The down jacket market is scuffled, the brand is layered, and the price increase and marketing are flying together.
Author |Zhang Linghan.
Edit |Eucommia.
* |Tidesight (ID: Tidesight).
After experiencing the impact of the "warm winter" in 2021, the global down apparel market is recovering and rising. According to the statistics of the Garment Association, in 2022, the scale of China's down jacket market has reached 162.2 billion yuan, and the market potential is huge.
Since the beginning of the winter of 2023, the competition in the domestic down jacket market has become more intense than in previous years, with traditional domestic brands such as Flying in the Snow, Duck Duck, and Bosideng competing with overseas brands such as Canada Goose, Moncler, and Moose Knuckles, as well as sports brands such as Arc'teryx, Camel, and Li Ning.
From the perspective of the "war situation", the down jacket track with the characteristics of fast growth rate and large-scale demand has become the direction of the layout of major clothing brandsHowever, questions such as price increases, quality concerns, and insufficient filling capacity are also emerging at the same time.
Under the involution, how can down jacket brands seize the minds of consumers?
In the 40s of the last century, American businessman Eddie Bauer used quilting techniques to sew clothes into partitions, then stuffed goose down into them, and used nylon cloth as a fabric to make the world's first down jacket. The quilting method invented by him is still the mainstream sewing technique in the manufacturing process of down jackets.
Thirty years later, down jackets flowed into China and began to be manufactured in the mainland. After decades of development, China has rapidly grown into a global down jacket production center, among which, Hangzhou Xiaoshan, Guangzhou Panyu, Zhanjiang Wuchuan, Jiaxing Pinghu and other places jointly outline the industrial map of China's down jackets, while overseas brands such as Uniqlo, Beimian and Columbia have also set up down product foundries in China.
In 1981, Gao Dekang, a small tailor in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, stumbled upon a light and warm down material during an outing, so he decisively bought 8 sewing machines and took 10 villagers to start producing down jackets. Years later, he registered a brand for his products, and Bosideng was founded.
At that time, the appearance of down jackets was only to solve the problem of warmth, there was no aesthetic demand, the design was old, and the wear was bloated, but compared with the traditional cotton clothes and cotton pants, the down jacket was relatively lightweight, so it was quickly favored by the market. During the same period, traditional domestic brands such as Carbine were born. Since then, China's down jackets are no longer limited to OEM production for big brands, and have officially embarked on the road of self-operated brands.
After the rapid growth period in 2000, with the improvement of the national consumption level, the major domestic brands grew rapidly, and the market entered a period of rapid development. During the decade from 2001 to 2011, Bosideng incubated a series of sub-brands, developed horizontally for different consumer groups, and landed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2007, becoming the first down jacket listed company in China, establishing its position as a leader in the domestic industry.
During the structural adjustment period from 2012 to 2015, Bosideng quickly occupied the market share and firmly occupied the leading position in the industry, and brands such as Yaya and Yalu were not far behind and became the backbone of the industry. At the same time, international fast fashion brands such as Uniqlo and HM have also accelerated the layout of down jacket products in China, attracting a large number of young customers and seizing a part of the market share.
After 2016, the competition of international brands has intensified, and a number of international high-end brands such as Canada Goose and Moncler have bet on the Chinese market. According to the Minsheng ** Research Report, from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2022, Canada Goose Asia's revenue increased from 0$400 million to over $300 million;Moncler Asia's revenue increased from 400 million euros in 2016 to more than 800 million euros in 2021, supporting half of the group's revenue.
Then, with the continuous deepening of the concept of fashion and high-end, domestic brands have also started the road of upgrading.
After more than 50 years of changes, the down jacket market now has many participants, including traditional domestic brands, overseas high-end brands, sports brands, fast fashion brands, etc., and brand stratification has become one of the most obvious trends in the down jacket market.
Medium and high-end ** general rise: foreign cards ** suppressed, domestic products after the preemptive.
High-end brands are mainly overseas brands. In the Tmall *** of the four major brands of Canada Goose, Moncler, Moose Knuckles and Archaeopteryx, the highest priced down jacket products are more than 10,000 yuan, of which the most expensive down jacket products are as high as 55,300 yuan.
As competition from overseas brands intensifies, Chinese brands have also joined this melee in the high-end market, such as the new brand skypeople, which started in 2022.
Up to now, SKYPEOPLE has nearly 60 products on the shelves, and down jacket-related products are priced between 1,800 yuan and 6,800 yuan, second only to the positioning of overseas brands at the 10,000 yuan level, and have attracted 170,000 followers. According to other data, by the end of 2023, Skypeople has a total of 5 stores in Beijing and Shanghai, mainly concentrated in popular high-end business districts such as Guomao and Taikoo Li Sanlitun.
As a representative of traditional domestic brands, Bosideng is also one of the brands that take the high-end route. Bosideng Tmall*** shows that the products on the brand shelves are all about 1,000 yuan, and the product with the highest price is a long Dengfeng professional down jacket, which is priced at 7,800 yuan before the discount.
Regardless of the brand positioning, the price increase of down jackets has become an industry trend in recent years.
From the supply side, the increase in the price of raw materials is one of the core reasons for pushing up the price of down jackets. According to CCTV's financial survey, the purchase price of down jacket raw materials in 2023 will be about 3%-5%, and the price of each piece will increase by more than 20 yuan.
From the demand side, under the cultivation of overseas high-end brands, Chinese consumers have gradually established a high-end and fashionable awareness of down jackets. Based on this, traditional domestic brands are also breaking through the refinement of materials and the diversification of marketing to the mid-to-high-end market, thus gradually breaking the monopoly of the high-end market by overseas brands.
It is worth mentioning that compared with overseas high-end brands, traditional domestic brands that take the mid-to-high-end route are more likely to be criticized by the market for "crazy price increases" and "* too high".
Decentralized competition for affordable models: National brands are competing with each other, and multiple players are gathered outside the competition in the mid-to-high-end down jacket market, and affordable down jacket brands are still the choice of mass consumers. According to the data of Guoji Feigua, more than half of the consumers have a budget of 501-1,000 yuan to buy down jackets. This is also the main battlefield for the competition of traditional domestic brands such as Yaya, Ailayi, Yalu, and Qianrengang.
In the ** down jacket category, according to the data of Guoji Flying Melon, Yaya leads with a market share of 15%, and Yalu, Bosideng, Xuezhongfei and Gaofan also occupy a certain market share, and the market competition is fierce.
At the same time, sports brands such as Li Ning, Anta and Puma have entered the competition in the sub-category of sports down jackets from the perspective of "function", and in this sub-category, overseas traditional sports brands have more participants and occupy the forefront of market share.
According to the data of Guoji Feigua, the three leading brands of Fila, Li Ning and Adidas together occupy more than 40% of the market share. Although the market share of emerging brands such as Leorrey is currently relatively low, they are also beginning to emerge in the sports down jacket market.
As mentioned earlier, from a product perspective, today's consumers are no longer satisfied with bloated clothing that is simple and warm, and brands are constantly innovating in the field of fashion and functionality to better meet the market demand.
How new technologies can make down jackets lighter and warmer through technological upgrading is one of the most important directions for brand function upgrading. The new brand Jiaoxia and the traditional brand Bosideng have all made arrangements in technological innovation.
At present, down jackets in the new category are moving from single warmth to "warmth + fashion" and "warmth + sports", which gives down jackets more diverse use scenarios, and also derives sub-categories such as sports down jackets, business down jackets, national tide down jackets, dance down jackets, windbreaker down jackets, etc.
At the same time, the scene itself is also promoting the continuous innovation of the down jacket industry. According to the data of Guoji Feigua, with the popularity of outdoor sports such as skiing and camping, the sales of Douyin e-commerce in the domestic outdoor down jacket category in the first three quarters of 2023 will be 696 compared with the same period87%, far more than other traditional categories.
For example, by combining the waterproof jacket shell and the inner liner of the thermal material, the "three-in-one down jacket" is suitable for multi-season outdoor scenes, and has now attracted outdoor brands including camel, pathfinder, jeep and other outdoor brands. Also adhering to the idea of "jacket + down jacket" for product development, there is also Duck Duck's Icelandic goose duck down jacket down jacket.
From a marketing point of view, celebrity endorsement is one of the most actively tried marketing methods of major down jacket brands in recent years. Yien data shows that in 2022, among the hot words related to down jacket brand co-branding, "star with the same style" accounts for as much as 401%。
Public data shows that celebrity endorsements have a significant effect.
Take Duck Duck, for example. On the day when the brand officially announced Wang Yibo as the spokesperson, the online omni-channel GMV reached 200 million+, and ranked first in the field list of multiple mainstream platforms. In order to cover different types of consumer groups, the brand has established a spokesperson matrix of "1 (top stream) + N (multi-style artists)", and continues to make efforts to update the brand and expand the market.
In addition to celebrity endorsements, "new concepts" have also become a marketing choice for many brands. For example, NetEase Yanxuan launched the "Chinese Big Goose" series this year, and the raw materials are selected from China's "local goose species" Western Anhui Big White GooseHeilan House cooperated with the "Aurora Series" products to create a six-hour live broadcast of Changbai Mountain's winter appreciation, creating a diversified outdoor segmentation scene.
Of course, bizarre "value-added" innovations are not without ***
Different from other fast fashion clothing categories, warmth is the rigid need of down jackets, and functionality is still the first place in product innovation.
In addition, the flexibility and cost of down jackets are high, and the ability to achieve large-scale collection and have the ability to be trendy and fast needs to rely on strong chain capabilities. However, at present, most of the new brands that are more fashionable attributes, the industrial barriers are weak, which is easy to lead to problems such as slow speed, low cost performance, and long pre-sale time, and the long-term competitiveness is generally not as good as that of professional brands with a solid industrial foundation.
Therefore, the new category is more suitable to start from the applicable scenarios and specific lifestyles, avoid excessive fashion, and do diversified innovation and in-depth industrial exploration on the basis of functionality.
Under the competitive situation of increasing the activity of many domestic brands, the broad prospects of China's down jacket market are unfolding.
According to the data of Shengang**, as of 2022, the penetration rate of down jackets in China is only 10%, compared with the penetration rate of more than 30% in European and American countries and about 70% in Japan, there is still a lot of room for improvement. In the future, with the improvement of China's residents' income and consumption upgrading, the down jacket market space will continue to break through. According to the estimation of ** star, if calculated according to the penetration rate of 20%, the future of China's down jacket market size may exceed 320 billion yuan.