Interview: How PEAK Sports became an international brand

“PEAK’s objective since it was founded has been to create an international brand. There are two sides to this: one is the necessity for economic globalization, the other is China’s “Reform and Opening Up.” We believe that Reform and Opening Up will eventually make China stronger, which will drive the demand for international brands.”

Xu Jingnan, President of the PEAK Group and head of PEAK Sports, described his ambition to build an international brand in a recent video interview with Yutang Sports.

As Mr. Xu noted, it took PEAK 18 years from planning to build an international brand and accelerate the market internationalization. “We have gone through 4 phases, which could be seen as 4 milestones. Firstly, PEAK was officially founded in 1989, starting in the manufacturing industry and focusing on sneakers.” PEAK didn’t decide to become a global entity until 1991.It was that decisive change that began PEAK’s path to internationalization.

“We’ve done 5 things for PEAK’s brand since the internationalization of its brand name. We changed its name from Fengdeng to PEAK so as to enter the international market. Second came the internationalization of our management standards and product quality standards. Our standards needed to be integrated with the rest of the world. Third was the internationalization of the trademark. Up to now PEAK has registered in over 180 countries. After that we started the internationalization of the brand. We now have official partnerships with the NBA, FIBA, WTA and the International Tennis Federation. We have also partnered with 7 national Olympic Committees - New Zealand, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Slovenia, Lebanon and Cyprus.”

In addition to the partnerships with federations, PEAK also supports 9 national basketball teams including Serbia, Montenegro and Germany in Europe, Iran and Lebanon in Asia, Ivory Coast and Cameroon in Africa plus New Zealand and Australia in Oceania. Moreover, as highlighted, the Chinese sportswear provider is well-known for its alliance with 6 NBA clubs and a roster of NBA stars including Shane Battier, Jason Kidd, Tony Parker, Dwight Howard and Louis Williams.

“We started the internationalization of capital following that of the brand. PEAK reached the third milestone when it was listed in 2009. We then proposed to accelerate market internationalization,” said Mr. Xu. “We established a branch in the US and set up shops there to promote US-driven global growth. And since we started global business canvassing in 2014, we have partnered with commercial agents from 70 countries.

PEAK Sports has taken the opportunities to work with a variety of international personnel, including their agents, investors, partners and spokespersons. This, in turn, diversifies PEAK Sports’ brand marketing across the globe.

“In export sales, we came up with three ambitious goals, revealed Mr. Xu, which consisted of registration in 100 countries, sales in 100 countries and RMB10b overseas sales revenues. PEAK still needs to put in a lot of effort to reach this lucrative sales target. Based on the massive brand exposure brought by the likes of basketball tournaments in five major continents, the FIBA World Cup and the Olympic Games, PEAK Sports believe that these objectives are eminently realizable.

Despite the growing awareness of PEAK Sports in the global basketball community, the company knows they need to work closely with regional retailers across the globe in order to drive sales.

As it grows into an international brand, PEAK Sports also hopes to play a role in driving the development of Chinese basketball with the country set to organise the 2019 FIBA World Cup. By bringing international teams to China to play over 100 matches every year, Mr. Xu is planning to help Chinese basketball progress. As he noted, PEAK sports is also actively participating in other mass sports as well as the training of many regional clubs.

As FIBA’s head Partick Baumann said, PEAK “have been very consistent in their strategy” by associating it with basketball. As a leading brand in basketball across China, .Mr. Xu and his PEAK Group have a strong belief in the Chinese basketball marketplace. Starting from the sneaker business, Mr. Xu said they will continue to stick with basketball and connect with consumers through the sport.

“PEAK has left a deep impression on our customers,” Xu Jingnan confidently noted, “when it comes to sneakers, people think PEAK.” In his eyes, this is a result of the PEAK Group’s consistent efforts in internationalization.

Note: For readers who are based in Mainland China, you can also access the video here.

Proofread by John Devlin.