/PRZWT/BEIJING, June 6, 2024 - In recent years, more and more domestic brands have been cultivating their "internal strength" in technological innovation, identifying opportunities and taking advantage of the momentum as they accelerate their integration into the new development landscape.
On May 29, the "In My Name, Technology Li Ning" technology show was successfully held. This show is the first time in 34 years that Li Ning Group has focused on showcasing the history and precipitation of sports technology innovation. It not only shows its "dare to imagine, unremitting pursuit, and win breakthroughs" brand spirit through new technologies and new products, but also actively explores to promote the high-quality development of the sports industry, writing a brand innovation path under the guidance of professionalism and technology.
Deepen athletes' genes and outline a long-term path for technological innovation
On the road of scientific and technological innovation of corporate brands in our country, Li Ning, as a Chinese professional sports brand that has been developed and accumulated for more than 30 years, is not only a witness, a participant, but also a promoter.
The athlete spirit in the brand's blood is the root driving force for it to develop the "internal strength" of technological innovation. Since its establishment, the brand has regarded technological innovation as its main line of growth. In 1998, it officially established the Foshan Product Design and Development Center, becoming the first sports brand in China to establish an independent design and development center, and thus opened its own road of technological innovation. As Qian Wei, executive director and co-CEO of Li Ning Group, said: "The development of our brand and professional technological innovation are inseparable. Since the establishment of the brand, it has continuously accumulated industry-leading sports industry insight, sports event understanding, and sports Product Research & Development capabilities. How to continuously meet sports needs, grasp sports trends, and better serve athletes and sports enthusiasts is our eternal topic. "
In the course of more than 30 years of development, Li Ning has not only continued to deepen its understanding of sports needs, accumulated profound insights that are at the forefront of the industry, but also established two major product innovation pillars of "sports science research + technology research and development", forming a closed-loop transformation from sports insight to technology to products.
Among them, based on the application of sports science research results is its current and future focus. To this end, the brand is equipped with excellent hardware facilities with strong general capabilities. At present, it has planned and built over 9,000 square meters of sports science research centers in Beijing and Nanning, Guangxi; in the past 10 years, the total R & D investment of a single brand has exceeded 3 billion, providing a strong backing for its focus on product innovation and upgrading, and improving the professional sports product matrix. In terms of talent, it has continued to make efforts in sports science research, and has built a high-quality R & D and innovation team covering sports human body science, sports medicine, polymer materials science and other multi-disciplinary intersections.
Thanks to years of technological research and development and sports science research accumulation, it has ushered in a wave of technological explosion since 2019, marked by "GCU". In recent years, it has also explored the latest "black technology" in the fields of running and basketball, such as the fastest curve system and carbon core. It has turned technological innovation into a driving force for the development of enterprises, and used technology to promote the professional performance of products.
Three core competencies to help the high-quality development of the sports industry
In the face of a constantly changing market environment and intense industry competition, Chinese brands need to rely on long-term sustainable technological innovation in order to move faster and more steadily on the road to high-quality development, which not only tests the development strength of an enterprise, but also tests its development resolve.
Thanks to its unremitting insistence on professional sports, Li Ning has a systematic and platform-based scientific and technological strength. Based on technological innovation, it has formed three core competencies: sports category expansion ability, category product matrix ability, and product series iteration ability, which have become an important cornerstone driving the development of the group. Qian Wei, executive director and co-chief executive of Li Ning Group, said: "Based on the innovative application of sports technology, we have achieved diversified sports category coverage under the core strategy of focusing on single brands, and at the same time have the ability to expand horizontal categories. This ability allows us to capture market opportunities more quickly and meet consumer demand in new sports scenarios more quickly."
Under the dual impetus of technological innovation and product upgrades, the brand is based on three innovative application strengths, going deep into various professional sports fields such as running, basketball, fitness, badminton, outdoor, etc., and has built a full-scene segmentation professional product matrix to assist professional athletes in achieving field breakthroughs; and has successfully created a variety of popular classic product IPs such as Ultra Light, Control Shuai, and Way of Wade, winning the support and trust of sports enthusiasts.
Li Ning's technological innovation takes into account social value. While using technology to promote the professional performance of products and support better sports performance, it also actively pays attention to the innovation of advanced environmental protection technology and production materials, and explores the implementation plan of multiple environmental protection products. In 2024, it will launch fully degradable professional sports shoes, exploring new ways of sustainable integration of technology, materials, products and environmental protection, bringing more green choices.
The innovation and application of science and technology have driven the brand's professional products to achieve double harvest in the field and market. In the field of running, in 2023, its Feidian series of positioning running races helped domestic and foreign elite athletes win 103 championships and take the stage 194 times; at the Seville Marathon, Feidian 3 ULTRA helped athletes create the fastest speed record in China's running shoe marathon; as a long-term official strategic partner of the Chinese Men's Professional League, in the past 12 years, it has provided professional basketball equipment for more than 1,160 CBA professional players, and has been verified and accumulated in more than 5,020 top-level events and more than 47,650 pairs of shoes.
In 2023, the group's development is stable, revenue growth of 7% to 27.598 billion yuan, of which, thanks to the strategic focus of professional categories, its basketball, running, fitness three professional categories accounted for 64% of the flow, a new high in 4 years, showing professional sports strength; among them, running category flow increased by 40%, fitness category flow increased by 25%, the performance is bright.
In addition to building core competitiveness, it has unswervingly made multi-dimensional efforts to expand the value development of scientific and technological innovation. Through internal "management system guarantee + talent team construction + capital investment" and external "innovation ecological Moments", it has effectively guaranteed the sustainability of scientific and technological innovation. While continuously launching innovative products to give back to the society, it continues to promote the high-quality development of the sports industry.
At a time when Chinese brands take technological innovation as a breakthrough point and promote high-quality development, Li Ning continuously cultivates its own "internal strength", builds technological innovation strength with athlete genes, and is committed to becoming a fashionable international first-class professional sports brand originating from China and recognized by the world. In the future, it will continue to strengthen its technological innovation capabilities and move towards becoming a pioneer enterprise of technological innovation in China.
