--- title: "LI NING outdoor independent stores are landing, is a high-profile offensive prelude coming?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/268925752.md" description: "Latecomers" datetime: "2025-12-08T09:17:53.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/268925752.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/268925752.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/268925752.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # LI NING outdoor independent stores are landing, is a high-profile offensive prelude coming? In Beijing's Chaoyang Joy City, Li Ning has opened a new outdoor independent store named "COUNTERFLOW 溯." The store showcases Li Ning's full range of outdoor products, including the outdoor waterproof series focused on professional protection, a limited edition series themed "Exploring Mountains and Rivers," exclusive colorways, and newly launched products. Additionally, the store has set up an "Outdoor Community Corner," planning to regularly organize offline outdoor activities aimed at connecting more urban outdoor enthusiasts. **The opening of the new store signifies that, after more than a year of testing products, Li Ning is finally pushing its outdoor line to a more independent forefront.** From a positioning perspective, Li Ning is targeting the light outdoor segment, focusing on high-frequency scenarios such as hiking, suburban camping, and urban commuting. The main products are priced to fit the mass market: the "Xiao Zhan same model" Wanlongjia Breath anti-rain high-breathability jacket is priced around 1500 yuan; among footwear products, the Xingye PRO outdoor leisure shoes and Xingchuan PRO outdoor hiking shoes retail for 699 yuan and 899 yuan, respectively. **In the context of a consumer environment that has not yet shown significant recovery, the outdoor business holds dual significance for Li Ning in terms of offense and defense.** At the earnings release earlier this year, Co-CEO Qian Wei stated that although outdoor currently accounts for a small proportion of the company's overall business, we hope to quickly cultivate an independent category that can become a business driver in the future. From the perspective of overall market capacity, while the light outdoor segment has passed its explosive growth phase, it remains a rapidly growing niche, with daily demand continuing to gravitate towards outdoor scenarios. However, the outdoor market has become a red ocean, and it remains uncertain how much market share "latecomer" Li Ning can capture in the outdoor space. ## Reasons for Being Late Li Ning's entry into the outdoor field actually predates most domestic competitors. As early as 2005, Li Ning established a joint venture with the French outdoor brand AIGLE, acquiring its operational rights in the Chinese market. AIGLE focused on waterproof rubber boots and professional waterproof and windproof jackets, positioning windbreakers and rain boots as pillar products, later entering the outdoor market through tennis shoes and hiking boots, even independently developing MTD waterproof and windproof breathable fabric. After entering the Chinese market, AIGLE shifted towards a light luxury, middle-class fashion positioning, retaining functionality in materials and design, but with a fit and cut more aligned with business casual, resulting in low brand visibility in the domestic market. In 2015, Li Ning even opened offline direct stores for its outdoor product line Li-Ning Adventure. This series belongs to Li Ning's running division, catering not to the general daily wear needs but to vertical hiking and trail running enthusiasts, with target customers being predominantly middle-aged individuals. Despite entering the market early, the outdoor business has always been a sideline for Li Ning. Li Ning's strategic focus quickly shifted to the broader and more potential-filled sports fashion sector. In 2018, driven by the "national trend" boom, Li Ning's revenue first surpassed 10 billion yuan. By 2021, as domestic sports brands overall benefited from market opportunities, Li Ning's revenue soared to over 20 billion yuan. It wasn't until after 2022 that Li Ning, along with the entire industry, entered a phase of cyclical transition Changes in the consumption environment have prompted a more rational approach to mass consumption, and the appeal of the "national trend" that once supported brand premiums has weakened, posing challenges to Li Ning's high-end path. According to Magic Mirror data, from 2020 to 2022, the price range of Anta and Li Ning products in the Tmall sports shoe category continued to rise, but by 2023, the industry's discount rate generally deepened. During the same period, Li Ning's gross profit margin decreased by nearly 5% compared to two years ago, and inventory turnover days increased by 9 days, reaching 63 days. **As the outdoor market's dividends are concentrated and released, Li Ning's main focus has been constrained by inventory optimization and growth model adjustments, and is refocusing on the professional sports track.** **Until now, in response to the contraction of offline traffic and growth pressure, Li Ning has chosen to broaden its categories to seek new growth points, with outdoor business once again brought to the forefront.** Hua Xing Securities analyst Jiang Xuefeng pointed out that under the pressure of expansion in 2024, Li Ning will significantly deepen the width of its products to drive growth, with an increase of 35%-40%. This year, Li Ning officially established an outdoor category and formed a dedicated team covering product, marketing, design, and supply chain, initiating a systematic layout. This category is divided into two main branches: "professional outdoor" and "light outdoor," and has launched core product IPs such as the Wanlongjia jacket and the Xingye and Xingchuan hiking shoes, gradually penetrating the market through designated areas in existing stores. However, Li Ning's advancement in the outdoor field still appears cautious. So far, the brand has not announced specific plans for outdoor store expansion. In the first half of the year, Li Ning has net closed 51 stores, and the cleanup of inefficient stores is still ongoing. This caution is related to the channel structure; having not undergone large-scale DTC reform, Li Ning currently has a distribution channel proportion exceeding 45%. **Against the backdrop of an overall consumption environment that has not significantly warmed, channel health and discount rates remain its most concerned operational indicators.** At the mid-term performance meeting, CEO Qian Wei proposed a 50% gross profit margin as the operational goal and will continue to optimize the offline channel structure. Management also emphasized that when revenue and inventory are mismatched, inventory will be prioritized for handling; if market pressure increases, discounts will also be increased to maintain healthy and controllable inventory. ## Catching Up Distance One of the long-term doubts from the outside world regarding Li Ning is its wavering positioning between professional sports and fashion leisure. The light outdoor category precisely lies at the intersection of the two, creating ample harmonization space for Li Ning's "single brand" strategy. It neither deviates from the main line of professional sports nor abandons the design style centered on Eastern aesthetics, retaining key cultural recognition and memory points. **This allows Li Ning Outdoor to fully leverage the group's resource support in technology, design, supply chain, marketing, and channels.** According to official information, Li Ning Outdoor's visual design incorporates traditional imagery such as porcelain green and Tang Mingguang armor, continuously reinforcing the landscape and Eastern narrative through the "Tracing the East" themed grand show and annual events like "Exploring the Mountains and Rivers." At the core technology level, Li Ning has collaborated with national-level research institutions to launch anti-rain double-permeable nano technology and established an outdoor professional water-resistant technology system named "Li Ning·Da." Among them, the "Black Da" standard is applied to professional waterproof products such as Wanlongjia, mainly to meet extreme outdoor needs; the "White Da" standard is used for protective products such as Longke, mainly to meet the needs of urban complex weather travel. In the footwear sector, Li Ning has transferred its mature "Feng Technology Platform" to the outdoor line, for example, the Xingchuan hiking shoes use midsole Feng foam technology, continuing its performance advantages. The establishment of independent outdoor stores is not Li Ning's first exploration in the single-category store field. In 2024, Li Ning launched the independent footwear store SOFTLAND, attempting a store operation model centered on segmented categories and product IP. Sports brands build differentiated merchandise and experiences through store type differentiation, product IP, and boutique line layouts, which helps strengthen product value perception, thereby reducing reliance on promotions, increasing average transaction value, and improving overall profit structure. This aligns with the current industry trend of sports brand channels upgrading to scenario-based and professional approaches. It is important to note that competition in the outdoor market is intensifying across the board. Old rival Anta has built a brand matrix covering high-end to mass markets, and its brand Jack Wolfskin recently announced the closure of its flagship store on Xiaohongshu, seen as a rhythm for a new round of channel system integration. International brands are also increasing their investments, with Nike's ACG global flagship store recently opening in Beijing's Sanlitun. **There are already many brands in the market with mature recognition.** **The latecomer Li Ning may have hopes for a breakthrough, partly relying on the gradually unfolding Olympic marketing.** In October, Li Ning collaborated with the Chinese Olympic Committee to jointly release the award equipment for the Chinese sports delegation at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics. As a highly exposed cooperative resource, this initiative not only strengthens the brand IP influence but also provides real application scenarios and innovative basis for subsequent product development through its deep collaboration model. Recently, Li Ning also announced its sponsorship of the Chinese Fencing Association and the Chinese National Fencing Team, launching the "Dragon Sparrow Plan" with an annual investment of over 50 million yuan at the Shanghai Sports Expo. 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