The well-known British running brand Soar enters China, do On Holdings AG have a new competitor?

Author | Wang Xiaojun

Editor | Huang Yu

New faces are still contributing to the explosion of the outdoor racing track in China.

Recently, the well-known British running brand Soar opened a flagship store on Tmall, which means it has officially entered the Chinese market.

Currently, the Soar Tmall flagship store has launched products such as marathon sports vests, marathon sports shorts, and sports caps, with prices ranging from 499 yuan to 1999 yuan.

This is not surprising, as two months ago, the well-known sports retail operator Top Sports announced that it would be the exclusive operational partner for Soar in the Chinese market, fully responsible for the brand's development in China.

Most domestic consumers are still relatively unfamiliar with Soar.

Unlike many outdoor sports brands founded by professionals passionate about sports, Soar was created by a fashion designer.

In 2015, London fashion designer Tim Soar established the eponymous brand with the core concept of "British racing aesthetics," attempting to break the boundaries of traditional sports equipment.

However, this designer is also an experienced runner, and his dual identity merges high fashion's three-dimensional tailoring, avant-garde fabrics, and sports science. For example, its iconic 41-gram ultra-light graphene vest achieves dynamic core temperature regulation through the thermal conductivity of graphene.

Moreover, while most brands focus on basic training apparel, Soar has created clothing specifically designed for high-temperature running and high-intensity pace training.

Although its battle in the Chinese market has just begun, Soar, which has been around for ten years, already has a certain level of recognition in many countries.

At the 2025 Paris Fashion Week, Soar's autumn and winter collection attracted attention in the fashion circle with reflective material splicing and modular design. Additionally, Soar is a regular participant in the London Marathon and the UTMB Mont-Blanc endurance race.

In terms of channels, Soar has only one directly operated store in London, which also serves as the brand's headquarters and design studio. In addition to showcasing and selling the latest products, it regularly hosts running events, lectures, and new product launches as community activities.

In a broader market, Soar mainly adopts a model of cooperation with distributors, including more than thirty sales points such as the British fashion retailer End Clothing, Mexico's Metta Running House, and South Korea's Out of All.

In the Chinese market, Soar's partnership with Top Sports is also a bet on China's rapidly growing outdoor racing track.

As China's largest sports retail operator, Top Sports has over twenty years of development history in the sports retail field, with a retail network covering cities of different levels across the country and a user base exceeding 80 million.

However, it also faces core growth bottlenecks. Currently, the growth rate of partner brands such as Nike and Adidas is slowing, while emerging demand is shifting from the mass market to vertical fields, and niche new brands are always more favored by the middle class In terms of the running market, in 2024, Top Sports will introduce the Canadian high-end trail running brand norda™ to the Chinese market, becoming the exclusive operational partner of norda™ in China, fully leading the development of norda™ in the Chinese market, and establishing connections between norda™ and domestic trail runners as well as a broader community of outdoor sports enthusiasts through various online and offline channels.

The introduction of Soar is another move by Top Sports in the running field.

Moreover, the performance of brands like On, which are favored by the middle class, proves that this is a worthwhile track to pursue.

According to financial reports, On's net sales in 2024 reached 2.318 billion Swiss francs (approximately 18.875 billion RMB), a year-on-year increase of 29.4%, with net profit skyrocketing by 204.5% to 242 million Swiss francs (approximately 1.971 billion RMB).

From a regional perspective, the Asia-Pacific market leads with an 84.5% growth rate, continuing to accelerate from the 79.3% growth rate in 2023, with sales reaching 260 million Swiss francs (approximately 2.123 billion RMB). On's financial report particularly highlights the significant contribution of the Chinese market.

At the same time, the market is also expanding, making it increasingly competitive for players.

According to the "2025 Running Community Insight Report" released by Taobao Tmall Sports and Outdoors, in 2024, the number of domestic running users has exceeded 500 million, with trail runners and senior middle-class runners accounting for more than half, showing strong interest in new running products and high consumption capacity; regular runners make up the largest proportion of the running population and pay more attention to product performance. These groups are all potential consumers of running shoes and apparel.

However, currently, Soar still struggles to compete in scale with brands like On, Li Ning, and Anta. Additionally, in terms of product categories, On primarily focuses on shoes while also covering apparel, whereas Soar's current offerings mainly consist of sports vests and shorts.

Soar's Tmall flagship store gained only about a thousand followers in its first week, with the highest-selling vest priced at 899 RMB having only 33 transactions. Although its shorts are priced (949-1999 RMB) lower than the European official website, they are still several times higher than competitors.

Next, it remains to be seen whether Top Sports can develop Soar into a favorite among the middle-class running enthusiasts, similar to how Anta operates Arc'teryx