Bags / Shoes & Accessories

Recently, Umbro, a British sports brand that has been acquired by Jordan sports (now renamed "Zhongqiao sports"), has opened its first brand direct store in Greater China in Chongqing Vientiane City (opening time: September 19, 2014, commercial building area: 230000 m2, top 50 items on the passenger flow scale index list of national shopping centers in 2019), which also announced the official launch of the offline layout of the brand in the Greater China market.

The first store landed in Chongqing and actively laid out online and offline channels

The first brand direct store is located on the third floor of Chongqing Vientiane city. In addition to launching football and professional sports series with profound historical heritage, it also brings sports leisure and 1924 series high-end products to consumers. In the future, we will start from products and bring Chinese consumers a football and sports life culture integrating classic retro and modern trend styles.

This time, the first store is located in Chongqing, one of the important cities in the southwest of Chengdu Chongqing economic circle, which also highlights the brand's determination and confidence in deepening the Chinese market.

In addition, Umbro has also actively laid out online and offline channels and synchronously developed experiential commerce and digital retail. UMBRO tmall, jd.com, dewu, Tiktok and other online self-supporting official stores have been launched one after another.

China's market operation control has changed hands many times, and this return is only the beginning. Before being acquired by Zhongqiao sports in 2020, Umbro's control of China's market operation has changed hands for many times.

In 2003, Guangzhou Baiyunshan sportswear Co., Ltd. became an Herbalife agent factory. In August 2003, the "Herbalife sporting goods department" was officially established, which is regarded as the node for Herbalife to officially enter the Chinese Mainland market.

Just before long, quality problems began to break out in Umbro's Chinese market, mainly due to the lack of control by the quality inspection department of the agent factory, resulting in a large number of unqualified goods flowing into the market. Agents mostly cut prices to stop losses, and Umbro's brand image was seriously damaged.

In 2016, the sports brand agent Meihe meichuang purchased some trademark rights and management rights of Umbro Greater China from aikangnis. It is reported that the contract value is nearly 400 million yuan.

However, in July 2019, aikangnis re acquired the shares of Meihe meichuang's Umbro China at the price of US $1.3 million (about 8.966 million yuan).

UMBRO's return is just the beginning. It is not easy to occupy market share in the Chinese market. Whether it can develop and grow smoothly in the future remains to be verified by time.