A sportswear company from China has chosen Portland to set up its first international shop. Stumptown's own sportswear giant, Nike, made its name in part by outsourcing to countries like China. So the question is: are the things Nike taught companies overseas now coming home to challenge Nike on its own turf? Kristian Foden-Vencil reports. Li Ning is both China's most successful athletic company and a person. Remember the music from the 2008 Olympics opening ceremonies in China. Now try and remember the scene - an athlete flying through the air on a wire to light the torch. Are you there? Well that athlete was Li Ning - and you can bet your favorite pair of running shoes, members of the Chinese audience weren’t thinking about the Olympic official sponsor, Adidas when he did that - they were thinking about Li Ning. So why was the leader of a massive athletics company chosen to fly through the air? Because he won six medals in the 1984 Olympics.
Jay Li: "Part of his aspiration while standing on the podium receiving his gold medals is he looked on his chest and he saw a foreign brand." Jay Li is the company's top dog here in the US and he says Li Ning has spent the following decades trying to change that. He says Li Ning sportswear can now be found in six thousand stores in China. And now, Oregon. But he says Nike and Adidas don't need to worry - Li Ning hasn't come to the US to take over. It's here to learn. So cut to this week in Portland's Pearl District. Li Ning held the official ribbon cutting of its first US store. Outside, Portlander Tim Sayasing, waited to see one of the company's A-list athletes -- Baron Davis of the LA Clippers. Tim Sayasing: "On this website I go onto, it's called sneaker files. Sneaker files shows what brand shoes have got. I know Baron has it. Some other guy in the NBA, I think his name is Daemon Jones, and they all wear this gear and this gear is going to be sick right." You can hear the excitement in his voice. But generating that kind of buzz hasn't happened overnight or by accident.
Jay Li says the company picked Portland because of all the shoe designers, running scientists and global marketeers here. Jay Li: "Given the available talent pool that's here in Portland. It gives much closer and easier access to those talents." Eric Miller: 'I don't see anything wrong. I actually look as the opportunity as just that." Eric Miller is one of 26 local apparel designers Li Ning has hired. Eric Miller: 'I think the marketplace, whether it be shoes, cars, computers, electronics anything. It's pretty much an international market now." But before Li-Ning can truly become an international company, it has to address one problem: Chinese sports like ping-pong don't exactly get Americans stripping off their shirts and painting their faces with passion. So in the new store, table tennis phenom Brian Loader, is also a salesman. Brian Loader: "If I'm going to try and get someone into table tennis. I'm also going to want them to experiment with good equipment too. You know, if you give someone a bad paddle, a bad pair of shoes, bad anything in any sport. They're not going to enjoy it as much." Other Li Ning employees do the same for badminton, tai chi and Kung Fu. But will that work? Gary Peck: "I look at China and Li Ning specifically as having an incredible engine." Gary Peck runs a Portland company that designs products for the likes of Nike and New Balance. He says Chinese companies have a reputation for plastic, throw-away stuff and for being bureaucratic, but... Gary Peck: "Things do evolve and things do change and if they're prepared to do that then I think they're going to be very successful." For it's part, Nike says it doesn't take any competitor lightly. But over the last few years, Li Ning has averaged an annual growth rate of 37 percent - stats that are likely to keep Nike up on its well conditioned toes for a while.
Discuss
Download
