From a family business to a listed company, from a workshop-style factory to a large enterprise with 6,000 employees at the headquarters, 6,500 terminal stores nationwide, and annual sales of more than 4 billion yuan, it has grown from a rare Its reputation has grown into a well-known first-line brand of Chinese national sportswear.
361 took less than 7 years.
361, a mysterious name
Jinjiang City, Fujian Province is the famous "Chinese Brand Capital", 361, Anta and Xtep, people are familiar with these famous sports brands in China.
In 2003, there were more than 3,000 companies producing sports shoes and sportswear in Jinjiang. Everyone wanted to become stronger and bigger and become a first-line brand in China, so the competition was fierce.
At that time, Ding Jiantong’s son-in-law Ding Wuhao was working as a professional manager in a company that mainly produced and sold sports shoes. When the business was good, he could sell one to two million pairs and exported them to Europe and the United States. .
The booming development of the domestic market has made Ding Wuhao strongly feel that in order to become stronger and bigger, the company must create a new brand.
The decision on brand management has been made, so what is the name?
The company’s decision-makers have formed a common understanding: We hope that the new brand can quickly open up the market and develop internationally. This must create a brand that can be understood, recognized and firmly remembered by the whole world. name.
Arabic numerals are the common language of every nation in the world. They are easy to understand and easy to remember. After comparison, the name of the new company and new brand was decided as: 361.
Ding Wuhao said that the "360" in 361 represents a circle and a period, and all past achievements are attributed to this circle. The "1" in 361 symbolizes the new brand's redevelopment from "1" "Let's set off to create new brilliance. The logo color of 361 is bright orange, hoping to be quickly recognized by teenagers with this color that represents youth and joy.
Ding Jiantong, from farming to running a shoe factory, was stuck by his name
Twenty years ago, Jinjiang Chendai was a notoriously poor place. Like most local farmers, Ding Jiantong supports his family by farming, catching fish, and helping others carry rocks. Because of poverty, none of his four children went to school. They all worked as apprentices in a nearby shoe factory when they were young.
In 1981, when the children were a little older, Ding Jiantong suddenly had a whim and thought that the work of the four children added up to a complete set of technological processes. Why not start a shoe factory by himself?
As soon as he said it, Ding Jiantong quickly raised 2,000 yuan, bought tools and raw materials, added himself and his four children, and built a small family workshop in his living room.
Due to the limitations of the family workshop, they could only produce 5 pairs of leather shoes a day at the beginning, and later gradually increased to 10 pairs. Ding Jiantong often followed others, walking for two kilometers at a time, and came back at night. You can draw the shoe pattern and follow it the next day.
Ding Jiantong sells leather shoes to nearby Quanzhou and Shishi on his bicycle every year. A pair of shoes can be sold for more than 20 yuan. In just two years, this small family workshop accumulated tens of thousands of yuan in original capital. In order to have their own brand, several Xianyou people later became Ding Jiantong's first batch of workers, and the factory was named "Huafeng Shoe Factory".
In 1986, Huafeng Shoe Factory changed its name to "Wanshile", changed the shotgun from a gun, and began to introduce Taiwan's shoemaking machines to produce travel shoes.
This kind of travel shoes is molded at one time, comes in various colors, and is waterproof. However, the biggest drawback is that it is not breathable and may cause foot odor if worn for a long time. Despite this, travel shoes have become popular in the Northeast market.
In the early part of the "Wanshile" period, it mainly produced travel shoes, and later began to produce sports shoes.
In 1994, Wanshile changed its name to Buick Company and began to produce its own brand of sports shoes; the reason why it registered "Buick" is said to be because the "bullet" pattern of the American Buick car is very beautiful, and it also In order to make it "sound a bit like a Sino-foreign joint venture", the "Buick" trademark not only brought about an increase in performance, but also brought trouble.
"Buick" conflicted with the brand registered by General Motors in the United States. Later, disputes continued, and the arm could not twist the thigh, which even affected Ding's company to obtain a well-known Chinese trademark.
Being forced to change brands will undoubtedly make any company miserable, but 361 Degrees has given the industry a big surprise.
In 2004, its sales not only did not decline, but increased by nearly 60% compared with the previous year. Although it is not as fast as the doubling growth rate in previous years, it is still twice the industry average growth rate of 30.
At the same time, 361 Degrees' domestic market share has grown from 8-10 in the "Buick" era to 11 now, which is close to the average market share of several major sports shoe aces. "The three northeastern provinces are our world, with a share of nearly 20%."
The 361-degree development context is a vivid history of the development of Jinjiang's shoe industry. The difference is that Ding Jiantong's shoes have always been mainly sold domestically, while most Jinjiang shoe companies only began to turn to the domestic market after the international market shrank in the late 1990s.
At present, the domestic sales and OEM exports of Jinjiang sports shoes account for half each. 70% of the companies are still concentrated in the production of mid- and low-end shoes. 60% of the domestic high-end market is still international brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma. The world of famous brands.
361, relying on spending money, quickly rose to the top three
People can easily attribute the sales miracle of 361 to the "brand-building campaign" of the "Jinjiang Corps".
Chendai Town, Jinjiang, where the company is located, is well-known as the capital of sports shoes in China. There are more than 3,000 shoe manufacturing companies here, with an annual output of nearly 800 million pairs and an output value of approximately 15 billion yuan.
In 1999, Anta, also located in Chendai Town, became famous for hiring world table tennis champion Kong Linghui as its image spokesperson. Since then, more than 40 Jinjiang local sports brands have attracted all the popular stars, occupying the hot columns of CCTV 1 and 5, with a total annual advertising investment of more than 200 million yuan.
Among them, 361 Degrees is one of the most radical companies.
In 2000, the Chinese national badminton team headed by Li Yongbo was signed as a brand spokesperson. In 2004, it also took advantage of the Athens Olympics to invest 40 million yuan in advertising.
In 2016, it defeated Nike and won the sole sporting goods partner right for CCTV’s 2007-2008 live broadcast of sports events for 125 million yuan, gaining the ace in the marketing of the Beijing Olympics. The familiar advertising slogan, "361, one more love" was also produced during this period, when 361 spent huge sums of money.
Under the bombardment of celebrity endorsements and advertisements, 361 developed rapidly. Data shows that as early as 2001 to 2004, 361 ranked among the top three sports shoe sales in China for four consecutive years. In 2004, its advertising investment reached 40 million yuan, and nearly 10 million yuan was invested during the Olympic Games alone.
In the entire Chendai Town, only 361 Degrees and Anta have such a big deal.
During this period, Ding Jiantong gradually faded out of the company's decision-making level and handed the company over to his son-in-law Ding Wuhao and his two sons Ding Huihuang and Ding Huirong. Ding Wuhao served as the company's chief executive and Ding Huihuang became the chairman of the board of directors.
Subsequently, the listing of 361 was put on the agenda, and finally landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2009, becoming the third Jinjiang shoe company to be listed in Hong Kong after Anta and Xtep.
With the help of capital, 361 began to "enclose territory" at a faster speed. In 2008, its number of stores was still 4,632. By 2011, it had soared to 7,682. In 2012 Reaching the peak of 8082 households.
At that time, the Jinjiang Economic and Trade Commission released a set of data showing that the annual output of the shoemaking industry accounts for 40% of the country and 20% of the world, with an industry output value of 60 billion. Jinjiang shoe companies, represented by 361, Anta, Xtep, etc., have ushered in their peak period.
At the same time as the scale expanded, the Ding Jiantong family’s net worth also increased.
In 2016, the Ding Jiantong family broke into the Forbes China Rich List for the first time with a net worth of 1 billion yuan, ranking 292nd. By the 2011 "New Fortune 500 Rich List", his net worth had reached 5.2 billion yuan, ranking 234th.
The benefit to consumers is that the failure rate of 361 Degree products has been controlled at 1.5 per thousand, which is far lower than the national standard of 3 per thousand.
On August 18, 2018, 361 degrees landed on the "World's First Screen" in Times Square, New York, USA.
Ding Jiantong is still not satisfied with the current ranking among domestic sports brands. Marketing Director Yang Feng is more frank: "Our opponent is Anta." Li Ning's strength lies in clothing. And sports accessories, the sales of sports shoes are only half of 361 Degrees; while another famous brand Qingdao Double Star mainly sells canvas rubber-soled shoes, which belongs to a different product line.
Now it is lagging behind, and its market value is less than a fraction of Anta
Unfortunately, 361 has not been able to stay at the high point for longer, and has gradually fallen behind when the industry entered a period of adjustment.
The "sports craze" brought about by the 2008 Olympic Games ushered in a golden age of vigorous development for major sports brands. The market was unprecedentedly prosperous, and every brand was expanding its sales. But just over two years later, the situation took a turn for the worse. "Shortage" turned into "surplus", a large number of products were unsaleable, and the inventory crisis became a mountain that weighed on every sports brand.
In order to adjust as quickly as possible, shoe companies have to destock and return cash through discounts, store closures, etc. At the same time, they have also converted the original "brand wholesale" model into "brand retail" in order to quickly reduce inventory. In 2011, Li Ning, the leader of domestic sports shoes at the time, spent a huge sum of 1.8 billion to "scratcher the bones and cure the poison" and buy back inventory.
Through this wave of crises, the industry has been reshuffled. Anta was the fastest. It solved the inventory crisis in just two years, started explosive growth, and soon became the industry leader. Other brands have been struggling for four to five years or even longer. Li Ning suffered a loss of 3.152 billion yuan from 2012 to 2014 and gradually lost its position as the leader. Xtep did not complete inventory clearance until 2017.
On 361, from 2012 to 2013, its revenue and profits declined for two consecutive years, and its net profit also fell by 80%, from 1.133 billion yuan to a record low of 211 million yuan.
Although after several years of adjustments, 361's performance finally exceeded the 5.569 billion yuan in 2011 again in 2019, reaching 5.632 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.57%, but the net profit attributable to the parent company has never reached the level of 5.632 billion yuan. The level in 2011 has been hovering around 400 million yuan for many years, and in 2019 it was only 432 million yuan.
On August 18 last year, 361 released its 2020 semi-annual report, which showed that its revenue was 2.686 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17%, and the profit attributable to equity holders was 302 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.8%. As of the close of trading on August 18, 361's stock price closed at HK$1.12 per share, with a total market value of HK$2.316 billion (approximately RMB 2.068 billion).
The market values ??of Anta, Li Ning, and Xtep are HK$228 billion and HK$228 billion respectively. 79.3 billion Hong Kong dollars and 6.3 billion Hong Kong dollars. The market value of 361, the fourth domestic sports brand, is less than a fraction of the market value of the eldest Anta.
This is directly related to 361's slow transformation, which is not only reflected in its response to the inventory crisis, but also in its speed of e-commerce deployment.
For a long time, e-commerce was only used by 361 as a channel to clear inventory. It was not until 2016 that 361 acquired the company originally responsible for operating its e-commerce business and adjusted its distribution model to its own. business and personally take over the e-commerce business.
In fact, in the past two years, 361, which has realized that it is "relatively slow" in e-commerce, has been increasing its efforts in e-commerce channels, and has paid a lot of price for this. But the effect is not ideal.
I hope miracles can happen again.