The General Administration of Customs recently released data show that in the first half of this year, China's sporting goods and equipment exports increased by 16.7% year-on-year, higher than the overall growth rate of exports over the same period of 9.8 percentage points. World Trade Organization (WTO) data released by the report shows that the global trade in sporting goods in the past nearly 30 years has grown nearly three times, and in these 30 years, China has become the world's largest exporter of sporting goods.

  Export of sporting goods and equipment increased by 16.7% in the first half of the year

  In the world's important badminton production base - Jinping County, Guizhou Province, every day tens of thousands of hits, more than 100,000 badminton from here “fly” to the world.

  “We have statistics, the world about every 10 badminton, there is 1 produced from Jinping.” Guizhou Yashilong Sports Culture Industry Development Co., Ltd. production manager Hu Bing said, the company's output value of 340 million yuan last year, the production of badminton more than 4 million dozen, exports totaled nearly 9 million U.S. dollars, the products are sold to more than 60 countries and regions. In the first half of this year, the factory production of badminton has more than 2.3 million dozen, output value of 185 million yuan, exports than the same period last year increased by about 40%. “At present, the badminton supply exceeds demand, a shipment is booked out, we are running at full power, catch up with the order products.”

  Explosion of badminton, is a microcosm of China's sporting goods production heat, export heat. In the first half of the year, China's sporting goods and equipment exports increased by 16.7% year-on-year, which sporting goods sold abroad hot?

  The first is the ball and related supplies.

  According to the General Administration of Customs data, in the first quarter of 2024, China's cumulative exports of soccer, basketball, volleyball 89.2 million, up 0.79% sequentially, an increase of 33.57% year-on-year, the export value of 193 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 10.36% sequentially, an increase of 17.99% year-on-year; table tennis, badminton, tennis and related supplies cumulative exports of 204 million U.S. dollars, a sequential increase of 0.59% year-on-year growth of 0.93%.

  From the point of view of export countries, the United States, Russia, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and other countries become the main export market of soccer, basketball, volleyball. The United States, Vietnam, France, Germany, Spain and other countries are table tennis, badminton, tennis and related supplies market is the main export destination countries, in the top ten countries in the export market, Asian countries occupy five seats, including the Philippines exports reached 6.04 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 69.55%.

  Followed by roller skates and skateboards.

  In the first quarter of this year, China's roller skates cumulative exports of 3.47 million pairs, an increase of 14.66% year-on-year growth, an increase of 30.85%; skateboard cumulative exports of 3.05 million, an increase of 23.08% year-on-year growth, an increase of 50.21%. From the point of view of export countries, Europe and the United States is still the main export market of roller skating skateboard supplies. With skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport, the influence of skateboarding further expanded, driving consumption in Russia, Japan and other countries, exports grew significantly. It is worth noting that the export value to Canada increased to $503,200 from $106,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 393.21% YoY, jumping into the top 10 export markets, which is a bright spot in the field.

  In addition, the export momentum of fitness equipment such as artificial grass and treadmill is also strong. The cumulative export volume of treadmills in the first quarter was 3.18 million units, up 44.94% year-on-year, mainly sold to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and other developed countries; the cumulative export volume of artificial grass was 31.72 million square meters, up 15.64% year-on-year, with the United States, Japan, Spain and other countries being the main export markets.

  Smarter and greener

Yang Xuezhu, Director of Sports Economy Department of General Administration of Sport of China, introduced that at present, the development of China's sports industry presents many highlights: the economy of sports events is remarkable, all kinds of tournaments and activities are fully restored, the number of tournaments, the scale of participation continues to expand; the outdoor sports industry is booming, the rapid development of surfboards, paddleboards, skis, the “new three boards” sports. Outdoor sports are attracting more groups, the formation of a new trend; sporting goods manufacturing accelerated upgrading, many sporting goods enterprises in the direction of product intelligence, intelligence is not bad.

  “Enterprises going overseas is an important direction for the future development of the sporting goods industry.” Bao Mingxiao, president of the China Sports Policy Research Institute of Beijing Sport University, told reporters. The pace of going out to be more solid and powerful, relying on more scientific and technological content, more green “hard power”.

  In Huai'an Economic Development Zone, Jiangsu Province, the top Acer Sporting Goods (Huai'an) Co., Ltd. production workshop, 12 production lines running at full capacity, with a daily output of more than 65,000 ball liner.

  This enterprise specializes in the production of liner for soccer, volleyball, basketball, rugby and other ball products for sports, 70% of the products are exported overseas. The Paris Olympics used a product developed by this enterprise that contains 70% bio-based.

  “This soccer ball is implanted with a chip that can do 500 recognition actions in 1 second, and assist in determining whether the ball is handballed, offside, etc. through real-time data.” Zhou Hongda, general manager of Acer Sporting Goods (Huai'an) Co. told reporters, “The materials used in traditional soccer ball liners are chemical products extracted from petroleum, and now we continue to research and develop and launch liners made from recycled and bio-based materials in response to the demand for environmental protection and carbon reduction.”

  Since the beginning of this year, this company has exported 4.07 million balls for tournaments such as the European Cup, the America's Cup, the Olympic Games and training balls, with foreign trade orders in hand until the end of the year. Zhou Hongda believes that “Made in China” to win the market is the key to continuous innovation, increase the technological content of the product, to adapt to the new market demand.

  Paris Olympic Games, hydrofoil windsurfing event for the first time as an Olympic project debut. Carrying athletes and windsurfboards, hydrofoils are the key equipment of the hydrofoil windsurfing program, but also the fist product of Sully Composites (Hubei) Co.

  “The thinner the hydrofoil is, the faster it goes through the water, and the more obvious it is for the athletes to improve their performance.” Wang Guangxu, engineer of the quality department of the speed force composite materials, said that the water wing series on the Olympic Games, for example, compared with the industry's commonly used manual grinding, the introduction of grinding robots, grinding the water wing surface is more uniform, better streamlined, the thinnest place can reach 0.02 millimeters.

  The enterprise also independently developed 3D scanning inspection equipment according to the demand of the Olympic Games event, which provides a reliable reference for the high-precision production of products. “Nowadays, there are more than 10 foreign engineers within the team and a logistics warehouse has been established in Europe. Whether it's the use of new materials or the speed of iteration of the production process, the enterprise has already had a clear advantage in the industry, which is also an important reason for the enterprise to stand out in the fiercely competitive Olympic equipment market.” Yan Zaixing, general manager of Suli Composites, said.

China Sporting Goods Industry Association Deputy Secretary General Wen Jia said that the domestic market competition is fierce, but at the same time also forced enterprises and businesses from customer demand, pay more attention to segmentation and details of the differences, the use of science and technology to provide customized, personalized products and services.

  National Stadium “Bird's Nest” runway suppliers, Guangzhou with the Xin sports paved 21 World Association of Athletics Federations certified runway. The company's responsible person introduced, regardless of appearance or performance, the current runway, stadium and other sports surfaces can be customized. “Runways or courts of different colors and patterns are starting to rise, such as the Paris Olympic track and field track, which uses a color scheme that matches dark purple and light purple.” Chen Chen, vice president of Tongxin Sports, said, “Tongxin has developed a new printing technology to make the print pattern more firmly integrated with the runway and stadium surface, so that no matter how cool and complex the pattern is, it can be rendered no matter how much the customer wants it.”

  From product export to technology, service and brand export

  Driven by the tournament economy, buyers from all over the world seize the business opportunities and come to Yiwu, Zhejiang to purchase all kinds of sports products. Here, the improvement of customs supervision efficiency also provides a strong boost for Chinese enterprises to go out.