Heilan Home collaborates with Pan Zhanle: When Chinese men's clothing meets the world champion at the summit.

Although the Paris Olympics have come to an end, the spirit of champions continues.

On December 11, post-00 athlete Pan Zhanle officially became the spokesperson for the Chinese men's clothing brand HLA. Nowadays, this "Chinese Flying Fish" who shone in the Paris Olympics with two gold medals and one silver medal, has once again landed a significant endorsement.

As is well known, the abstract tone of a brand often requires a spokesperson who fits to concretely present it.

In the official announcement image of HLA, Pan Zhanle, wearing a red stand-up collar shirt, echoes the color of the Chinese sports delegation's medal ceremony uniform, highlighting the champion temperament of Chinese athletes. At the same time, with the "Chinese Red", he demonstrates the heroic and dashing spirit engraved in the genes of Chinese men's clothing.

Pan Zhanle - a name known for speed and strength, has become an era symbol for Chinese youth to express their value and attitude. This is not only because he has the championship record of breaking the world record in the 100-meter freestyle, but also because his unique personal traits have gained a lot of resonance and followers in the new era of the Internet society.

One is a national clothing brand with a history of more than twenty years, and the other is a post-00 athlete who broke the world record on the global competitive stage - when the top men's clothing brand meets the world champion, how does Chinese men's clothing interpret the "champion aura" of the new era?

How does the new era's 100-meter swimming "flying fish" define the new image of Chinese youth?

The idols of Chinese young people have changed.

From Quan Hongchan who performed the "water splash disappearance technique", to Sun Yingsha who declared "I want to be the big devil", and then to Zheng Qinwen who won the first Olympic tennis singles gold medal for China, as the post-00 sports stars step onto the global competitive stage, Chinese young people have also ushered in the idols of the new era.

Compared with the traditional athletes in the past, these post-00 athletes, in this stage of the booming social media, have attracted countless fans with their endless witty remarks and video clips.

This is why athletes like Sun Yingsha, Fan Zhendong, and Zheng Qinwen, who have unique personal traits, can appear on the covers of fashion magazines that were mostly occupied by film and television stars and top supermodels in the past. Whether it is their appearance, viewpoints, or competition results, they can trigger rounds of dissemination and discussion in the era of Internet fan economy.

In fact, Pan Zhanle, who appeared on "Fashion Magazine" with his strong muscles, also received overwhelming exposure from the media in this year's Paris Olympics.

From the "complaining-style" interview that frequently made it to the trending list after breaking the world record in the 100-meter freestyle, to the forceful response to the unethical media's questioning about the disappearance of his abdominal muscles, and the domineering statement "Reporters should not only look at our abdominal muscles, but evaluate us based on our achievements" - this "Chinese Flying Fish" with a natural trending physique, hopes that the outside world can pay attention to his competition results.

You should know that the two gold medals he won for China in the Paris Olympics were extremely hard-won.

One is the gold medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle event.

On August 1, Pan Zhanle broke the world record with a result of 46.40 seconds. For the Chinese athlete who broke the historical record in a new event for the first time, this gold medal broke the "curse" that the yellow race is not good at the 100-meter freestyle.

Just like the men's 100-meter sprint in track and field, the men's 100-meter freestyle is also regarded as the most challenging and competitive event in competitive swimming.

If the whole world knows Jamaica because of "Lightning" Bolt and his legendary speed in the 100-meter sprint, then the 20-year-old "Flying Fish" Pan Zhanle, who broke the hardest-to-break world record in 46.40 seconds, has made the world re-recognize China.

Not only did Australian swimming coach Brett Hawke be amazed, but even Riccardo Crivelli, the special correspondent of "Gazzetta dello Sport" in Paris, exaggeratedly commented: "The whole world is surrendering at the feet of this cold-blooded Chinese athlete. The 'Flying Fish' is rewriting history."

The other one is that on August 5, Pan Zhanle, who refreshed his 100-meter result with 45.92 seconds, led the Chinese team to the highest podium of the men's 4×100-meter medley relay final of the Paris Olympics.

You should know that this is the first time that the Chinese swimming team has won the Olympic gold medal in this event. It can even be said that Pan Zhanle led the Chinese team to break the gold medal monopoly of the US swimming team in this event for more than 40 years.

As a new generation of Chinese athlete, Pan Zhanle has made the Chinese swimming team stand up straight in this event where it was not previously one of the strong ones, breaking through the suppression from strong opponents by breaking multiple world records in the swimming events of the Paris Olympics.

This spirit of facing difficulties and daring to break through actually comes from Pan Zhanle's early "natural rebelliousness".

As early as 2014, when he was less than 10 years old, he won 7 gold medals at the 15th Zhejiang Provincial Games and even made the bold statement "It's enough to be faster than Sun Yang". Now it seems that this "big talk" is not just youthful arrogance.

Because as early as 2022, the famous American coach Mark Schubert, who believed that the Chinese were not competitive in the 100-meter freestyle event, once suggested that Pan Zhanle switch to the 200-meter medley.

But no one expected that in the Doha World Championships in February 2024, Pan Zhanle not only won the extremely valuable men's 100-meter freestyle gold medal, but also helped the Chinese team win three relay event gold medals.

Just as the witty remark he once said in an interview, "The more others say I can't do it, the more I want to show them that I can."

From graduating from Wenzhou Sports School to winning 7 gold medals at the 2014 Provincial Games; from entering the Zhejiang Swimming Team in 2018 and being coached by Zheng Kunliang, who once coached Sun Yang, to sitting on the bench as a spectator in his first world competition in December 2021; from winning four gold medals in a single Doha World Championships, setting a new record for the Chinese men's swimming team, to shining in the Paris pool and winning two gold medals and one silver medal - about ten years have passed, and Pan Zhanle has experienced the transformation from a spectator to a world champion.

The reason why he can become the era idol of Chinese young people is not only because of his excellent achievements of continuously breaking records, but also because his courageous, hardworking, straightforward and humorous attitude towards life resonates with every young person.

From "The championship is ours, and those who are not satisfied should be others" to "Those who look down on us, we have defeated them today", this independent, free and easy, hardworking and positive attitude towards life has become the mainstream value of the new era young people.

For traditional domestic brands, a national-level world champion who is young, has excellent competition results, and can also trigger the resonance of Chinese youth's values, is the most suitable choice for a spokesperson.

When the leading brand in the Chinese men's clothing industry meets the world champion of the new generation of Chinese athletes, the "champion closet" created by HLA for Chinese men's clothing is concretely demonstrated on Pan Zhanle, the "Chinese Flying Fish" of the new era.

The vitality of the national brand Always believe in the power of young people

In traditional brand communication, brands often chase after traffic stars, trying to quickly increase their own exposure and sales with the help of their huge fan base. But traffic does not necessarily mean sales. The two-way pursuit after the spokesperson and the brand find a fit is the mainstream consensus today.

This is the significance of commercial endorsements, to convey the brand's unique values through the image and attitude of the spokesperson.

Especially for top brands, in the cruel business competition, they often need to match the image of "crushing opponents with strength" and "the born winner temperament", so as to implant the image perception that a top brand should have in the minds of the general consumers.

This is why as early as before the Olympics, from Ctrip to Nongfu Spring, from Didi to Mentholatum, top brands in various fields have been "betting" on Pan Zhanle in advance. The extremely valuable men's 100-meter freestyle gold medal that Pan Zhanle won at the Doha World Championships in February 2024 is the best decision basis.

As a rising star in the swimming world, the commercial value that Pan Zhanle has as a spokesperson is expected.

On the one hand, swimming, as a highly anticipated top sports event, has a very high status in the Olympics. It not only has an early origin, which can be traced back to the life skills that people gradually mastered for survival in ancient times, but also is a sport that produces a large number of gold medals and is highly valued by various countries, which invest a lot of resources to cultivate excellent swimming athletes;

On the other hand, it is Pan Zhanle's unique personality attitude, active online image, and the growth potential of only 20 years old. But the most important thing is that he continuously breaks through the target limit in swimming competitions and achieves self-transcendence - this upward and enterprising value attitude also represents HLA, as a national brand with more than twenty years of history, continuously innovating itself to go through the cycle.

Twenty years ago, HLA started from the first store on Zhongshan North Road in Nanjing; twenty years later, HLA has developed into a leading brand in the Chinese men's clothing industry, with nearly 6,000 stores nationwide.

In the past twenty years, the Chinese clothing industry has not only experienced the rise of new business models such as Internet e-commerce platforms and mobile payment, but also crossed the rise of domestic products triggered by the boost of national confidence in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Even though the social economy and consumption trends are constantly changing, HLA always takes "people" as the origin of everything and accompanies the national public with good clothing.

From once bearing the era label of "The closet for men" to becoming a super national brand that resonates with the emotions of hundreds of millions of people, the reason why HLA has been able to continuously occupy the leading position in Chinese men's clothing in the past more than twenty years is that it continuously follows the trend of the times to iterate its image and design, only to interpret the brand spirit of "Creating clothing with vitality".

On the one hand, in recent years, it has hired young athletes or stars with extremely unique personal traits like Pan Zhanle and Zeng Shunxi, taking the initiative to approach young people; on the other hand, it closely follows the trend of popular culture, deeply explores designs that can evoke the emotional resonance of the national public, and cooperates with inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to launch a national creation series of clothing with traditional craftsmanship, allowing Chinese traditional culture to return to the mainstream vision of young people.

In a sense, the collaboration between HLA, the leading brand of Chinese men's clothing, and Pan Zhanle, the Olympic champion who broke the world record, interprets a new look for Chinese young people: Be your own champion, whether in the arena or in life.