A good hand of cards played badly? Reebok officially announced to "join hands" with MUJI, which was once highly expected by Adidas
2024-08-24
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China Business News (Reporter Wang Yifei)Recently, sports brand Reebok and Japanese grocery brand MUJI announced a collaboration to launch a co-branded sneaker in late August.
On the Xiaohongshu platform, consumers joke that Reebok is a "half-dead" brand - although it is well-known, its current positioning in the sports brand market is "awkward". Can Reebok set off a trend and successfully "break out" through its collaboration with MUJI?
Two cross-border attempts to "polish" the brand
MUJI is a brand that was born in Japan in 1980. Its products include clothing, daily necessities, food, etc. Its name means "excellent products without names". MUJI, which has always been known for its non-branding, has reached a cooperation with Reebok for the first time, which has brought certain expectations to consumers who pursue fashion.
It is understood that this co-branded sneaker is designed based on Reebok's classic "Club C 85" sneaker, and the price is 8,990 yen. It will be sold in MUJI's online and offline stores in Japan at the end of August, but there is no plan to sell it in the Chinese market.
Yang Dayun, an analyst in the clothing industry, told China Business News that the collaboration with MUJI will not do much to enhance Reebok's brand influence in China, but it will increase brand exposure and attract those who are interested in Reebok's authorization.
In fact, this is not the first time Reebok has tried to cross over. The Chinese sporting goods market is highly competitive, and Reebok has previously focused on the fitness field to expand its market share and build its brand. In 2018, Reebok opened the "Fithub Fitness Center" store, which combines retail and fitness experience. At that time, Reebok's goal was to open 500 fitness stores in China by 2020, but the plan has not made much progress since then.
It is worth noting that in recent years, Reebok has not only made great efforts in the field of sports shoes and clothing, but also has presence in other categories of markets. On Taobao, Reebok has not only the Reebok official flagship store that mainly sells shoes and clothing, but also the Reebok Fitness flagship store, Reebok Underwear flagship store, Reebok Swim flagship store, etc. that mainly sell fitness equipment and equipment.
"If a brand does everything, it will overdraw its popularity and influence, and eventually its brand value will drop to the lowest level. Since the American brand management company Authentic Brands Group (ABG) acquired Reebok and authorized a third-party company to operate in China, Reebok's development goal in China has been to quickly regain the brand's surplus value," said Yang Dayun.
Born into a noble family, his fate was rough
In 2006, the world-renowned Reebok was acquired by Adidas for $3.8 billion, with the latter aiming to expand its business through Reebok and better compete with Nike. However, Reebok's performance under Adidas was not ideal, and its contribution to Adidas' revenue continued to decrease. In 2007, Reebok accounted for nearly a quarter of Adidas' total retail sales; in the second quarter of 2020, Reebok's share of Adidas' total sales fell to 6.4%.
After 15 years of operation, in August 2021, Adidas finally decided to reach an agreement with the American brand management company ABG to "sell" Reebok for about US$2.5 billion. ABG is a company that is keen on acquiring brands with operating problems, including Champion and Forever 21. After acquiring Reebok, ABG hopes that the brand can create more value in China.
On May 1, 2022, Reebok's related business in China was transferred by Adidas to Shanghai Lian Ya Commercial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Lian Ya). Shanghai Lian Ya is ABG's designated operating partner for the Reebok brand in China. ABG uses this to try to maximize Reebok's brand revenue in China.
"Generally speaking, ABG will restore the brand market as soon as possible after acquiring a brand, mainly through restructuring and licensing to get a return on investment." Yang Dayun said that the licensee can benefit from the popularity of the trademark by making products, but generally the brand will become worse and worse after authorization. The licensee does not have the ownership of the brand, but only the right to operate the brand. The purpose of obtaining the brand is to "drain" the brand's surplus value in the shortest time, and will not be responsible for "making the brand better and making the brand more valuable."
Where to go next
After Reebok's business in China was represented by Shanghai Lian Ya, negative news frequently came out. Public information shows that in 2022, when Shanghai Lian Ya handed over the business to Adidas, it was exposed that it had privately collected the personal information of Reebok users, and was fined RMB 120,000 by the Xuhui District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shanghai. In 2023, Shanghai Lian Ya claimed that a cowhide split leather product was a suede upper in the Reebok official flagship store on an e-commerce platform, and was punished for violating the relevant provisions of the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China".
Yang Dayun said that the development of brands after being authorized may not be worth looking forward to. For example, Forever 21 was very popular in the North American market. After ABG acquired it, it split and authorized it. Later, its products covered men's and women's clothing, children's clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and even jewelry, luggage, household items and other categories. ABG's split authorization method is to split a brand into dozens of categories, split the brand by country and by category, so as to "drain" the last value of the brand.
At present, the development of the Reebok brand in the domestic market is relatively difficult. At 16:00 on August 22, in the Reebok official flagship store on the Taobao platform, the sales of several new products recently released by Reebok had not reached 20 pieces, and the number of viewers in the live broadcast room was less than 800, while the number of viewers in the live broadcast room of another sports brand Mizuno at the same time exceeded 5,000.
Consumer Mr. Wang told the reporter that Reebok shoes were generally more expensive before, but the brand awareness is getting lower and lower, which also allows him to often buy cheap "branded shoes" at a discount. The appearance and materials of Reebok shoes are still "on-point", but the comfort level needs to be improved. The reporter observed that compared with other foreign trendy sports shoes, Reebok's prices are at a lower level. On some e-commerce platforms, you can buy a style that consumers call "both good-looking and high-quality" for about RMB 200.
