CHINESE sportswear makers are seeing opportunities as some of China’s production capacity used by global sportswear brands is now lying idle, Bloomberg News quoted a manufacturing executive as saying.

Roughly a quarter of Chinese production capacity used by global sportswear brands has become idle, forcing factories to offer discounts of 10 percent to companies such as his to use their dormant production lines, Chinese sportswear maker Xtep International Holdings Ltd.’s chairman Ding Shuipo said. The company plans to expand production of its international brands in China. “We can produce in these Chinese factories and that’s how we have an advantage.”

For China’s US$4.7 billion industry of sportswear exports, the growing local market can partially make up for waning foreign demand, said Ding, although the transition will be rocky. “But by shifting to made-in-China and sold-in-China, factories shorten production cycles and that could be good to them too,” he said.

Ding said existing local sportswear makers such as Xtep are sitting pretty. Earlier this year, Xtep acquired a U.S.-based company that added tennis brand K-Swiss, Palladium boots and Supra shoes to its portfolio.

The Chinese demand for sports apparel at US$40 billion last year, according to data from Euromonitor International, is less than half of the US$117 billion market in the United States. Most Chinese consumers also aspire to athleisure from global labels like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour.

Ding said that this may change with time. “The gap between domestic brands and international brands will slowly be closed,” he said. Xtep, whose market share is 4.6%, trailing behind local rival Anta Sports Products Ltd.’s nearly 15%, has a target to increase its retail sales five-fold to 50 billion yuan (US$7.1 billion) in the next decade.

Ding expects younger Chinese consumers, especially those born after 1990, to have a greater affinity for local brands. They “are confident about China’s rise and identify with national brands,” he said.(SD-Agencies)