipment, skills and space. Therefore, many gyms can choose not to pay certification fees of 3000 dollars per year, directly providing similar training systems.

But what makes the market particularly attractive is not just its size.

People who love this high-powered sport can easily buy sports clothes, but it is hard to find a suitable pair of shoes.

Running shoes emphasize more cushioning (cushioning), basketball shoes focus on ankle protection (ankle support), while CrossFit involves much more complicated movements.

According to individual circumstances, there will be many changes in the proportion of running, weightlifting and stretching.

In addition, after a few CrossFit classes, you will find at least five characteristics of this sport:

Anyone can easily handle, regardless of age or physique, though strong but not technically demanding.

Emphasize health, not just strength training.

The founder called CrossFit a "simple solution to the most complex problem in the world - chronic diseases."

It also made it closer to the public.

Emphasize community atmosphere.

There is a group of friends who share their self-identity and values, and even share some jargon that "outsiders" do not understand, such as WOD (Workout of the Day), the amount of exercise a day, and Burpee (a set of general training in CrossFit).

Participants usually have higher consumption ability.

The CrossFit monthly card of a second tier city in China is generally over 1500 yuan, which costs over 10000 per year, and pays attention to social marketing.

CrossFit has 2 million 700 thousand fans on Facebook and 160 fans in Instagram.

Of course, its participants are more "Internet Oriented", willing to display training results in social media, and are also used to online shopping.

Epidemic potential, consumption threshold, social interaction and communication.

These factors that make CrossFit popular are also essential elements for a new sneaker category to be successful in business.

Although CrossFit is still a niche movement, no one dares to underestimate the potential of this market.

In 2011, Reebok, which has just been acquired by Adidas for 6 years, has found Greg Glassman signed a 10 year cooperation agreement to become the official designated cooperative brand of CrossFit in order to restore its declining trend in the basketball shoe market.

It has launched the CrossFit special shoe series "Nano" for this purpose, and has now reached the fourth edition.

The material of this series is mainly rubber, the soles are elastic, and the upper part is hard. It has a certain cushioning property, but it is also enough to flat, so as to better support the trainers in weightlifting activities.

Nike launched the first version of CrossFit last year.

Metcon 1, and then released Metcon 2 this year, providing more color matching options.

It is more slender and concise in design, "said CrossFit coach Steven Pokk in an interview with Bloomberg. He prefers Metcon because" it is more fit, more flexible in movement, and does not look so fat. "

Staring at this market is not just mainstream sports brand.

In May last year, two former Reebok employees created a CrossFit shoe brand Nobull, offering only one shoe type and several matching colors. The sole was designed with a minimalist design, and the upper part was made of stronger material, and there was no other decoration.

The founder, Michael Schaeffer, said that what they want to solve is the over design problem of the CrossFit shoes market. "The inspiration comes from the sport itself. It is simple and direct, it doesn't need any complicated equipment, and it doesn't need a lot of venues."

No public figures are available to explain the performance of different brands in the market, but Bloomberg recently conducted a small survey.

They visited 5 gyms and found that more than half of them wore them.

About 25% people wear Reebok, and the rest are all kinds of other brands, such as New Balance, Asics or Nobull.

It is not easy to say how much the data is. After all, they have not announced whether there are brand partners in the gym.

In fact, if you are a frequent visitor to the gym, you will have your own observation.

For more information, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats and Internet cafes.