Zhongqiao Sports uses China Tour to stimulate market vitality, so you have to play basketball enough

Written|Qiaoli

7 days, 3 cities, from south to north. Keldon Johnson's 2025 tour of China began in Nanning, passed through Xi'an, and finally ended successfully in Harbin's "Lao Iron 666". This is his third consecutive year of China tour since he served as the spokesperson for Zhongqiao Sports brand - a more eased process and a more calm smile. "Playing basketball enough" is not only the theme of his trip to China, but also inadvertently planning Zhongqiao Sports' strategic layout for basketball: either stay still, move like a rabbit. In 2023, Kelden Johnson, a player from the San Antonio Spurs, set foot in China for the first time. Just as the theme of the event that year "Speed Up", whether it is the product strength, brand assets of Zhongqiao sneakers, or the favorability of Kelden Johnson among Chinese fans, it is growing rapidly.

In 2010, Zhongqiao Sports became the official partner of FIBA (global) products, marking that Zhongqiao Sports' layout in the basketball field has entered a new stage. In the past 10 years, Zhongqiao Sports has continuously strengthened its basketball brand assets through cooperation with top international basketball organizations and launched multiple basketball products. During this period, Zhong Qiao relied on her unique vision to complete contract cooperation with basketball stars such as Wu Qian, Sun Minghui, Kelden Johnson, and other basketball stars. Through continuous operations, she supported the spokesperson's own outstanding performance, further consolidating her position in the field of basketball.

By the time we signed with Kelden Johnson in 2022, Zhongqiao Sports' revenue share in footwear products increased from 52.85% in 2019 to 58.11% in 2022. With the arrival of Kelden Johnson, in the past three years, Zhongqiao Sports has continuously deepened its own brand assets, laying the foundation for Zhongqiao's traffic and fan base today. As of the end of Kelden Johnson's trip to China in 2025, under the topic of "Kelden Johnson's trip to China", with the participation of brand parties, grassroots players, fans, etc., the number of views published under TikTok's related topics has accumulated 470 million views.

The rapid ascension to China in 2023 is a rare opportunity for Kelden Johnson to have zero-distance contact with Chinese traditional culture, which shocked this young American in Generation Z. The "Happy Meeting" in 2024 and "Get Enough of Basketball" in 2025 both show that Kelden Johnson's trip to China is not only because he has a good business cooperation relationship with Zhongqiao Sports, but also because the fun and nourishment this land brings him beyond the business itself. This emotional guidance also brings help from Zhongqiao beyond the plan.

Play basketball, if you want to play, you can play enough

As the spokesperson for Zhongqiao Sports' basketball category, Kelden Johnson's three consecutive years of tours to China has played a good demonstration role in the market expansion of Zhongqiao Sports, and has given a shot in the overall sneaker market.

As the core player of the Spurs, Kelden Johnson has won the attention of many Chinese fans with his explosive game style. After signing with him in 2022, Zhongqiao Sports has effectively increased the brand's popularity and influence, allowing more consumers to understand and understand Zhongqiao Sports. At the same time, during the three consecutive years of China tour, Kelden Johnson has been wearing sneakers equipped by Zhongqiao Sports, from RISE to RISE2, to this year's Hard 7 and FERISE. His hard-working attitude and wonderful dunk performance directly filled the product's exposure, which undoubtedly fully stimulated the fans' desire to buy.

Taking the game while playing on July 1 as an example, Kelden Johnson joined forces with Wu Qian and Sun Minghui, as well as players from "super grassroots" Liu Shouyuan and Lai Yiye, etc., to jointly contribute a wonderful offensive and defensive battle to the fans on the scene. Zhongqiao intentionally or unintentionally completed the integration of its professional spokespersons, grassroots players and e-commerce channels. While creating a wonderful basketball event for fans, it also reflects the brand's intentions, allowing more fans to feel the performance and attitude of more professional players.

Also important is Kelden Johnson's spirit of perseverance and pursuit of excellence on the field, which is very consistent with Zhongqiao Sports' brand philosophy of innovation and positive. By cooperating with him, Zhongqiao Sports can convey a positive and professional brand image to consumers and enhance consumers' sense of identity and favorability for the brand.

What is more worth mentioning is that Kelden Johnson is a Generation Z star, full of young vitality, and his fan base is mainly young people. Zhongqiao Sports’ cooperation with him will help attract young consumers, make the brand image younger, and fit the preferences and needs of the younger generation of consumers, thereby expanding the young consumer group.

In fact, it is the sharp contrast between Kelden Johnson's people-friendly image and his explosive feeling on the court that invisibly promoted the dissemination of basketball culture. It is in this sharp contrasting experience that Zhongqiao Sports quietly completed further rooting in the basketball market and actively expanded a larger market space.

Q matrix, Zhongqiao's ambition and layout

During the trip in Xi'an, Kelden Johnson and many media friends witnessed the glorious debut of Feiyi's FERISE basketball shoes and the complete release of Zhongqiao Sports' basketball Q matrix, fully demonstrating Zhongqiao Sports' thinking and planning for its basketball category. At the same time, the two new color schemes of the RISE2 of the RISE2 were released simultaneously with FERISE. A variety of dazzling products and renewed visual tension also show the continuous evolution and in-depth thinking of the Zhongqiao Sports Design Team and the technology development team in the integration of basketball shoe design and practical performance. All of this is subtly implanted into the consumer's mind in the activity idea of "you have to play basketball enough".

FERISE, as the masterpiece of the competition matrix, completes the last puzzle in the Zhongqiao basketball shoe matrix, and together with the previously released front RISE2 and poisonous fangs, it forms the Zhongqiao basketball shoe Q matrix. Unlike other brands' matrix divisions, Zhongqiao basketball shoes Q matrix pays more attention to the players' personal style experience during battles. Even the display vision at the release site [Zhongqiao Sports Basketball Shoes Q Matrix Collection Library] revolves around its corresponding animal concepts - falcons, antelopes, and snakes - which shows how much Zhongqiao attaches importance to this press conference.

Take FERISE released this time as an example. Its design inspiration comes from the animal world that is good at long-distance running, focusing on multi-directional rolling to bring a better running experience. The RISE2 belongs to the safari matrix, inspired by the falcon, focusing on the feeling of speed and agility. The RISE belongs to the attack matrix, inspired by snakes, and focuses on performance at the burst and attack levels. Combined with FERISE's experience in running incessantly, Zhongqiao's basketball shoes have delivered a good answer with all their efforts to support the new concept of life, and also brought Zhongqiao a more anticipated future.

The amplifier of the brand value of Zhongqiao brand in cooperative commercial complex

Compared with the two China trips in 2023 and 2024, in 2025, Zhongqiao Sports designed the third China trip for Kelden Johnson, whether in Nanning or Xi'an, Zhongqiao Sports has set its store activities in the city's outlets (hereinafter referred to as Outlets). What is more interesting is that since the first time Outlet entered China in 2002, in more than 20 years of development, the number of sports brands in Outlets has reached 17%, becoming the third largest category after women's clothing and men's clothing. Relevant media also issued a statement saying that Outlet has the fastest growth in retail formats, especially in the case of weak consumption in 2023, Outlet's sales growth still reached about 10%, surpassing all other formats. Not only did Outlet perform well during the economic downturn, it showed a cyclical resistance.

was born in the 1930s outlet, with the initial purpose of manufacturers to build public outlets and sell out-of-season stock products directly to the public. Later, Outlet stores gradually gathered together, forming a large Outlet shopping center, and developed into an independent retail format. Its advantages of famous brands and discounts naturally catered to the middle class's high requirements for cost-effectiveness. Zhongqiao Sports has been deeply engaged in the field of sports equipment for more than 20 years, popularizing new trends in sports technology, and striving to strengthen mutually beneficial and win-win relationships with consumers. Choose to open a store in the Outlet, while grasping the consumption needs of the middle class of "good value for money" in one fell swoop, you can also put real benefits into the hands of consumers, allowing high-quality sports products with cutting-edge technology to stir up the lives of more people, clean up inventory through discounted products and reach price-sensitive consumers. At the same time, as outlets expand into second- and third-tier cities, Zhongqiao Sports can quickly layout based on the existing dealer network to seize emerging market share.

To a certain extent, the cooperative relationship between "channel complementarity + brand collaboration" between Zhongqiao Sports and Outlets has made Outlets a platform for Zhongqiao Sports' inventory digestion, market sinking and brand exposure, while Zhongqiao Sports has injected differentiated competitiveness into Outlets through technological products, scene marketing and multi-brand matrix. In the future, Zhongqiao Sports will improve the inventory turnover and sales efficiency of the outlet channel through supply chain optimization and digital transformation; combine the outlet's cultural and tourism trends to create a sports-themed immersive shopping scenario, and rely on the dealer network and outlet sinking to form a intensive layout in second- and third-tier cities, achieving upgrades from three levels: efficiency-driven, inventory turnover and regional expansion. Outlai will undoubtedly play a positive role in Zhongqiao Sports' market expansion. Taking the Xi'an station of this event as an example, Kelden Johnson, Sun Minghui and Wu Qian, who are the spokesperson of Zhongqiao Sports brand, raided the stadium with close friends and players. The hot atmosphere also completely stimulated KJ's state, completely letting go of the "basketball quality inspector" and frequently dunked.

Looking to the future, if Zhongqiao Sports can continue to make breakthroughs in brand power, product power and channel control, Outlets, as a support point for rapid growth, is supplemented by the series of activities of Kelden Johnson's tour of China for three consecutive years. In the competition with other domestic sports brands, how can we not regard Outlet and other commercial complexes as Zhongqiao Sports' "brand value amplifier"?

Note: The pictures used in this article are from Zhongqiao Sports