Innovation for precision in sporting goods manufacturing

For the trillion-dollar Fujian sports industry, innovation is a topic that will never go out of fashion.

On the 25th, the China International Sporting Goods Expo with the theme of "Gathering - Integration - Innovation" opened at the China National Convention Center in Shanghai.

Intelligent expansion of industry space

Although the leading sports goods manufacturers like Anta, Pique and Tebu did not exhibit at the fair, there were still 88 enterprises from our province at the fair, covering fitness equipment, massage equipment, tennis and feather fighting, sports and leisure, and stadium facilities, etc. The number of exhibitors outside the province was a new high.

On the topic of innovation, many exhibitors also gave their own "answer sheets", and these "answer sheets" also reflect their precise efforts after cultivating their respective niche industries.

Zhang Weijian, chairman and president of Shuhua, believes that in the face of the upgrading of the fitness industry, the trend of market development in recent years indicates that intelligence has become a major trend and will become the next explosive point in the fitness field, "but intelligence is only the development strategy of the whole industry, not the purpose of development, the purpose of intelligent development of the fitness equipment industry is to make fitness management more The purpose of intelligent development in the fitness equipment industry is to make fitness management more efficient and fitness more scientific, interesting and convenient.

In this year's Sports Expo, Shuhua took the theme of "full-scene intelligence and big data health" to showcase its new multi-scene intelligent fitness solutions, covering multiple sports scenarios such as commercial fitness, corporate fitness, family fitness and national fitness. Zhang Weijian said, "Only scientific exercise can truly bring health. Therefore, Shuhua has been adhering to the development idea of 'intelligent products and scientific exercise', and is committed to providing users with professional and scientific exercise and health solutions through professional and comprehensive exercise and fitness equipment and services".

Fitness intelligence contains great room for industry development and will definitely become a huge turning point for the future fitness market. Xu Yueyun, Director of the School of Physical Education of Quanzhou Normal College, believes that Shuhua is gradually making exercise more scientific, interesting and simple by applying intelligent technology to fitness equipment and services through continuous independent research and development and cooperation. This is not only Shuhua's idea of product development evolution, but also represents the development trend of the fitness industry in a sense.

Environmentally friendly applications will be favoured by the market

Unlike Shuhua's innovation in intelligence, Fujian Wanjufu Sports Technology Co Ltd, which specialises in the research and development, production, sales and service integration of sports field materials, has turned its attention to environmental protection.

According to the company's founder, Zhang Zuai, Wanjufu has built the "Wanjufu Sports Ground Material Research Centre" with the University of Malaya, one of the top research institutions in Southeast Asia, to increase investment in scientific research to improve and enhance new materials and processes for its products. The more attention we pay to health and environmental protection, the more quality products and services we can provide. Only by improving ourselves can we bring vitality to the industry".

At the fair, Wan Jufu launched three new products: the Pearl Sea Elastic Shock Pad, which can achieve more than 70% rebound force protection, the Wandell Elastic Shock Pad, which is developed using a high load multi-fibre integrated material, and the environmentally friendly runway granules, whose elastic performance and impact absorption have reached international standards. "Environmental protection as a fundamental benchmark point, and then based on environmental protection, to ensure that the products produced can meet the safety performance and thus meet the market demand." Zhang Zuai said.

Chen Cheng, president of the provincial sports facilities industry association, believes that developing and using new materials, providing personalised and customised products and giving them more cultural connotation attributes will be the way forward for the industry's future development.

The core of innovation lies in the concept

At last year's Sports Expo, Fuchs, a youth school football brand from Jinjiang, showcased intelligent football shoes with built-in chips. At last year's Sports Expo, Fuchs, a youth school football brand from Jinjiang, presented smart football shoes with built-in chips.

Li Junhuang, executive director of Jinjiang Chuangda Footwear Co Ltd, said, "The current footwear industry has both opportunities and challenges, and the rising space of 5 trillion output value of the sports industry is undoubtedly an attractive cake, who can stand out in the cracks of peers is the key."

From smart football shoes to World Cup element football shoes, Fuchs has been innovating while ploughing deep into the youth football field. Li Junhuang believes that the lack of core technical resources and the increase in investment costs are two major problems for enterprises to turn to "smart" manufacturing. From their own perspective, enterprises should accelerate industrial restructuring, establish awareness of technological innovation and attach importance to human resource development; from the policy level, enterprises expect the government to introduce relevant policies to give guidance to enterprises, support core technology research and development and tax incentives.

Li Hua, chairman of the China Sporting Goods Federation, believes that for enterprises, innovation is indeed not only limited to the product itself, but even the service and marketing aspects need a new concept. Sporting goods manufacturers are able to achieve sustainable development, in which the greatest confidence that comes from innovation. "Innovation can drive efficiency growth, drive industrial upgrading, and ultimately help companies to be unique in terms of products, categories and so on."

It is reported that, in order to enhance the comprehensive strength and competitiveness of the sporting goods manufacturing industry, Fujian Provincial Sports Bureau and Fujian Provincial Economic and Information Commission jointly issued the "Fujian Province Sports Goods Manufacturing Development Action Plan (2017-2020)" this year, proposing to build the country's largest sports goods manufacturing production base, the world's leading modern sports and smart sports goods manufacturing base. (Reporter Xiao Rong)