In 1987, a teenage Ding Shizhong boarded a train from the southern Chinese city of Fuzhou to Beijing, carrying leather shoes manufactured at his family’s factory in the coastal province of Fujian.
The 17-year-old managed to bargain his way into selling the shoes they made in the capital’s department stores. It marked the start of his company Anta’s evolution from being a little-known provincial shoemaker to last year overtaking Adidas to become the second-largest sportswear retailer in China behind Nike, with annual revenues of $7.8bn.
“Ding realised early on that the money is in the brand, not the making of the product,” said one person close to Anta’s management.
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