The athleisure market in China has been growing rapidly, and China is expected to reach the highest CAGR of 9.7% for premium sportswear globally through 2030. China’s sportswear and athletic footwear market reached almost RMB 500 billion in 2023 and rose to nearly RMB 600 billion in 2025. This growth reflects a fundamental shift in consumer mindset: sportswear for Chinese consumers is no longer limited to fitness. Nearly 30% of consumers, (2024, N=1,630) already prefer wearing sportswear in most daily scenarios.

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China’s gym membership penetration stood at 6.0% in 2025, compared to 24.9% in the United States. Sports participation has grown rapidly, as it reached 49.6% of adults by late 2024, however, participation has not yet converted into the systematic, wardrobe-level spending on athleisure that defines mature markets. General apparel retail grew just 3.2% in 2025, while sports and entertainment goods grew 15.7% over the same period, which suggests a divergence that shows sportswear is already outpacing the broader apparel market.

Three forces are driving the athleisure market in China: Policy, participation, and social media.

The Chinese government launched the National Fitness Plan (全民健身计划 2021-2025), pushing local governments to build public sports facilities within a 15-minute walk of every resident. By 2025, China had over 5 million sports venues across the country. Sports participation jumped from 30.9% in 2018 to 49.6% in 2024. The growth in demand, however, goes beyond fitness. Social media platforms like RedNote (小红书) have made athletic wear a daily aesthetic, something to wear to work or a coffee shop, not just the gym.

Both domestic and international brands are winning market share in China due to different marketing strategies

Lululemon: The community-based brand promoting

Lululemon did not grow in China by advertising. It invested in local running clubs, free yoga sessions, and a network of city-based brand ambassadors, a community-first approach that made consumers feel part of something before spending anything. While Americas revenue was nearly flat in FY2025, Chinese market grew 29%, reaching USD 1.75 billion and accounting for 16% of global revenue, up from just 10 stores in 2018 to 154 by early 2025. Lululemon also charges around 20% more in the athleisure market in China than in the United States, and Chinese consumers pay it. The community strategy built the kind of loyalty that makes consumers price-insensitive.

Nike & Adidas: Subdued performance

The brand rankings above show the trend clearly. Between 2024 and 2025, Adidas dropped four places to #8 as domestic brands eroded its mid-market positioning. Nike slipped one rank to #4. The biggest mover was Lululemon, climbing from #9 to #5, the largest single jump in the rankings, confirming that Chinese consumers are moving toward premium athleisure rather than traditional performance brands.

Beyond the mainstream rankings, a separate premium-outdoor tier is growing just as fast. Arc’teryx has become a status symbol for urban professionals in China, with Amer Sports’ Greater China revenue surging 43% to USD 1.9 billion in 2025, making it the company’s second-largest market. Descente hit a milestone in the same year, with retail sales surpassing RMB 10 billion for the first time, as Anta’s premium outdoor segment posted a combined 59.2% revenue surge. This tier wins on identity, with outdoor gear worn as a daily lifestyle statement rather than just functional equipment.

Maia Active (玛伊娅): A rising star of domestic brand

Domestic brand Maia Active built its market position by solving one problem that foreign brands have not prioritized: longer torsos and different waist-to-hip ratios leave Chinese women to compromise on fit. By 2022, total sales hit RMB 500 million, and its signature sculpting leggings reached 300,000 pairs in sales. In October 2023, ANTA acquired a 75.13% stake, its first acquisition of a homegrown Chinese brand, giving Maia the retail infrastructure and supply chain it needed to scale.

The integration was decisive: new leadership was installed, 10-15% of non-core SKUs were cut to sharpen the focus on yoga, and retail was upgraded from 36 small boutiques to 45 flagship experience stores. Revenue surged over 30% in 2025. For the premium segment, the consequence is direct: Lululemon now faces a locally-rooted challenger backed by Anta’s full retail network, competing in the same yoga category with a fit advantage tailored to Asian body proportions that foreign brands have not matched.

Li-Ning: Turning cultural identity into market share

Li-Ning’s core strategy is to do what foreign brands cannot: claim Chinese cultural identity as a competitive moat. Its “China Li-Ning” sub-line was early to the guochao (国潮) wave, making the brand a statement of national pride rather than just functional gear. But cultural trends are cyclical, and Li-Ning’s more durable move was securing the 2025-2028 official Chinese Olympic Committee partnership, converting cultural cachet into institutional credibility no foreign brand can replicate. Performance categories drove 64% of retail sales in 2025, with revenue reaching RMB 29.6 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year. The launch of standalone outdoor store “Counterflow” in 2025 signals where Li-Ning sees its next growth runway: the premium lifestyle space that Arc’teryx currently owns.

Xtep: Building a brand around one sport

Xtep’s bet is counterintuitive: instead of competing across categories, it went deep on a single one. Three consecutive years as China’s top marathon running shoe brand, 23 marathons sponsored and 71 Running Clubs with 2.5 million members in 2025, in addition, these are not just performance metrics, they are a community asset that advertising budgets alone cannot build. The logic connects directly to how athleisure works in China: on RedNote (小红书), running is a content category before it is a sport, and credibility earned on race day converts into outfit posts the same evening. Revenue reached RMB 14.1 billion in 2025 with profit growing 10.8%, validating the focused approach. The real test ahead is whether that running-specific credibility can extend into broader everyday wear, bridging the gap between performance brand and lifestyle brand that Xtep has yet to fully cross.

What needs to be done for athleisure brands to win the athleisure market in China?

Sports and outdoor content on RedNote (小红书) generated over 3.6 billion searches and 100 million posts in 2025. Moreover, 92.2% of city jogging content creators are fashion and outfit bloggers, not fitness accounts, and jogging-related notes grew 387.65% quarter-on-quarter. The sport is the backdrop. The outfit is the content.

Fashion rather than fitness

Tenniscore, such as polo shirts, pleated skirts, and court socks has become a recognizable everyday aesthetic on Chinese social media, worn well beyond the court. The trend reflects a broader pattern: according to Digital 100’s 2026 survey of over 8,000 consumers, daily commuting has become the primary use case for outdoor sportswear at 74% (2026,N=1, 8200), surpassing professional outdoor activities at 57%. Sportswear is no longer bought for the sport.

83.7% of Gen Z and Millennials in China wear hoodies and sweatpants as everyday clothing, and China’s sportswear penetration stands at 13.6%, which is less than half the US level. It indicates that the gap is not a ceiling on demand. Yet, it is the distance between where consumer behavior already is and where brand penetration has not yet followed. The athleisure market in China is not waiting for consumers to change their habits. It is waiting for brands to catch up with habits that have already changed.

The athleisure market in China moved from the fitness to everyday life

• China’s sportswear and athletic footwear market reached RMB 492.6 billion in 2023 and RMB 598.9 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, general apparel retail grew just 3.2% for the full year 2025, per China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
• China’s sportswear penetration stands at 13.6%, less than half the US level of 38%. While 83.7% of Gen Z already wear hoodies and sweatpants as everyday clothing, signaling a behavioral shift that brand penetration has not yet matched.
• In 2025, outdoor sports participation in China exceeded 800 million visits, with total outdoor spending surpassing RMB 1 trillion. This confirms sportswear’s shift from functional gear to everyday lifestyle wear.
• 92.22% of city jogging content creators on RedNote are fashion and outfit bloggers; tennis dress searches grew 256% while actual tennis participation grew only 28%. Chinese consumers discover and adopt sportswear through identity and aesthetics, not performance.
• The brands winning China’s athleisure market are those that offer a purchase reason beyond function, whether community, fit for Asian body proportions, or fashion credibility, though technical performance remains a baseline expectation for serious outdoor enthusiasts.