Fila Secures Deal With China Tennis Open On Back Of 3x Growth

The deal will run from the event taking place right now, until 2021, and includes Fila launching a line of co-branded China Open apparel. The brand’s children line will also sponsor the outfits for ball boys and girls.

Yao Weixing, the CEO of Anta Group Fashion and Fila Greater China, said, “We hope that through this partnership we will help more tennis enthusiasts and sports rookies, and fully support and promote the development of China’s tennis industry.”

The deal does not replace any significant incumbent apparel partner: the event has seen Chinese brand Erke and Japanese (footwear) brand Asics sponsoring the event in recent years, but both were at a lower Supplier level position.

Anta Group Fashion parent company Anta Sports Products – which owns the rights to sell Fila goods in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau-  reported record 2019 half-year revenues of US$2.07b in August. The results were helped by strong sales of Fila goods, which the company has been marketing aggressively, particularly with celebrity endorsements.

This has also been reflected by Fila’s sponsorship spends in China which grew annually by over 3x from US$201k in 2017 to US$633k in 2018, despite the brand’s spends across the whole of Asia easing 18% from US$4.4m in 2017 to US$3.6m in 2018. Fila is currently owned by Korean, Gene Yoon, who bought the Italian brand in 2007.