Arc'teryx Betrays Arc'teryx

Deep News
Sep 22

Special Report: Official Investigation Announced for "Himalayan Fireworks," Cai Guoqiang and Arc'teryx Issue Public Apologies

When consumers aren't hardcore, destinations can be very hardcore.

A sports fashion brand requires both liberal arts and science capabilities. If science represents supply chain and store management, then liberal arts is the ability to endow a brand with cultural depth. ANTA SPORTS has maximized its science capabilities, but its liberal arts skills are clearly not as strong, and the test questions keep changing.

"Mountain Blasting" Triggers National Outrage

Saturday morning, social media was flooded with Arc'teryx's "mountain blasting" event in collaboration with Cai Guoqiang. Not because the event was exceptionally successful, but because it became notorious.

The event, called "Rising Dragon," took place at Chaqiong Gangri in Tibet's Himalayas. Colorful fireworks were ignited from approximately 4,600 meters altitude, snaking up along the mountain ridge surface and exploding up to the 5,050-meter summit, creating a "rising dragon" spectacle.

According to organizer Arc'teryx, the performance was part of the brand's third season of "Upward Beauty," aimed at exploring high-mountain local culture through art. Cai Guoqiang, famous for his fireworks art, described the artistic expression as seeking "to find balance between roughness and sanctity—in the pristine atmosphere of nature deep in the Himalayas, unfolding a dialogue about humanity, nature, the universe, and the soul."

After footage from the scene emerged, it triggered intense questioning and opposition. The core concern was whether this performance underwent rigorous environmental assessment and how much damage it would cause to the fragile plateau environment and ecosystem.

The official statement claimed the event used biodegradable materials, used salt bricks to guide small animals like pikas away from the blast zone before ignition, and conducted soil turning and vegetation restoration after the fireworks.

Once the statement was released, more loopholes appeared, making criticism more targeted.

Netizens questioned how long the so-called "degradable" colored pigments would take to decompose in the low-temperature, ecologically fragile plateau environment, where decomposing animals and microorganisms are scarce compared to lower-altitude regions.

Plateau soil layers are often just thin and extremely barren. Many plateau plants accumulate nutrients and energy for years before blooming once and reproducing. For example, Rheum nobile takes over thirty years to grow and accumulate before flowering, making vegetation extremely vulnerable to risks.

Arc'teryx used a "fire dragon" to bomb the surface vegetation once. The so-called "soil turning" for vegetation restoration was actually proactive destructive behavior. This vegetation damage is difficult and slow to repair, potentially irreversible.

Science bloggers analyzed that the "salt brick pika guidance" strategy was unlikely to be effective. Dr. Gu Yourong, a botanist and director of China Wild Plant Conservation Association, publicly criticized: "Salt-licking behavior is not common among pikas. What kind of operation is using salt bricks to lure pikas? Salt bricks have no smell and aren't conspicuous—did you send written notices to each pika burrow telling them there are salt bricks outside? Did all the pikas sign receipts? Even if all pikas were lured out, wouldn't they go home after licking enough salt? Aren't they afraid of getting too salty if they keep licking? What about carnivorous animals and birds that don't like licking salt?"

Firework ignition and burning could potentially hit animals. Fireworks might destroy animal burrows. Explosive sounds could trigger stress reactions or even death in timid, easily startled pikas, and cause strong physiological stimulation to other animals.

Netizens conducted frame-by-frame analysis of videos, discovering that vegetation and soil below blast points had already been artificially "leveled" (destroyed) before being blown up by high temperatures. One set of fireworks was arranged along a stream, posing water contamination risks. The transportation, installation, and testing of such large-scale fireworks, plus organizer setup, filming, and invited media and influencer activities, amounted to establishing a construction site on the plateau.

Gu Yourong also wrote in "Guokr Nature" that this "Rising Dragon" event might involve Articles 23 and 54 of China's "Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law" enacted in 2023.

Article 45 states that violations of this law involving the following behaviors on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau shall be subject to heavier penalties according to relevant laws and regulations: (3) conducting production and construction activities that may cause soil erosion in areas with severe soil erosion and ecological fragility; (6) destroying natural landscapes or grassland vegetation.

Both organizers and Cai Guoqiang have now publicly apologized, but ecological damage restoration from this event requires long-term monitoring.

This event, which triggered one-sided protest and condemnation in public opinion, was initially able to be successfully approved without obstacles or questioning, which deserves deep reflection from every brand.

As an outdoor brand, Arc'teryx's supposed commitment to "honoring nature, culture, and environment" appears extremely ironic in the face of this elaborate mountain-blasting event.

A longtime Cai Guoqiang fan expressed disappointment, sharing what Cai said ten years ago during a Eslite exhibition when his gunpowder experiment set canvas on fire: "My grandmother used hemp cloth to put out the fire. She made me understand that lighting fires is important, but extinguishing fires is more important than lighting them."

This actually represents the common logical intersection between fireworks art and outdoor sports: showing off human power to conquer nature, versus restraining humanity's power that has been infinitely armed by modernization and respecting nature. The boundary between these two approaches is sometimes unclear, requiring constant self-examination and mutual supervision.

Why "Blast the Mountain"?

The controversial "Upward Beauty" event is actually Arc'teryx's third year organizing this activity. In the previous two years, they held two events in Shangri-La, Yunnan, and Namcha Barwa in Tibet (eastern end of the Himalayas).

In 2021, Arc'teryx partnered with luxury resort hotel group Songtsam to launch a "Sacred Mountain Protection Activity." Such activities met everyone's expectations—calling for plastic waste collection on high mountains and organizing "Sacred Mountain Protection Tours" to Yubeng Village at the foot of Meili Snow Mountain, picking up trash on world-famous high-altitude hiking routes.

The following year, Arc'teryx began systematically organizing larger-scale, more thematically ambitious "Upward Beauty" events. Ironically, this "Upward Beauty" theme originally meant: conveying reverence for high mountains.

This activity was partly designed to echo the brand's founding story: two climbing enthusiasts founded it in North Vancouver, part of the Pacific Coast Mountains carved by glaciers, with extreme elevation differences and treacherous terrain, created from birth to serve hardcore outdoor athletes.

According to Forbes China, this reverence specifically includes two aspects: respecting harsh mountain environments and changeable weather by making adequate preparations, and understanding and respecting local culture.

After ANTA SPORTS took over Arc'teryx, unlike previous practices of mainly selling products in the Chinese market, the Chinese team needed to continue spreading brand narratives and influencing more target demographic users in the Chinese market.

Local culture is part of Arc'teryx's global brand marketing. For example, Arc'teryx collaborated with indigenous artists from the Coast Mountains, the brand's origin, last year to spread local people's culture and lifestyle, integrating them into product craftsmanship and design to launch the Walk Gently series.

In China, to spread both high-mountain sports and ethnically distinctive local culture, people naturally think of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

For instance, Arc'teryx signed a five-year contract with Songtsam in 2022 to jointly create "destination communities" and opened a "Most Beautiful Bird Store" at Songtsam's Shangri-La hotel. Songtsam's target customer base, as expected, highly overlaps with Arc'teryx's.

More importantly, as Arc'teryx's audience expanded from outdoor enthusiasts to urban elites, from professional positioning to luxury positioning, they needed trend-leading, high-impact communication events. At this point, just promoting trash collection and environmental protection might not be enough.

For example, while both convey "hardcore" positioning, many people wearing Arc'teryx don't even do outdoor activities, let alone extreme sports. No problem—if consumers aren't hardcore, destinations can be very hardcore.

According to Brand Planet, Arc'teryx's promotion of Kawakarpo, Namcha Barwa, and Namtso aims to "abandon familiar daily outdoor attractions" and choose "nature's hidden places" with "the most pristine scenic topography, even extremely harsh natural environments and transportation conditions," making them "difficult to reach but highly desirable distant places."

"These are the brand's most hardcore spiritual 'destinations.'"

Continuing the so-called hidden place positioning, last year's "Upward Beauty" second season event was held at Namcha Barwa, located in the eastern Himalayas and called "Father of Mountains." At the event, Arc'teryx invited singer Zhu Zheqin to perform "Asking the Mountain" and Zanian qin (Tibetan instrument) player and intangible cultural heritage inheritor Danzeng Yixi to perform Tibetan opera, showcasing people's praise and reverence for sacred mountains.

Possibly because collaboration with artists and mountain interaction formats gained recognition, this year they invited Cai Guoqiang, who seemingly has international influence, domestic recognition, and commercial success, to reach Relong for the third season "Upward Beauty" performance.

This series of factors led to the final "mountain blasting" performance, which satisfied communication impact, mountain interaction, "hidden places," and possibly local cultural interaction, but failed to satisfy: respect for mountains.

ANTA SPORTS' Academic Imbalance

This "mountain blasting" marketing that angered countless people will certainly bring significant negative impact to Arc'teryx, and is also a very serious problem for ANTA SPORTS.

As referenced in our previous article: with Canada Goose no longer wanted, ANTA SPORTS' next strategic focus has shifted to "ANTA SPORTS of the World."

ANTA SPORTS founder Ding Shizhong has long publicly announced his goal: "Not to be China's Nike, but to be the world's ANTA SPORTS."

However, for over a decade, ANTA SPORTS' strategy concentrated on first becoming China's Nike. Now becoming the world's ANTA SPORTS is a major test.

ANTA SPORTS has some academic imbalance in capabilities. To use an analogy, a sports fashion brand requires both liberal arts and science capabilities. If science represents supply chain and store management, then liberal arts is the ability to endow a brand with cultural depth. ANTA SPORTS has maximized its science capabilities, but its liberal arts skills are clearly not as strong.

The global sports fashion field is experiencing consumer stratification, with consumer segmentation and diversification as common global market trends. Simply put, if past competition was cutting strips, now it's cutting threads.

ANTA SPORTS hasn't ignored this change, which is why it implements single-focus, multi-brand strategy. Current CEO Xu Yang said in an interview early this year that he strongly agrees with the concept "as long as tracks are narrow enough, no one can defeat you."

In his view, only by cutting brands narrowly enough and reverse-engineering organization and products around this can brands successfully lock in consumers more tightly.

Behind this is consumer stratification, requiring brands to use different products and strategies to appeal to various small demographic circles.

Reform began long ago. Even ANTA SPORTS' main brand has spun off trendy-positioned Works Collection SV and Super Anta store types targeting Decathlon and Uniqlo.

However, knowing trend directions doesn't equal completing transformation.

Xu Yang returned to ANTA SPORTS from his position as Arc'teryx Greater China business leader. Arc'teryx has benefited from this trend change. However, Arc'teryx's growth in the Chinese market these past two years also relied on ANTA SPORTS' science capabilities.

After taking over, Xu Yang vigorously promoted channel direct operation, raising average store efficiency from 4 million yuan to 30 million yuan. Arc'teryx's parent company Amer Sports achieved profitability turnaround last year, mainly driven by Arc'teryx's sales growth in direct-operated store channels.

Markets continue fragmenting. In outdoor fields, niche outdoor sports emerging these past two years include stream tracing, trail running, rock climbing, paddleboarding, etc. For brands, these represent growing capillary vessels.

At this time, pursuing "big event" marketing goes against market trends. Outdoor brands should focus on truly understanding consumer needs across categories for operations.

At least in marketing, ANTA SPORTS hasn't shed its big brand genes. This time, the strongest reactions came from outdoor and environmental enthusiasts—Arc'teryx's core user base.

On September 21, after the incident fermented for two days and local government announced establishing an investigation team, Cai Guoqiang and Arc'teryx separately issued situation statements and apology letters.

Positioning the activity as artistic creation didn't satisfy consumers. These past two days, many outdoor enthusiasts shared other brands' marketing cases on social platforms, telling Arc'teryx to copy homework: honoring sacred mountains requires heart, not fireworks.

This might be the most important lesson for Arc'teryx—or rather, ANTA SPORTS—going forward.

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