On June 17th, the Peak Sport Products Co Limited of China announced this week that it signed a 5 year contract with the WTA tour.

Like other such pactions, the focus of this collaboration is to enhance the brand image in China.

In fact, it is difficult for Chinese sporting goods companies to open their markets in foreign markets.

These brands are aimed at the middle class in China. This consumer group is more and more interested in sports and leisure activities, and the consumption ability is relatively high.

Cooperation with WTA is to make foreign sports stars wear these products to attract the attention of these Chinese consumers and arouse their interest in consumption. At the same time, it can also greatly increase the international popularity of the brand.

"Now, we are learning internationally famous sports brands. We hope that one day we can catch up with them.

Of course, this is our goal.

Xu Zhihua, chief executive of the brand, said, "but we are different because we know China better than foreign brands, and our products are more suitable for the Chinese market.

We can give consumers another option. "

The value of China's sporting goods market is US $6 billion, which is expected to increase by 14% in a year.

Although the brand of foreign sports is still the leader of this market, domestic brands are catching up, which are especially attractive to some consumers in small and medium-sized cities.

And China's 1 billion 300 million potential fans are also the main reasons why WTA can not resist this cooperation. WTA points out that in China, 130 million of net fans and 10 million amateur players are two times the number of French players.

In China, the strategy of sponsoring foreign athletes to improve their brand image is initiated by Lining.

In 2006, the brand signed a contract with NBA player O'neal.

Now, the brand has become a sponsor of the Swedish Olympic team, Spain and Argentina basketball team.

Another Chinese sports brand Anta also has a successful case in this area. The brand is a sponsor of Chinese tennis player Zheng Jie and Serbia tennis player Jankovic, and XTEP has formed a partnership with the Premier League Bermingham.

The brand, which has been the main product of basketball shoes, has opened 1027 new franchise stores in China last year, and the year-end revenue has increased by 51 percentage points to 456 million US dollars.

The brand is already an official sponsor of NBA in China, and has signed 12 NBA players including Jason Kidd and Artest.

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The cooperation between the brand and the WTA tour mainly includes China's tennis festivals, the cooperation of players' costumes, and the revenue sharing of garment brands.

Xu Zhihua said this was part of the strategic expansion of the brand in 2010, and others included sales in Asia and North America.

"We just want to expand our brand awareness, from basketball to tennis."

Xu Zhihua said.

"China is our most important market. Cooperation with international sporting events is aimed at achieving our goal of becoming more global and professional.

But for now, our main influence is still concentrated on the Chinese market, followed by the global market. "