The Li-Ning Company Limited was founded in 1990 by a Chinese sports hero, Olympic Gymnast Li Ning, and has its headquarters in Beijing, PRC. Li-Ning has rapidly gone from being a small startup company to become one of the People’s Republic of China’s leaders in footwear, sports apparel, and sporting equipment and accessories. Li-Ning currently has more than 3,000 employees, and has product lines selling in more than 1,800 cities and 7,000 stores and retail outlets across China. Li-Ning’s branded products include footwear and apparel for running, basketball, tennis, soccer, table tennis, badminton, and general fitness.
By 1993, Li-Ning had begun to establish franchise stores throughout the PRC, the first company if its kind to do so, and was the first sporting goods company in China to open a facility devoted solely to the design and development of its product lines. Li-Ning has for a number of years partnered with The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Chinese Olympic Committee, paving the way for it’s leadership role in the China’s sporting world, culminating in its sponsorship of many athletes in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Reaching Out to Europe – In addition to its core LI-NING brand, the company also distributes sports products under its Z-DO brand, and has established a joint venture with the French outdoor sports products company AIGLE, to manufacture, distribute and sell products with the AIGLE brand in the PRC. A similar agreement was reached with Italian based Lotto sports fashion brand, and has acquired Kason Sports, a leader in the research, development, manufacture and sale of professional badminton equipment.
Reaching Out to the NBA – Although it’s main focus is in it’s home country with its far flung network of retail chain stores, its extensive supply chain management system, and its outsourcing of various manufacturing operations and product distribution operations, Li-Ning has also taken several important steps outside the PRC. In 1995, Li-Ning established a working relationship with the National Basketball Association, and now officially sponsors prominent NBA athletes such as Shaquille O’Neal, Baron Davis, Jose Calderon, and Hasheem Thabeet. Other sponsorships include Russian gold medalist Yelena Isinbaeva, considered by many the greatest woman pole vaulter of all time, and Ivan Ljubicic, the great Croatian tennis star.
Li-Ning not only played a prominent role in supplying sportswear to Chinese athletes and the athletes of several other counties as well at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, the company’s founder and Olympic legend, Li Ning, had the honor of lighting the ceremonial Olympic torch, an honor well deserved, but a classic case of guerrilla marketing as well.
Li-Ning USA – Casting it’s eyes out over the Pacific, Li-Ning established an office and Design Center in 2008 in Portland, Oregon, a city, together with several other cities in Oregon, known for running and for innovative footwear. In 2010, Li-Ning USA expects to open its first America retail showroom in Portland, debuting is product lines in table tennis, basketball, and badminton, as well as general lifestyle products, to the American public and to the Western World. A Portland-based retail website, www.li-ningusa.com was also established in 2010.
