ISPO Beijing 2023 Final Report ISPO started a new journey to build a universe of sports lifestyle

From February 10 - 12, 2023, ISPO Beijing 2023, with 368 leading brands and 223 exhibitors, welcomed a total of 37,623 professional visitors and sports enthusiasts, an increase of 50% over the past year. The exhibition is held in the National Convention Center, Beijing.

The successful opening of ISPO Beijing 2023 is undoubtedly sending a strong message to the industry. Its busy and crowded exhibition halls clearly showed the new dynamics of the sports lifestyle industry in the post-covid period. ISPO Beijing, together with the sports lifestyle brands, industry professionals and sports enthusiasts, has witnessed the "restart and rebirth" of the hopeful market.

Ms. Xu Jia, CEO of Messe Muenchen Shanghai Co., Ltd., expressed her happiness: "Three years ago, ISPO Beijing 2020 was the first exhibition that was postponed due to covid-19, and three years later, it is the first exhibition that returns to a normal schedule. It is most fulfilling for us to see everyone here exchange their ideas, make business deals, and find new inspiration. The sports lifestyle industry has never stopped its pace towards new achievements. And ISPO is always willing to provide outstanding platforms for the industry, sports brands, products professionals and enthusiasts. “

As the first large-scale event in the new year for the sports lifestyle industry in the Asia-Pacific region, ISPO Beijing 2023 presented the market trends, innovative products and technologies, supply chain solutions and functional textiles and trimmings in a wide range of fields in the sports lifestyle industry, e.g. Snowsports, Outdoor sports, Camping lifestyle, Rock climbing, Running, Cycling, Land surfing, and Yoga, providing new ideas and inspiration for the future development of the industry.

The covid-19 prevention and control in China is progressing smoothly, and the implementation of new administrative measures treating Covid-19 as a Category B disease has made initial results in market stabilization. Under such situations, the Chinese sports lifestyle industry is expecting an exponential growth. ISPO aims to "seize the opportunity and act as a pioneer" and by upgrading in multiple dimensions to drive industrial development.

After the successful holding of ISPO Shanghai 2022 – Nanjing edition, Messe Muenchen Shanghai Co., Ltd. successfully landed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Nanjing International Exhibition Center under the witness of the Nanjing Convention and Exhibition Commission. Through this partnership, ISPO will consistently offer sports events full of joy and freshness to the sports practitioners and enthusiasts in Nanjing and surrounding areas.

In addition Messe München Shanghai Co., Ltd. has struck a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Xiamen International Trade and Exhibition Group under the witness of the Convention and Exhibition Office of the Xiamen Bureau of Commerce. The main goals are to support the development of the sports and leisure industry in South China, to promote a healthy sports lifestyle that integrates into people’s lives in the region and to expand the influence of ISPO in South China. Under the agreement, ISPO will be held in the Xiamen.

Creating a universe of sports lifestyle across boundaries

From multi-category to full-category, from building market chains to breaking boundaries, ISPO has assumed many roles in its exploration of the sports lifestyle industry across these years. It has brought many niche categories to the front stage and provided suitable space for their growth with a more clarified development concept of marketing and expansion. Through such roles, ISPO injects fresh blood into the established markets and stimulates its upgrade to achieve long-term prosperity.

Mr. Tobias Gröber, Head of ISPO Group said: "With ISPO Beijing 2023, we want to show the diversity, inclusiveness and sustainability of the sports lifestyle industry, which is also the concept that ISPO wants to convey to the world. The sports lifestyle is diverse and its target group is expanding rapidly. Enterprises and brands need to meet the diverse consumer needs while maintaining a flexible strategy. Thus, they need to develop products that are more inclusive in design, material selection and performance to enable a positive interaction between humans and nature in the long term through sustainable technologies and operations. "

Information technology and algorithms have presented a colorful world of different types of people and cultures. If the sports lifestyle industry wants to develop all its categories, steps shall be taken to educate the customers from different angles and platforms. For the first time, ISPO Beijing 2023 was synchronized in Tmall, Little Red Book and Tiktok. Through these tools, it implemented a complementary strategy that includes both, the sports professionals and mass consumers with products that cover all the links in the industry. By doing so, it offers more exposure opportunities for brands and products and promotes the sports lifestyle in new parts of the population.

"Ye Lu Zi", a KOL specializing in outdoor equipment evaluation, participated in ISPO Beijing for the first time. He had his own understanding of barrier breaking and cross-border communication: “2022 was my first close contact with ISPO. In fact, in terms of outdoor brands and products, I am not a beginner. However, through ISPO I was suddenly reminded of how broad the sports lifestyle market is. It is a valuable asset waiting for me to explore. Therefore, I attended ISPO Beijing. I am very happy because through ISPO more brands and fans from outside our field came to know us."

Valuable industry information and new perspectives

ISPO as a professional exchange platform has always been an important trend scout of industry trends. It is widely recognized by industry stakeholders and decision makers as a place to learn about important industry policies, market trends in China and abroad, professional institution forecasts and valuable experience and case analysis from industry pioneers.

ISPO Beijing 2023 focused on four major questions: the sustainability of the mountain outdoor sports industry, the outdoor sports retail industry under the trend of large market structures, sports fashion trends and sports rehabilitation. Through the interpretation of industrial development plans, the prediction of market structure changes, the comparison of brands and products in China and overseas and the portraying of sports goods consumers, ISPO Beijing 2023 provided new perspectives for the industry and helped practitioners to cope with the changes and challenges in the post-covid market recovery.

ISPO Beijing 2023 also organized more than 20 small-scale discussions on topics such as brand marketing models, long-term development of minority sports and leisure projects and the public participation in sustainability. The atmosphere at the show was at a climax in the close interaction between KOLs and fans and the wonderful sharing case of senior athletes and practitioners.

The ISPO Urban Sports Area and ISPO Rock Climbing Area attracted a lot of new enthusiasts and sports experts with promotional activities as well as the basic courses in yoga, land surfing, paddling and rock climbing. These activities demonstrated the public's high acceptance of new sports lifestyles.

Gratitude to exhibitors, partners and visitors for their support

Since 2020 ISPO Beijing has been postponed for several times. The successful opening this year was only possible with the strong support and trust of our exhibitors, partners and visitors. The ISPO Team in China but also in Germany wants to pay high tribute to all who have always supported ISPO and for their company along the way. ISPO is looking forward to work with you to accelerate the global evolution of sports and make sports and physical activity an essential part of everybody’s healthy and lifestyle.

The next ISPO Beijing will be held at the National Convention Center in Beijing in January 2024. Meanwhile, ISPO Shanghai 2023 will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center from June 30 - July 2, 2023. Let’s shape the future of sports lifestyle together.

Statements of exhibitors and visitors (Sorted by the family name)

Mr. John Cai, Founding Partner, Weihai Skilon Sport Products Co., Ltd.

ISPO Beijing 2023 is very crowded, and everyone is full of hopes. As our life has returned to normal, the entire market will surely have a period of explosive growth, and it will get better and better. We all know the growth of ISPO in all these years, and it has a very good reputation in the industry. We are also very happy to promote our brands through ISPO, so more people will know us through the show.

Ms. Kechen Cao, Marketing Manager of Mobi Garden

ISPO is as good as ever, and we join in every year. There are a lot of experts and KOLs from related industries, as well as sports industry professionals at the show, which ensures a very good exposure of our new products both inside and outside the industry. But what is more important to us is that we can get the most authentic feedback on these new products at the ISPO show. Through these feedbacks, we can see the trends and potential needs, and make improvements for our future marketing and product development. We will definitely come back every year.

Mr. Qingyu Huang, Sales Director, Fujian Suntion Textile Technology Co., Ltd.

In the post-epidemic era, the public are increasingly joining in sports activities, and their ideas of consumption have also changed. We have a very positive expectation about the future of the sports outdoor market. ISPO is a very professional platform. We learned a lot of new technologies and functional products at the show. We also had in-depth exchanges with customers. Meanwhile, we promoted our brand, and had very good results. We are grateful to the professional service from ISPO.

Ms. Yizhen Li, General Manager, Guangzhou Sysmax Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.

This year, ISPO is really impressive because the number and quality of visitors are both rising. Also ISPO is very experienced in both exhibitor and visitor services. Though we haven't seen each other for three years, ISPO is bringing our business back after the epidemic. We can see the users are back, and the market is back. Just as the board at the gate says, the warm spring is back and everyone is welcoming the new outdoor life with a high spirit.

Mr. Haoyu Liu, Equipment Marketing Director, Guangdong Camel Clothing Co., Ltd.

ISPO is the first outdoor exhibition held in Beijing in 2023, and it is also the first outdoor exhibition we participate in. We had very nice experience this time, because the number of visitors is much larger than we expected. It not only shows that the users are very active, but also releases a positive signal from the industry. I believe that the tourism outdoor market will definitely shine this year. I strongly recommend ISPO to you, because it is really a convenient and very great event for market communication.

Mr. Tao Pang, General Manager of Wild Rampage

If I have to use two words to describe the sports and outdoor market in the near future, I would say it’s “Chun Tian (spring)”. I am overwhelmed (by the show) as we have been looking forward to the opening of ISPO Beijing for three years. We decided to participate in the exhibition as soon as it resumed. The most important reason is that we have to collect market and industry information, to understand the changes in the market. We can see that many new visitors with consumption potential have come to the exhibition. They are younger, with more systematic and professional knowledge, and have started to know what outdoors really means. Participating in an exhibition can open up a world, and it is an important opportunity for us to grow and develop.

Mr. Zheqiang Wang, Head of the Brand Department, TITTALLON OUTDOOR GEAR CO.Ltd.

My first impression of ISPO this year is that everyone is very enthusiastic and the visitor number is huge, which completely exceed our expectations. TITTALLON has been a partner of ISPO for more than ten years and we have maintained very close communication. ISPO is a place for communication and win-win cooperation, and it fits well with our brand and corporate culture.

Mr. Guoqing Xu, Founder of Beijing KingCamp Travel Products Co., Ltd.

We have prepared a lot of product launches at ISPO, including the first release of our flagship products, and the feedback is very good. We did not expect so many people to be here this time, and it is the most crowded exhibition I have ever participated in. I hope that we will have a larger booth in ISPO in the future. We very much appreciate the organizer's work.

Mr. Jianfeng Xu, Director of Planning Departmen, TORAY Sakai Weaving and Dyeing(NANTONG)Co., Ltd.(TSD)

We have a lot of expectations for ISPO Beijing 2023. As a large-scale professional exhibition held after the epidemic, it is still beyond my expectation. Both the customers and the enthusiasts have exhibited professionalism and an increased interest in the industry. For us material manufacturers, they have injected great confidence and new vitality into our continuous development.

Mr. Wei Yan, Deputy General Manager of E-Commerce, Beijing Sanfo Outdoor Products Co., Ltd.

I think that in the future, the outdoor sports market segmentation will develop further, and demand for premium sports products and services will rise. We didn't expect so many visitors this year, and we have been very busy from the first day to the last. We are very satisfied with the results of ISPO Beijing 2023.

Ms. Hua Zeng, Founder and General Manager of Beijing Scaler Outdoor Products Co., Ltd.

We think the year 2023 will be particularly good. We have been very busy at ISPO Beijing 2023, and there are a lot of visitors. Our common perception of 2023 is that it will be very good. I think it is very brilliant that ISPO chooses to open at this point, because it gives us great confidence.

Mr. Kai Zhang, founder of UTO brand, Shanghai Youdong Supplies Co., Ltd.

UTO has been waiting for the opening of ISPO Beijing for three years, and we have a lot of hopes about the exhibition because we believe the entire outdoor industry will have a lot of opportunities in the "post-covid era". Also, the supporting policy from the country is very reassuring, so we are willing to participate in such a large-scale exhibition as ISPO to find more business opportunities. Compared with the past, ISPO has changed a lot. It has a much wider exhibition range, and become far more than a sell-and-order platform. ISPO has invited many professional and experts from related fields to the show, which is exactly what we need the most.

Ms. Nikita Zhang, Head of Boutique Company, He Zhong Auto Group

We are very interested in automobile-related outdoor products. At the exhibition, we see many of our current partner brands, and also a lot of manufacturers that are new to us. They have brought new products that cannot be found anywhere else yet, so we are very willing to establish cooperation with them. I think ISPO Beijing 2023 is very successful. There are a lot of people in the halls, so it is impossible to finish all our targets in one day. We are very grateful to the organizer of ISPO for the careful itinerary tailored for us.

Mr. Yi Zhang, Deputy Director, China Automobile Dealers Association

ISPO Beijing 2023 is very eye-opening for me. It has many distinctive features that are not usually found in its counterparts. I found that there are many ways that ISPO can connect to automobiles. In fact, how to connect the automobile market with the sports market has always been a popular question. Many automobile brands are interested in cooperation with the sports industry. I believe their partnership can create a market that is larger than the two markets combined. We hope that in the future there will be cooperation between the automobile industry and the sports industry. We also hope that ISPO will be better and better.

Mr. Chuanren Zhou, Deputy General Manager, Shenzhen Hello Tech Energy co.,Ltd

After the releasing of vigorous promotional policies for the outdoor industry by China, we believe that outdoor power supplies will be more widely accepted in the Chinese market. Our impression of ISPO Beijing 2023 is that the atmosphere is even more active than before, and it is also more innovative. We are deeply impressed by its innovations in exhibition model, promotional measures and retail digitalization. The discussion about sustainable development of the outdoor industry is also very inspiring. I have met many new and old friends at ISPO, and I feel quite at home here.

Mr. Lei Zhu, General Manager of Schwans Penle Outdoor Products (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

We have great expectations for the future market. In 2023, the outdoor market will make further progress, and all outdoor brands will have a bigger market. ISPO Beijing 2023 has brought me a lot of surprises. From early in the morning, visitors have been coming in the hall, and they have given very positive feedback. ISPO did a great job this time. We are very much looking forward to ISPO Shanghai. Also, we will come to ISPO Beijing again next year.