First-quarter sales figures indicate that Chinese sportswear brands "are showing signs of recovery, and companies expect further growth this summer to come from the 2014 FIFA World Cup," according to the CHINA DAILY.
A group of domestic athletic apparel manufacturers "announced first-quarter sales and the scale of orders in the fourth quarter, both of which have witnessed an increase."
Peak Sport, one of the main players in the sportswear industry, which held its sales fair for the fourth quarter in April, said that "fourth-quarter sales rose between 10 and 20 percent compared with the same period of the previous year." 361 Degrees Int'l, announced 1.8% same-store growth in the first quarter year-on-year. However, analysts said that the positive effects expected to be brought by the World Cup "are quite limited." Beijing Key Solution Sports Consulting Co. CEO Zhang Qing said, "The game's effect in boosting sales of sportswear products would be much less than has been thought, because football-related sporting goods make up only a small portion of the whole market" (CHINA DAILY, 6/10).
