Back in February, the North American flagship store of Chinese sportswear maker Anta opened its doors on a ritzy boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, next to household names such as Lululemon and Wilson.
At the grand opening, attendees munched on matcha popcorn inside, while eager basketball fans formed long queues outside, hoping to meet NBA stars Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. The latter had just signed a lifetime deal with the brand.
The hoopla seemed to herald a new force in athleticwear bursting onto the scene. But while it has lacked brand awareness among Western consumers to date, the 35-year-old Anta Sports Products has been making a strong run over several years to become the world’s third largest sportswear maker, trailing only Nike and Adidas in revenue.
“Opening a large flagship in Beverly Hills is a statement of intent. Anta wants to be seen not just as a strong Chinese brand, but as a serious global player in one of the world’s most premium retail locations,” said Rufio Zhu, vice president for digital at global sports marketing agency IMG.
Anta’s sales have been boosted by an acquisition strategy that has rolled up brands that are often better known globally and serve the premium end of the market. In 2025, revenue increased 13.3% to reach a record USD 11.8 billion. While its core mass-market label achieved only a moderate 3.7% growth rate, its diverse portfolio grew by 59.2%.
In its latest deal in January, Anta said it would acquire a 29% stake in struggling German sportswear maker Puma for EUR 1.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion), adding another international brand to an expanding stable that includes Chinese rights to South Korean-owned Fila, with its Italian heritage, and Japan’s Descente.
Puma’s shares have gained 60% since the transaction was announced, with investors expecting it to leverage Anta’s network in China to expand its footprint, building on Anta’s previous success in remaking Fila into a sports fashion brand there. From 2019 to 2021, Fila accounted for nearly half of Anta’s profits.
Anta’s playbook has been to take controlling stakes in companies while allowing the brands it acquires operational independence. It did this in 2019 with Finnish conglomerate Amer Sports, as part of a consortium that included the family office of Lululemon founder Chip Wilson and Asian private equity firm FountainVest Partners. The move gave it access to a long list of premium outdoor brands, including Arc’teryx and Salomon.
Amer Sports has become a growth engine for Anta, and Amer shares have surged 173% since a January 2024 Nasdaq listing. In major Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, fashion-conscious consumers can be seen sporting Arc’teryx’s waterproof shells and Salomon’s trekking shoes as status symbols, as the brands have been successfully repositioned for the local market.
A consultant specializing in sports brands told Nikkei Asia that Anta-controlled foreign brands were hiring local managers for their China operations and managing them with relative independence from headquarters to help their localization efforts.
Regionally, Anta plans to open 1,000 “points of sales” in Southeast Asia by 2028, while actively expanding its e-commerce channels there, according to its 2025 annual report.
In China, official data valued the sports industry at over RMB 3.8 trillion (USD 559.4 billion) as of the end of 2024, with the government expecting the figure to double by 2030.
Sports-related consumption is a rare bright spot amid lackluster domestic demand. According to data provider Euromonitor, China’s sportswear market is estimated to reach USD 66.3 billion in 2027 and grow at an average rate of 4.2% between 2026 and 2027, outpacing the global average of 2% and the Asia-Pacific average of 4%.
At home, Anta faces challenges from domestic brands such as Li-Ning and Xtep. Founded by the former Olympic gymnast, the eponymous Li-Ning has partnered with European outdoor brands such as Aigle and Haglofs through joint ventures. The brand also signed a long-term deal with NBA heavy hitter Stephen Curry. Xtep, a sportswear brand that focuses on running shoes, has entered into agreements with Saucony and Merrell to operate their businesses and distribute products in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Analysts say that for the first time, the homegrown brands are vying for the same customer pool as Nike and have been taking market share from the US company in China.
A Jefferies report in February said, “Nike’s consumer group is increasingly overlapping with that of Li Ning and Anta’s,” referring to consumer behavior on e-commerce platforms.
Nike’s China business has suffered six consecutive quarters of sales declines, with the company warning that it has a long road ahead to regain any ground.
Today’s sportswear buyers are warming to local labels because many offer “better value for money. This is a significant shift,” said Kathy Jiang, a partner expert at consultancy Roland Berger in Shanghai.
“If international brands cannot adapt to the fast supply chain model of Chinese e-commerce, or if their designs are not localized, they will become vulnerable to competition,” she added.
“It is increasingly difficult to describe the Chinese sportswear market simply as a binary competition between domestic brands and international giants,” said Tian Lan, a senior analyst for Euromonitor. “Competition is becoming less about nationality and more about who can respond faster to evolving consumer preferences, local culture, and lifestyle-driven demand.”
Analysts have identified a “K-shaped” sportswear market in China, with successful brands either addressing mid-to-high tier portions that focus on professionalism and design, or prioritizing the value-for-money segment.
Anta captures both ends of that market, with its premium international brands covering the high end and its home label positioned as mid-tier among domestic mass-market brands. In 2023, it also acquired a 75% stake in Maia Active, a yoga apparel brand that competes directly with Lululemon but offers its products at a fraction of the price.
“Every operator is becoming a multi-brand company,” said Chris Gao, a consumer analyst at investment bank CITIC CLSA. “More sports categories are emerging, which means multi-brand is a better strategy to address consumer demands.”
Anta’s global ambitions are just as strong. As early as 2005, the company’s founder, Ding Shizhong, an entrepreneur who hails from Jinjiang, a shoe manufacturing town in Fujian, had rejected the suggestion that it would be only a “Nike” for China, setting his sights on markets worldwide.
“What Anta is doing—using acquisitions and partnerships to go global—is increasingly the playbook for ambitious Chinese consumer brands,” IMG’s Zhu said.
Last month, fast fashion e-commerce giant Shein said it would acquire Everlane, a US retailer best known for marketing its apparel as ethically sourced and sustainable. Earlier this year, Centurium Capital, the private equity firm backing China’s budget coffee chain Luckin Coffee, bought US roaster Blue Bottle.
Anta’s Beverley Hills venture shows it is also trying to go up-market and change perceptions of the Chinese brand, while retaining its reputation for low entry price points and value for money. The latest Anta basketball shoe collection KAI 3—a collaboration with Kyrie Irving—sells for USD 135 a pair, compared to a pair in Nike’s LeBron collection, named after NBA legend LeBron James, costing USD 210–235.
But the ultimate goal is to use the knowledge and experience gained from international acquisitions to expand recognition and sales of the Anta brand well beyond Beverly Hills and basketball fans.
“[The aim] is to share technology, product know-how, and market insights across the portfolio,” said Zhu, “So the core Anta brand becomes more globally competitive.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.
Note: EUR, RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of EUR 0.87 = USD 1 and RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 8, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.