Nowadays, as you walk in the domestic cities, colorful and dynamic signs of gyms will always come nto your view. And when you walk nto the gym, you must first be greeted by rows of neatly stacked treadmills. People running on the treadmill, regardless of age, regardless of gender, can control their running speed all by themselves, with sports games playing in the monitor in the front of the equipment, and ears full of beautiful music from their iPods. Such a picture of “doing my own fashion fitness” is really exciting. As the consumers are enjoying the fun of exercising, the operators of the gyms, the fitness equipment manufacturers are truly delighted at heart, because while the fitness equipments are running, so are their business opportunities – unstoppable.
Sporting goods industry is booming along with sport games
It is proved by past experience that hosting sporting events, especially comprehensive large-scale international sports events, will promote the economic development of the host city or country much better than usual. As for the industry of sports, including the manufacture and sale of fitness equipment, the effect is even more powerful.
Take the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a symbol, a series of international sporting events have appeared in China. Before it we have the 2007 Asian Winter Games held in Changchun, after it we have the 2009 National Games in Jinan and the just-closed Asian Games held in Guangzhou. In addition, we also have the China Open held in Beijing and the Tennis Masters Cup held in Shanghai, the F1 Grand Prix Shanghai Station, and so on. These world-class sporting events with world-class sport stars have greatly aroused Chinese people’s passion for sport. This passion prompts

an active participation in various sports activities, and has greatly stimulated the domestic sporting goods market, as well as driven a consumption boom in sports equipment.
Let also take Beijing as an example. After the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing’s sports industry has entered a stage of rapid development. In 2009, the total revenue of Beijing’s sports industry realized RMB 50.2 billion, with the added value of RMB 9.14 billion, up by 91.3% and 51.6% respectively compared with the year 2006. The sports industry has achieved an average annual growth of more than 15%, exceeding the national economic growth rate. In the recently concluded fifth Beijing International Cultural & Creative Industry Expo, Zhang Yuan, deputy director of Beijing Munici
pal Development and Reform Commission, said that as of now, the number of registered sports venues and organizations in Beijing had reached 1020. These excellent facilities would definitely bring longterm influence to the future development of sports industry. The industrial system led by sports service industry and sports marketing industry has gradually taken shape.
Judging from the domestic sports industry as a whole, there is still a huge gap between China and the western countries. According to relevant data, the current annual output of the global sports industry is up to more than US$4200 billion, and has maintained an annual growth rate more than 20%. The output value of China’s sports industry is currently less than 1% of its GDP; while in developed countries, the proportion has reached between 2% and 3%. However, in a sense, the gap can be turned into opportunities. Because in the current and future period of time, the theme of China’s economic development is to adjust the industrial structure, and to change the mode of economic development. The sports industry is an integral part of green GDP, and the development of sports industry is of great importance on the industrial restructuring. As a developing country, China has a huge market space for upgrading the sports industry.
The recent fact bears proof of the above statement: the national policy orientation of developing the tertiary industry has provided a preferential policy support for the sporting goods industry; the growing service trade in international market provides a good market environment for the sporting goods industry, and has enhanced the attraction of social capital to the sporting goods industry. Accordingly, we can make a clear conclusion that the future of our sporting goods market will be great. The domestic manufacturing and sales company of sports equipment should be realistic and relying on the major opportunity of the new round of industrial restructuring. They should strive to make full advantage of the national policy to strengthen the company development as well as to increase their brand construction.
The deeply rooted public sense of sports and fitness
In recent years, China’s economy has maintained a rapid growth momentum. With people’s living standards gradually advanced and the continuing development of public sense of sports and fitness, the sports consumption of the urban population is on the rise, and the concept of sports consumption has also undergone a major change. The sports consumption is becoming a new fashion icon in people’s way of consumption. According to relevant survey, among those surveyed, 64% have an average annual consumption of sporting goods at RMB 50 to 500, 6.7% have more than RMB 500, much of which is the consumption of fitness equipment and sports equipment.
When interviewed, the staff in the Beijing Yihe Sunshine Sports Club presented the condition of the surrounding residents coming to their club. They say that in people’s past concept, fitness instructors always began to work in the afternoon or even close to the evening. But now the situation is very different. Members can get in the club and use the sports equipment for exercise when it opens at 8 am. The fitness instructors also begin to work in the morning, not in the afternoon. Because there are many appointments of equipment exercise, the club has increased the number of duty instructor from one to two. They also told the reporter something interesting: when the club just opened, there had been situation that seven or eight people waiting for one treadmill. With the increase in the number of treadmills, this kind of funny but embarrassing situation did not happen again. But new trouble keeps coming along. This time it is the rapid increase in fitness population that makes the treadmill being in a state of overload. There was a time when one treadmill being broken every day. Although this is annoying, it is a sweet trouble, reflecting the deeply rooted sense of public fitness, and an active response in sports consuming.
The lively scene in the above mentioned club is just an epitome of the booming situation of fitness clubs in cities of China. They all benefited from the support of national policy. On March 24, the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions of Speeding up the Development of Sports Industry”, and specifically noted the need “to strengthen the construction and management of public sports facilities”. In recent years, the Sports Lottery Public Welfare Funds has provided many places and equipment for the “National Fitness Project”. As of the end of 2009, only the state level of the Sports Lottery Public Welfare Funds has built nearly 9,000 fitness path, nearly 150 fitness centers, 22 fitness activity bases, and 12 outstanding sports parks. Not to mention the construction of the fitness facilities by the various levels of sport lottery funds.
The heat of consumption is irresistible
Statistics show that China’s current fitness equipment market is more than RMB 50 billion, and has nearly 500 fitness equipment manufacturers which can produce almost all the common types of fitness equipment in the world and process a arge number of foreign brands. The Maden-China fitness equipment accounts for about 60% in the international market share.
The domestic fitness equipment market is divided into two categories: the home-use market and the commercial market. The scale of the home-use market s relatively larger and with a faster growth than the commercial market, and thus has once been the major focus of the fitness equipment companies. The home-use equipment is generally small in size, light n weight, and easy to combine and operate. While the targets of commercial use equipment are stadiums, community sports centers or schools, commercial buildings, etc. Their purchases are fully functional high-end products.
Reporters learn from several sports shops in Hangzhou that the most popular home-use fitness equipment is the electric treadmill. Its sales volume is close to 60% of the overall fitness equipment market, with around 50 treadmills sold in one shop in one month. The following are multi-functional fitness equipment and exercise bike, with the proportion of approximately 15% and 10% respectively. The price of treadmill ranges from RMB one or two thousand to thirty or forty thousand, but the retail customers mainly purchase those priced from two to four thousand.
In addition, the exercycle, which takes up less area and priced less than five thousand, has been favored by retail consumers. The sales staff in Ningbo New Noble Sports Goods Co., Ltd. says that as the exercycle needs less space than the treadmill, and is especially good for older people to exercise their knees and legs. Thus, young people often like to buy it as a gift to their parents. Massage chair with health care function is another popular choice for family gifts. In particular, the ones which have a variety of massage modes, and can measure heart rate are better in product sales. Thus, towards the end of the year, the sales of massage chairs will mostly increase.
Since this year, online shopping has become more and more popular, especially online group purchase. The channels of fitness equipment sales are also advancing with the times. According to reporters in Hangzhou, different from the sales of the treadmill sold in the store, nearly thirty percent of exercycles and massage chairs are sold through the internet and TV home shopping. The consumers only need to tap a few keys or dial the phone, and then wait for their delivery at home.
When interviewing some units in Beijing, reporters noticed a particular phenomenon: many units had set aside special rooms for fitness activities for the workers. Inside the room there were a variety of fitness equipments. Reporters found out that many of these devices were purchased through online shopping or group purchase. Through those means of purchase, the consumer can not only get a price discount, the store is also responsible to send the products directly home.
The reporters also learned that, in e-commerce, wholesale and retail of fitness equipment also has a strong development momentum. Through print and video media publicity, and the way of seeing samples online and direct delivery from the factory can reduce the intermediaries between supply and demand, thus achieving a lower pricing of the fitness equipment.
According to the statistics released by the Department of Sports Economics in the General Administration of Sport of China, in 2007, the added value of China’s sports industry reached RMB 126.523 billion, accounting for 0.49% of the total GDP, increasing 22.83% compared with 2006; In 2008, the added value was RMB 155.497 billion, accounting for 0.52% of the total GDP, with an increase of 16.05%. In the domestic sports industry, although comparing with the sports shoes and apparel industries, the sports equipment industry is relatively minor and started late, with relatively fragmented industry structure and weaknesses of small enterprise scales, there is still a prospering prospect in the sports equipment industry. Take the treadmill as an example. The current gross sales of treadmill is RMB10 billion; in accordance with the market scale, the maximum capacity of the treadmill market in China can be up to nearly a thousand billion. Another point we must pay attention to is along with the upgrade of the sports industry, there are a large number of sports equipment companies which are prepared to be listed. And China’s No.1 sports shoes and apparel brand – Li Ning, has clearly sent the signal of purchasing sports equipment assets. The market competition has already been started.