Chinese sports brands become major suppliers of clothes, equipment in Olympic Games

Xu Xin (L, top)/Liu Shiwen (R, top) of China compete during table tennis mixed doubles quarterfinal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 25, 2021. (Photo/Xinhua)

At this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games, clothes and shoes, sports equipment and other high-end facilities manufactured by Chinese firms have become a symbol of China’s strong manufacturing capacity, indicating that Chinese firms have gone from being marginal suppliers to major suppliers of high-tech merchandise for the global sports event.

Domestic table tennis ball producer DHS is a supplier for table tennis and badminton games at the Tokyo Games. It also provided the baseboards and sponges for foreign brands in the manufacturing of table tennis paddles being used by South Korean and Japanese players at the Games.

Pardus, a domestic sports bicycle brand, became a sponsor of road cycling events at the Olympic Games for the first time in Tokyo. Pardus bicycles were also used in track cycling and triathlon events at the Games.

“At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Taishan Sports provided some equipment for the mountain bike events. Five years later in Tokyo, Pardus went a step further by becoming a supplier of three major events in the games. This puts an end to the century-long dominance of firms from Europe and U.S. in the manufacturing of high-end sports bicycles,” said Li Wei, a professor with Beijing Sport University and a former coach of the Chinese national cycling team .

“The competition between sports brands is as fierce as that seen at the games. After years of hard work and accumulation, Chinese manufacturing enterprises today are competitive in international sports events,” said Zhang Qing, founder of a sports consulting company based in Beijing.

The Olympic Games is an arena where athletes compete in different sports, and countries can also display their economic and technological strengths. Despite its arduous journey to transform from a leading manufacturing power to a warehouse of competitive brands, China has witnessed growth of domestic enterprises at Olympic Games.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, DHS became the sponsor of the Chinese table tennis team for the first time. It was also the first time a Chinese sports brand had supplied equipment for the Olympic Games. Also at the Sydney Games, China’s sportswear giant Lining became the sponsor of the French gymnastic team. It marked the first time that a Chinese sports brand became a supplier of sportswear for a foreign sports team. Before the 2008 Games, the Olympic Games were dominated by foreign sports brands.

“DHS had been an original equipment manufacturer for foreign brands for a long time,” according to Lou Shihe, general manager of DHS. In 1996, to meet the aesthetic standard for table tennis balls set by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), DHS proactively conducted reform by producing a table tennis ball that is 40 mm in diameter. The ball was later adopted by the ITTF and replaced the older 38mm ball in international table tennis games.