Increasing Popularity in China
Kolon Sport China saw an increase in sales by more than 100 percent early this year. This was largely due to the fact that Song Joong-ki, who is now the most popular Hallyu star in China with Korean television series “Descendants of the Sun”, was chosen as the new face of the company. Kolon Sport, which saw its Chinese business have gotten off the ground this year for the first time, is planning to boost its sales and marketing budget in China with an aim of becoming the nation’s most popular outdoor brand.
According to the company on May 30, sales of Kolon Sport China from January to April grew 130 percent from the same period a year ago. Although it is a slow season for the outdoor clothing market, sales of men products increased as much as 150 percent year on year. Its sales in online shopping website Tmall last year skyrocketed by 250 percent compared with the previous year, establishing a solid foothold in the Chinese market.
In Korea, Kolon Sport accounted for more than half of the combined sales generated by popup stores at “Hello, K-Fashion” campaign held at the main branch of Lotte Department Store in Euljiro from April 29 to May 26. It was the event which took place in the local store, but 90 percent of its sales came from Chinese consumers.
In addition to sales figures, there is another evidence that Kolon Sport is becoming a popular outdoor clothing brand in China. The company enjoy popularity in Chinese social networking sites (SNS) as well. Currently, the number of Chinese SNS followers of Kolon Sport reached 540,000. The company also ranked first in terms of hits among Chinese outdoor clothing brands on Chinese SNS services, such as Weibo and WeChat, from February to April. The video of Song Joong-ki during the BEE collection promotional event held from April 25 to May 10 had more than 121 million views.