Reebok Opens The Gym To Retail Stores And Speeds Up Its Opening Up In The Chinese Market.

Cha Weiwen, vice president of Asia Pacific brand and general manager of Greater China, Cha Weiwen

In July 8th, the flagship store of Reebok Asia Pacific, located in Huaihailu Road, Shanghai, was officially unveiled.

This is the first retail store in the world that has really integrated into the gym except Boston headquarters.

Reebok brand spokesperson Wang Deshun and Victoria Song attend the opening ceremony of flagship store

In the two level shop, one floor is Reebok's product area. The first floor is the grey CrossFit Box gymnasium, providing CrossFit comprehensive physical training course.

Cha Weiwen, vice president of Reebok Asia Pacific brand and general manager of Greater China (Chad Wittman), called the flagship store "FitHub 3.0" and said it would continue to have similar shops in the future.

"This is a new form for us, which allows consumers to have more connections with products and to cross the style."

He said.

Earlier, Reebok proposed the goal of opening 500 "FitHub fitness outlets" in China in 2017-2020 years.

Cha Weiwen revealed that in the next few months this year, FitHub will reach 100.

This means that Reebok must speed up its efforts in China to achieve its established goals.

Shop opening rhythm.

The American brand, founded in 1895, is committed to reshaping its brand image.

Reebok is more focused on fitness, especially women's products, but it also means a big leap from traditional market to emerging field.

Moreover, the market has lululemon, Andrew, Puma and other competitors.

In 2017, Reebok's global revenue grew by 4%, of which the Greater China region's revenue rose by 25%.

In the first quarter of this year, Adidas's earnings report also showed that Reebok once again gained two digit income growth in Greater China, which contrasted with Japan and South Korea's revenue decline.

The Chinese market is becoming more and more important.

The layout of more offline stores is a way to enhance brand influence, and also to improve Reebok's revenue.

Since it was bought by Adidas in 2005, Reebok has gone through ups and downs.

In an interview with German magazine "Focus" in 2017, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said that Reebok had to make profits in four years.

CrossFitBox gym at the ground floor of Reebok flagship store

However, in recent years in the new retail trend, sports brands are being digitalized, and the electronic business platform is not only an important sales channel, but also the main position of brand marketing.

By contrast, Reebok's actions in this regard are somewhat conservative.

In the view of Cha Wei Wen, consumers can go shopping online, hoping to experience more online. "For us, the focus is on stay who we are (leaving the impression of" who we are ").

To some extent, FitHub 3.0, which is integrated into the gym, is taking more of Reebok's efforts to get through online and offline resources.

From the shop poster, the fitness course offers online booking service through the official small program of Reebok, joining ReekbokONE members, which is Reebok's official membership club.

Customers can also get Reebok's membership points when they attend the fitness course.

Curriculum and online booking process of gym in flagship store

It is worth mentioning that the Classics series is still the main source of Reebok's revenue growth.

According to the financial report, in 2017, Reebok's revenue increased from 1 billion 777 million euros to 1 billion 843 million euros, an increase of 4% over the same period, of which Classics series showed double-digit growth and low running unit number.

In an interview, Cha Weiwen conceded that the Classics series is the main source of revenue growth in 3-5 years, but 5-10 years later, Reebok will be a bigger source of profits in the Chinese market.

China has put forward the plan that the total scale of fitness and leisure industry should reach 3 trillion yuan by 2025.

For Reebok, how to get more and more fitness?

To seize the opportunity is the most important topic at present.

The following is a summary of Cha Weiwen's interview.

Reporter: Why did Reebok choose to open Asia's first flagship store in Shanghai? Will there be a similar store later?

Cha Wei Wen: the answer is very simple. China is undoubtedly the future of fitness.

This is our first FitHub3.0, and it's the first in the world, apart from the headquarters.

There will be similar stores in the future.

We first open this store, get experience from it, then expand it.

China, the Asia Pacific and the world will all look for opportunities.

Reporter: what position and expectation do Reebok have for Classics and Fitness two product lines?

Charles Wei: from the perspective of commercial performance, Classics series is still dominant in China, and sales growth is very fast. We will continue to provide better related products.

Fitness growth is also fast, but the growth rate is small, so it will take time.

In my opinion, the Classics series is still a great opportunity in the next 3 to 5 years, and the fitness market will probably become bigger in 5 to 10 years.

Reporter: the female market is a very important field for Reebok. But at present, the competition of Chinese women's fitness market is very fierce. How does Reebok position itself in this market?

Charles Wei: first of all, we are a sports brand with a history. It has rich historical stories and heritage. Now many brands do not have it.

Secondly, we focus on fitness, spend all our energy and ability to improve products and experience in this field, have excellent R & D capability and technology level, and have a lot of patented technology.

Many brands are here.

Li, but few brands are really expanding their borders.

Many brands do general fitness, or yoga, and we focus on a more breakthroughs in fitness exercise, such as boxing, which is becoming more and more popular among Chinese women and is very powerful.

CrossFit and Lai Mei are also very popular with women. We can say that we are the first female fitness brand.

Reporter: is Reebok's focus on the Chinese market still open in 2018? What are the specific strategies?

Charles Wei: Yes, we need to continue to open shop so that consumers can find us.

At present, we mainly aim at the top commercial district and the top commercial center of the first tier cities, and also strategically enter some specific two or three line cities, because there is consumption demand.

Reporter: what is the biggest challenge Reebok is facing now?

Charles Wei: China is a competitive environment.

Consumers have many choices.

There are many brands, many marketing activities, many celebrities, many places, and many people, so natural challenges will also be great.

The biggest challenge is to find the users we want to find, deliver the message we want to deliver, and bring them into the brand so that they can really understand us.

The way we should deal with this challenge is to sign the right stars, set up shop in the right place, do some unique Chinese product design, and provide the opportunity to truly experience the brand.