Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen. Photo credit: Shutterstock
Team China’s string of gold-medal successes on land and water at Paris 2024 has sparked a sports craze among consumers, data from Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platform Tmall reveals.
The Olympic Games Paris 2024, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11, will see over 10,000 athletes take part in hundreds of events across 32 sports on land and water.
China’s 405-strong contingent has broken records, accomplished world firsts and pushed their sports to new heights—on and off the competition stage.
After Hubei-born Zheng Qinwen became the first Asian player to earn gold in Olympic singles tennis last week, tennis fever took hold in China.
Her gold medal victory in Paris prompted searches for tennis-related equipment to jump 300% year-on-year between Aug. 4 and 5 on Tmall, while table tennis and badminton-related queries rose 234% and 98%, respectively.
Zheng’s racquet of choice, the Wilson Pro Staff 97 v14, has also become a hot commodity.
The product received over 40,000 views on Tmall within 48 hours of her gold medal match, and its transaction volume on the platform soared 2,000% year-on-year.
Swimming has been making waves as well among Chinese consumers, buoyed by the golden performance of Pan Zhanle in the 100m freestyle and team relay.
Between his first gold medal win on Aug. 1 and his second on Aug. 5, sales of water sports products rose nearly 40% year-on-year, according to Tmall data. Views of Pan’s dark-tinted Speedo goggles doubled and sales grew nearly 150% on the brand’s Tmall flagship store.
From Head to Toe
Chinese shoppers are also drawing inspiration from the sartorial choices of Olympic athletes and coaches to enhance their closets.
A Nike shirt worn by Zheng’s coach as he cheered her on—dubbed the “only gold medal t-shirt” by Chinese netizens—was viewed over 20,000 times on Tmall within 48 hours of her win, and more than 4,000 people placed orders.
Likewise, a pair of shoes favored by springboard diver Quan Hongchan also experienced an uptick in interest.
The bright yellow McDonald’s co-branded Crocs recorded a 56-fold rise in views on cross-border platform Tmall Global between July 23 and Aug. 4 compared with the 13 days prior.
Even toys are getting in on the action.
A paddle-shaped plushie, the product of a collaboration between tennis table gold medallist Fan Zhendong and toy brand Jellycat, saw its sales soar 1,425% over the same period on the platform.
