Basketball player Kyrie Irving is a part of Chinese sportswear giant Anta’s growing roster of American athlete ambassadors.Photo: Courtesy of Anta
In June, Chinese sportswear giant Anta quietly unveiled a storefront under construction in LA’s Beverly Hills. This will be its first bricks-and-mortar post in North America, and arguably its boldest brand statement to date. By staking a claim in one of the world’s most exclusive retail zones, Anta isn’t just opening a store: it’s entering Nike and Lululemon’s home turf with intent.
The Beverly Hills flagship is slated to open in September. “Launching our first store in the most iconic retail location enhances Anta’s positioning and product influence in the US,” a brand spokesperson tells Vogue Business, adding that Anta’s growing roster of American athlete ambassadors — including basketball players Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson — paired with the cachet of the neighbourhood, will be key to building local awareness.
Unlike most Chinese consumer brands going global through e-commerce platforms and influencer marketing, Anta is taking a high-stakes route — planting flagship stores directly into ultra-premium districts. It’s a risk: Anta is entering one of the world’s most competitive and brand-saturated luxury retail markets without the same level of global brand recognition or cultural kudos as Western legacy players. The success of such a move hinges not only on product quality and pricing, but on Anta’s ability to rapidly build cultural relevance and emotional resonance among a discerning, brand-loyal consumer base.
The move marks an acceleration of its long-held global ambitions. Founded in 1991 in Fujian, China, by entrepreneur Ding Shizhong, Anta has grown from a regional sportswear maker into one of the largest athletic apparel companies in the world. Best known for its performance-driven footwear and apparel, Anta targets mass and premium sports consumers with products typically priced below the likes of Nike and Adidas, but above budget domestic competitors. Its unique strength lies in its vertically integrated supply chain and multi-brand strategy: alongside the Anta brand, Anta Group includes Fila China, Descente China and Finland’s Amer Sports, the parent company of Salomon, Arc’teryx and Wilson.
As of 2024, Anta Group is the top sportswear company in China by market share and among the top three globally by revenue. The group reported record revenues of RMB 70.8 billion ($9.8 billion) in 2024, up 13.6 per cent year-on-year. Net profit reached RMB 11.7 billion ($1.6 billion), excluding one-off gains from the IPO of Amer Sports. In a recent report, Goldman Sachs introduced the ‘Chinese Prominent 10’, a list of top performing Chinese private-sector companies seen as analogous to America’s ‘Magnificent Seven’. Anta is the only sportswear brand on the list, alongside tech and consumer giants like Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan and BYD.
“We’re not trying to be China’s Nike. We want to be the world’s Anta,” declared Shizhong back in 2005.
Though North America represents the brand’s highest-profile push into an international market, it’s not Anta’s first. Over the past two years, the company has opened more than 200 stores across Southeast Asia, including in the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. Now, alongside the US, it’s pushing further into the Middle East, with a flagship set to open later this year in Dubai Mall, one of the region’s luxury shopping destinations. “Anta’s global strategy is moving full speed ahead, with coordinated market development across China, the US, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia,” the company says.
Globalisation for Anta is a cultural test
At the heart of Anta’s strategy is more than a push for market share — it’s a bid to redefine the identity of Chinese brands abroad.
Recent moves signal what the brand aspires to become. For example, in March 2024, Anta launched its first signature basketball shoe, the Anta KAI 1, in collaboration with Irving. The sneaker was released simultaneously in Beijing and at US boutique retailer Sneaker Politics, priced at RMB 899 ($125). A second model, the Anta KAI 1 Speed, followed in September, landing in major US retailers including Foot Locker and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
But Anta faces a high cultural bar. North American sportswear is built on decades of deep cultural coding — Nike and New Balance have long transcended their products to become part of the national identity. For Anta to gain ground, it must evolve from being seen as a value brand from China to a global storyteller in its own right.
The Beverly Hills flagship will serve as a testbed for that transformation. According to the company, the store will spotlight Anta’s hottest product lines, while blending American retail expectations with Chinese design cues. It is keeping the finer details under wraps until the opening. “Our store will align with local culture while embedding rich elements of Eastern aesthetics,” says the spokesperson. “It’s not just a point of sale — it’s a cultural showcase.”
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