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interface news reporter | zhou fangying

interface news editor | lou qinqin

as typhoons sweep through shanghai one after another, outdoor rain boots are accelerating the layout of offline retail space.

french rain boots brand aigle officially opened its flagship store in shanghai ganghui hang lung. the store was decorated around the "urban forest" experience theme to shape its french outdoor brand image. in 2023, aigle will also carry out corresponding upgrades to another major flagship store in indigo, beijing.

the main operating company behind aigle china is aigle (china) outdoor sporting goods co., ltd., which is controlled by li ning company. after losing the agency rights for italian sports brand kappa's chinese business in 2005, li ning successively represented outdoor brand aigle, acquired table tennis brand double happiness, badminton brand kaisheng, etc., opening a multi-brand matrix.

according to li ning's 2013 financial report, the total number of aigle stores reached 100 at that time. in addition to beijing and shanghai, the brand plans to continue to open globally unified brand image stores in first-tier cities such as provincial capitals. in addition, the brand also plans to strengthen the assessment and selection of agents in various locations to establish a foundation for future development.

however, in the following years, aigle, along with a number of other agency brands, became increasingly marginalized in li ning's financial reports. the proportion of aigle's other brand categories in total revenue was basically hovering at 1% in the disclosed financial reports.

according to the store list disclosed on aigle's official website, the brand currently has 95 stores in 37 cities in china. there are relatively many stores in north china, east china and southwest china, concentrated in commercial centers, shopping malls, airports and other areas of each city.

this means that in the past 11 years, aigle has always maintained a scale of about a hundred stores and has not achieved the expansion it hoped for in the ideal situation back then.

however, aigle has achieved category expansion, and its brand recognition has gradually expanded from the original rain boots to outdoor casual clothing. the aigle tmall flagship store shows that in addition to shopping vouchers, the number of top-selling products is significantly more than rain boots, and the price span ranges from 300 yuan to 2,000 yuan.

according to the interpretation of the 2023 double 11 data for the sports and outdoor market released by qifei observation, aigle ranked tenth in tmall’s 2023 double 11 outdoor brand sales list. outdoor sports are the hottest trend in the clothing field right now, and mass casual clothing brands such as metersbonwe are also trying to squeeze into the same track. aigle may be able to find a wider sales path besides rain boots.

with the same price range and similar brand positioning, the british rain boots brand hunter is also expanding in the chinese market. at the same time as aigle, the hunter brand's first offline limited-time store in mainland china opened in zhangyuan, shanghai. qiu wenbin, founder of baozun and chairman and ceo of baozun group, said at the opening ceremony that baozun will help hunter further expand online and offline channels and achieve coordinated development of all channels.

and this is hunter’s second departure in china.

in mid-2023, the hunter brand announced it was entering bankruptcy administration due to superimposed factors such as supply chain management, brexit, inflation and unusually warm weather. this also affected the brand's operations in the chinese market, and its tmall flagship store was temporarily suspended.

documents submitted by alix partners, the company's former manager, stated that hunter's debt amount exceeded one billion yuan, especially after the new crown epidemic hit, and sales dropped by 20%. hunter brands experienced a brief uptick in sales in 2021 after raising capital, refinancing debt, and restructuring its ownership, only to fall back into trouble again.

as part of the restructuring process, in june 2023, the american brand management company authentic brands group (hereinafter referred to as "abg") acquired the intellectual property rights of the hunter brand.

two months later, abg established a strategic partnership with baozun e-commerce. baozun is responsible for operating the greater china business of the hunter brand under the abg group. baozun also established a joint venture with the abg group to acquire 51% of the intellectual property rights of the hunter brand in greater china and southeast asia from the abg group.

since 2019, hunter has deployed its online business on major social and e-commerce platforms in greater china, and baozun e-commerce is its e-commerce partner. this also explains the reason why abg quickly reached cooperation with baozun e-commerce. abg group's special model is to master the intellectual property rights of multiple brands under its brands, but it will locally select partners to be responsible for business operations in each region where the brand business operates.

at present, hunter's reopened tmall flagship store shows that in addition to rain boots and some outdoor backpack products with good sales performance, the prices are basically around 1,000 yuan.

the 2024 douyin women's shoes industry report released by qifei observation shows that under the pattern of sales of 0 yuan to 100 yuan accounting for over 60% of the rain boots category, and 500 yuan to 1,000 yuan accounting for over 30% of sales, hunter rain boots account for 30% of sales. .

this shows to a certain extent that the category mentality brought by rain boots is hunter’s most valuable brand asset in the chinese market. but judging from the brand announcement, hunter obviously wants to move closer to the outdoor lifestyle like aigle. if you want to sell outdoor clothing with a price range that exceeds that of rain boots, consumers will only have more technical requirements for outdoor clothing than rain boots. hunter must then work hard on outdoor professionalism.