On September 4th, the State Council General Office released the "Opinions on Unleashing Sports Consumption Potential and Further Promoting High-Quality Development of the Sports Industry," proposing 20 key measures across six major areas including expanding sports product supply, stimulating sports consumption demand, strengthening sports business entities, cultivating sports industry growth points, reinforcing industrial factor support, and improving service guarantee levels to further advance high-quality sports industry development.
The policy document sets a target that by 2030, China will cultivate a number of globally influential sports enterprises and sporting events, with sports industry development levels significantly improved and total industry scale exceeding 7 trillion yuan, playing an important role in constructing a new development pattern.
In recent years, the explosive popularity of ice and snow economy, sports "new big three" (skiing boards, surfboards, paddleboards), and events like "Su Super" demonstrate the tremendous potential of sports consumption. Popular sporting events attract substantial traffic, allowing the public to enjoy competitive sports while host cities enhance their influence and drive growth in related business, tourism, and cultural consumption.
Official data shows that since the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China's sports industry has developed steadily. In 2023, the total scale of China's sports industry reached 3.67 trillion yuan with an average annual growth rate of 10.3%, and added value of 1.49 trillion yuan. Among this, sports service industries led by competitive performance and fitness leisure sectors accounted for 72.7% of the added value.
Regarding expanding sports product supply, the policy proposes actively developing outdoor sports industries. It calls for formulating a new round of outdoor sports industry development plans, leveraging natural resource endowments in various regions to develop differentiated outdoor sports projects including mountain outdoor, water sports, automotive and motorcycle, and aviation activities, promoting the construction of high-quality outdoor sports destinations. The policy also supports hosting the China Outdoor Sports Industry Conference and launching premium outdoor sports routes.
Under safety prerequisites, the policy encourages low-altitude sports, aviation model sports, flight simulation and other low-altitude sporting events to promote low-altitude sports consumption.
Securities analysts point out that against the backdrop of policies expanding domestic demand and boosting consumer confidence, the outdoor economy is driving high prosperity in sportswear sales, suggesting attention to high-certainty opportunities and high-growth segments. The sports industry has become an important force driving economic growth and promoting economic and social transformation and upgrading, making significant contributions to cultivating new economic development momentum. National efforts to promote reform and innovation empowering high-quality sports development may sustain the high prosperity of sportswear.
The policy also mentions cultivating and strengthening the ice and snow economy. It supports continued implementation of national ice and snow consumption benefit measures and including eligible ice and snow equipment in large-scale equipment update support ranges. The policy deepens implementation of the ice and snow sports "Southern Expansion, Western Extension, Eastern Advancement" strategy, consolidating and expanding achievements of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports."
Previously, the National Sports Administration issued support policies for ice and snow economy and outdoor sports, launching 19 premium outdoor sports routes and 26 national-level ski tourism resort destinations, accelerating related sports industry development.
Research data shows that in 2024, China's outdoor sports online consumption reached approximately 200 million person-times with total consumption exceeding 300 billion yuan. Ice and snow industry scale grew from 381.1 billion yuan in 2020 to 970 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth of 26.3%. In 2024, water sports participation exceeded 120 million people with industry scale reaching 438.6 billion yuan, up 18.7% year-over-year.
Regarding strengthening industrial factor support, the policy mentions guiding financial institutions to optimize investment and financing services, strengthen credit management, enrich credit products, and actively develop intellectual property pledge loan businesses. It supports eligible sports enterprises in listing, refinancing, bond issuance, and asset securitization. The policy encourages full utilization of re-lending and rediscount policies, steadily reducing comprehensive financing costs to ensure timely policy benefits for sports industry-related business entities.
Currently, China has multiple listed sports industry companies covering sportswear, sports goods, and sports services, including ANTA SPORTS, LI NING, XTEP INT'L, Amer Sports, China Sports Industry Group, and Lisheng Sports. Policy certainty provides direction for venture capital institutions, with capital flowing into smart hardware, new consumer brands, and digital services, injecting vitality into the sports industry chain.
Latest statistics show that as of September 4, 2025, the sports sector has disclosed 16 primary market investment and financing events totaling approximately 559 million yuan; for the full year 2024, these figures were 9 events totaling approximately 1.049 billion yuan respectively.
Securities analysts indicate that with domestic demand consumption stimulus policies introduced, domestic macro consumption conditions are expected to steadily improve. Simultaneously, as health consciousness and exercise habits gradually penetrate public life, domestic sportswear penetration rates are expected to accelerate, with domestic sports brands potentially achieving impressive sales growth.
Related Concept Stocks:
LI NING (02331): The company's brand layout is gradually improving with clear product matrix positioning, forming differentiated competition with other domestic brands in consumer coverage breadth and demand depth. The company emphasizes product research and development, continuing to lead domestic sports brands with professional and fashion dual-wheel brand power upgrades. With international leading brands facing upstream supply chain constraints and lack of major technological breakthroughs, the company is expected to consolidate and further expand market share.
ANTA SPORTS (02020): The company's half-year net profit increased 15% year-over-year, mainly benefiting from 14% revenue growth, roughly meeting expectations with ANTA brand revenue growing 5%. With increased government subsidies, ANTA brand operating profit margin improved 1.5 percentage points to 23.3%. Additionally, the group recently announced establishing a joint venture with Korean fashion platform Musinsa, which analysts believe will help develop young generation market opportunities in the long term.
XTEP INT'L (01368): XTEP International released 2025 interim results with group revenue of 6.838 billion yuan (RMB), up 7.14% year-over-year; profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of 914 million yuan, up 21.47% year-over-year; interim dividend of 18 Hong Kong cents with scrip dividend option, compared to 15.6 Hong Kong cents in the same period last year. Revenue growth mainly benefited from mass sports segment revenue rising 4.5% to 6.1 billion yuan, primarily attributed to strong online channel performance with significantly increased consumer engagement and sales.