Qiaodan Sports among brands applying pressure to Nike in China

Chinese footwear and apparel brand Qiaodan Sports, long an “irritant to Nike,” is part of a cohort of “increasingly sophisticated Xiamen-based brands piling pressure on Nike in its most important international market,” according to Thomas Hale of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Other “insurgents” include Anta Sports, 361 Degrees and XTEP. Nike so far “appears to have few answers to the ferocious competition: its sales in China slumped” 17% in the three months to June, the eighth consecutive quarterly decline. Qiaodan has spent a “significant chunk” of its 26 years in business “embroiled in a legal dispute” with Basketball HOFer Michael Jordan. In 2020, Qiaodan was “ultimately found only to have infringed an element of Jordan’s prior name rights.” The brand is now a fully-fledged nationwide retailer, with around 6,000 stores across China. Qiaodan “may not be the largest of the challengers” to Nike but it has arguably been a “bigger nuisance than the rest.” Qiaodan — whose name translates as “Jordan” — was founded in 2000. Conduit Asia founder Wei Kan, a former Nike employee in China, said that after Nike released the Jordan brand in the country in 1997, Jordan products were “not readily available” in lower-tier cities, giving Qiaodan “some opportunities to grow their foundation.” Qiaodan sponsors Spurs F Keldon Johnson (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/17).