Last week, ANTA brand spokesperson Gu Ailing won the championship in the women’s finals of the 2023-2024 FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Halfpipe World Cup Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe. Gu Ailing, who is wearing ANTA brand and Descente competition clothes, once again made the same style of down jacket Anta Champion Mountain Snow Jacket popular.
It’s not just Anta that’s popular. At the beginning of winter this year, down jackets and other products from sports brands such as Li-Ning, Fila, and Descente quickly became popular. Different from previous years, this year, led by sports brands, many clothing brands have collectively played the “tech brand”, intending to add more “tech attributes” on the basis of down filling and warmth to promote product premiums.
Cold weather and down heat
Although most areas in the south are still in the “winter failure” stage, various apps have already begun to push messages about “big cooling” and “cold protection and warmth”, which has once again stimulated many consumers’ demand for down jackets – North The cold wind “blown” the sales of down jackets at the right time.
“20,000+”, “100,000+”, “10,000+”… In the ANTA brand’s Tmall flagship store, the brand has launched a home page detail page specifically for down jacket products to facilitate consumers’ selection. The reporter browsed the store and saw that more than 10,000 pieces of Anta’s down jacket products were sold in a single store. Among them, the price of most down jacket products was more than 500 yuan after discounts. The price of mainstream short down jacket products was around 600 yuan. Compared with last year, Still dozens of dollars higher.
“The styles of down jackets have increased this year, and mixed-category products such as jackets and down jackets have also been launched, which are very popular.” The store’s customer service said that although many down jackets with novel styles are more expensive, they are still popular, and there are cases where sizes are out of stock. occur.
This situation also appears on e-commerce platforms of sporting goods brands such as Li Ning and 361°. In the live broadcast rooms of major brands, with falling snow as the background and dynamic messages of cooling reminders in major areas, sports brands have further upgraded the sales scene of down jackets. On the product details page, the minimum sales volume of many down products exceeds 1,000 pieces, and the sales volume of the main down products generally exceeds 20,000 pieces.
Although the sales of down jackets are booming, during the cold wave, public opinions such as “It’s not that down jackets are unaffordable, but that military coats are more cost-effective” have made down jackets more popular.
Behind the popularity, the overall price of down jackets has increased during the peak sales season.
According to data from the China National Commercial Information Center, between 2015 and 2020, the average price of down jackets in China has risen from 438 yuan to 656 yuan, and the transaction price of large-scale cold-proof clothing has exceeded 1,000 yuan. Judging from the actual data of e-commerce platforms, even on e-commerce platforms such as Vipshop, the overall price of down jackets from sports brands such as Anta and Li-Ning with the same amount of down is still higher than the same period last year.
Behind the “price boom” is rising costs. Xiao Cai, who is engaged in wholesale stalls at Shishi E-commerce Mall, told reporters that the price of white-label down jackets this year is more than 20 to 60 yuan more expensive than last year, a year-on-year increase of 20% to 30%. “The main reason is that the price of down has increased, and some export orders to Russia are increasing.”
In addition to cost factors, industry insiders told reporters that compared to summer sports products, winter clothing products are often the most profitable part of the brand’s overall pallet, especially down products. Under the influence of weather factors, consumers’ purchasing purposes Being clear can often bring a certain premium to the brand.
New needs and new technologies
It is an indisputable fact that the overall price of down jackets has increased, but the reporter noticed that this year’s down jacket market is significantly different from last year at the product level. Focusing on “technology brands” instead of the simple “velvet content” and “anti-drilling velvet” basic clothing appeals has become the same choice for clothing brands led by domestic sports brands this year.
“Anti-drilling velvet has long been a basic ‘operation’ for clothing products of some brands, and the velvet content has also been included in major e-commerce platforms, achieving consumer popularity.” Xiao Cai told reporters that this year’s stall wholesale If down products do not pass these two basic thresholds, it will be difficult for downstream wholesalers to purchase them. “If there are ‘heat return effect’ functions such as infrared, silver ion, and graphene heating, there will be a certain premium.”
The silver ions and graphene heating mentioned by Xiao Cai are the new down jacket lining technology launched last year. Last year, Anta and other sporting goods brands took the lead in popularizing its use on down products, and this year, this technology has been covered by almost all famous brands.
“It has a certain effect, but in fact the down filling and down content of the down itself have sufficient cold protection effect.” A manufacturer engaged in the production and processing of down jackets told reporters that the brand’s request to add this type of fabric is actually for the purpose It gives consumers one more reason to buy, “and it also shows that our brand has technological content.”
Compared with the various “heat return effects” of the lining, it is more practical to make a fuss about the down outer fabric.
The above-mentioned manufacturers said that another overall trend this year is to add more functional attachments to the outer fabric of down jackets. “For example, adding Teflon can provide anti-fouling, oil-proof, and waterproof effects.”
The reporter learned that, in particular,As a material, dragon is used in household non-stick pans, which can also achieve non-stick and easy decontamination effects. This is the first time this year that Teflon has been used on a large scale in down jacket products.
“This is actually a hard demand. Clothes will definitely get dirty when worn on the body, and we are especially afraid of oil stains. Down jacket products are very troublesome to wash at home. You can see that there are many down jacket cleaning guides on Xiaohongshu, and they are also available on Taobao and Pinduoduo. Many down jacket cleaning products sell very well during this period, and that’s why.” Xiao Cai said that in the past, they also recommended to secondary wholesalers to add down jacket cleaning products for tie-in sales. “Functions such as anti-fouling and oil-proofing will also be available next year. It will be the focus of our products, just like how we popularized technological functions such as silver ions this year.”
Real technology and fake technology
If anti-fouling and anti-oil are consumers’ new requirements for daily wear of down jackets, then “advanced” and “black technologies” such as “infrared warmth” seem to have yet to be finalized.
The reporter observed that Anta, Li Ning, Xtep, 361°, etc. have successively launched down products rich in technological attributes. Among them, “warming” is still the main direction, and there are endless names. Various test reports have also become a unified way of supporting the down technology of major brands.
Take Li Ning as an example. Li Ning launched the “Hot Pot Down Jacket”, which features windproof, moisture-proof, water-repellent, anti-static, and far-infrared warmth. The far-infrared function is highlighted. The product details page shows that the far-infrared temperature rise value within 30 seconds exceeds 2.1℃.
Anta combines down products with outdoor products, launching snow shell down jackets, creating the concept of outdoor down jackets, and further amplifying its advantages in the IP of national team technology, focusing on the same technology of the national team, “Blazing Technology” and “Earth Shell” “Aerogel technology”, “workwear down jacket”, etc., on the one hand, amplify the wearing scenarios of down jackets in urban breakthroughs, outdoor HIKING, skiing, etc., on the other hand, they stabilize the brand attributes in thermal technology.
The “Mountain Snow Suit” launched by Anta Champion is Anta’s new attempt in the high-end down product line this year. It is equipped with HEAT STREAM thermal ocean current technology and applies the technology of outdoor jackets to down products to achieve a dry and moisture-locking effect. .
Xtep launched the “heated down jacket”, creating the concept of a “technologically warm” down jacket. On the basis of adding graphene technology, it can achieve far-infrared heating, anti-static, waterproof, oil-proof, and anti-fouling functions similar to Li Ning’s. Attributes; 361° launched “Nengwen Technology 1.0”. Its product page introduces the technology as “using high-speed spinning to produce far-infrared fiber weaving with an emissivity as high as 95%, absorbing far-infrared rays and converting them into heat energy, keeping warm and locking in temperature.”
Although each has its own “technology”, in terms of thermal insulation technology, most brands focus on “far infrared”. The reporter learned that the principle is to reflect the heat emitted by the human body back, promote blood circulation, absorb light and heat, and ultimately achieve the effect of keeping warm. Among the national standards, GB/T 30127-2013 “Detection and Evaluation of Far-Infrared Performance of Textiles” stipulates the method of measuring the far-infrared performance of textiles using far-infrared emissivity and temperature rise tests. For general samples, it can be said to have far-infrared performance only when the far-infrared emissivity is not less than 0.88 and the temperature rise is not less than 1.4°C. If the sample can still meet the above index requirements after being washed as specified in the standard, the sample has wash-durable far-infrared performance after the number of washes.
In this regard, some industry practitioners told reporters that the basic principle of far infrared is very simple, but some brands achieve the effect through functional fibers, and some can also achieve it through “patches” and “films”. The difficulty of the methods is inconsistent, and it is difficult to say It is “black technology”.
In addition, the above-mentioned people also said that winter outdoor sports, especially snow and ice sports, have more diverse functional and sporty requirements for down products, and should also become the focus of sports brands. “For example, moisture absorption and perspiration. If you sweat in winter, the internal humidity is high and it is easy to catch a cold. Most down jackets still have this problem. This problem is also a pain point in winter sports.”
Although there are endless technologies on the surface, the person in charge of technological innovation of a sports brand also told reporters that domestic brands are still conceptually inward, starting from the carbon plates of running shoes, to the midsole technology of basketball shoes, to the current “three-dimensional” down jacket. Neither anti-protection technology nor far-infrared technology has achieved breakthrough changes, and it is difficult to lead the market for as long as the leading technologies launched by international brands such as Nike and Adidas. “This requires domestic sports brands to re-recognize their positioning and think in terms of market leadership or product leadership. Ineffective involution can sometimes be counterproductive.
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