NBA Set To Launch Fleet Of Stores In China

Forbes:

The National Basketball Association stepped up its marketing efforts abroad, authorizing a Chinese private company known for its audacity in launching China’s first privately run airline to help it promote its name and paraphernalia through the establishment of 2,000 branded retail outlets across China.

Even though NBA branded merchandise has for years been sold by all sorts of sporting goods stores, an exclusive retail chain bearing the famous 3-letter acronym is a departure for the league, which maintains only one retail outlet in the entire United States, a 35,000-square-foot, 2-floor emporium on Fifth Avenue in New York. That store celebrated its tenth anniversary this year.

But China, where the NBA has earned a following second only to that in the United States, represents a unique temptation. The move to establish a China retail franchise came after NBA formed a separate Chinese entity, NBA China, in January this year. The league sold 11% of the preferred shares in the new venture for a total of $253 million to 5 outside strategic investors: the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN; Bank of China Group Investment; China’s Legend Holdings, the holding company for Lenovo; the Li Ka Shing Foundation, controlled by Hong Kong’s richest man; and China Merchants Investments, an affiliate of China Merchants Bank. A flagship store in Beijing will open in August, just before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics.

The marketing partner chosen by NBA on Monday to roll out the retail chain in China is the JuneYao Group.