VIVICYCLE's first national flagship store opens in Hangzhou, marking the first stop of the "100 Stores in 100 Cities" plan | The Frontline
The sports market continues to boom, and one more player has entered the arena.
On May 25th, VIVICYCLE, a new light - sports lifestyle brand curated by the couple Liu Genghong and Wang Wanfei (Vivi), officially opened its first national flagship store at Hubin Yintai IN77 in Hangzhou. This also marks the official opening of VIVICYCLE's first offline store in the country.
Founded in 2022, the VIVICYCLE brand focuses on providing light - sports lifestyle products for women. The brand adopts an affordable pricing strategy. Except for the winter down jacket series, the average price of its product line remains below 200 yuan, with the maximum not exceeding 400 yuan.
Notably, the Liu Genghong couple's decision to enter the sports consumer goods field comes at a crucial time when the domestic sports consumer market is being reshaped. Consumers are becoming more rational, and the halo effect of international brands is weakening, creating an excellent market opportunity for emerging domestic brands.
The first national flagship store of VIVICYCLE
It is understood that the opening of VIVICYCLE is also the first stop of the brand's "100 stores in 100 cities" strategy. The next store of the brand will be opened in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. A store in Shanghai is also in the planning. The brand's person - in - charge told us that the offline expansion goal of VIVICYCLE in 2025 is to "cover 100 directly - operated and franchised stores".
"We expect that offline channels will contribute 35% - 40% of the annual revenue in 2025. Especially in the middle and later stages, through means such as community fission and private - domain conversion, offline channels will become an important engine for the brand's stable growth."
In April 2022, Liu Genghong unexpectedly became popular with a unique "fitness live - stream wearing down jackets". Subsequently, with his original "shuttlecock exercise" set to Jay Chou's classic song "Herbalist Manual", he quickly swept across the entire Internet, triggering a large - scale national fitness movement on the Douyin platform.
Liu Genghong and Wang Wanfei at the press conference
Behind this phenomenon - level popularity is an amazing data growth curve: the in - live - stream income from the virtual currency "yinlang" in his live - stream room soared from 260,000 (about 26,000 RMB) on April 10th to 2.4 million (about 240,000 RMB) on April 19th, achieving nearly a ten - fold explosive growth in just ten days. The number of viewers in a single live - stream even exceeded 15 million.
The secret to the success of this fitness craze lies in: the highly contrasting down - jacket look created a communication highlight; the "shuttlecock exercise" combined with Jay Chou's classic music accurately reached the young group; and the concentrated release of home - fitness needs during the pandemic jointly contributed to this fitness cultural phenomenon in the social media era.
This popularity not only redefined the business model of online fitness but also provided a solid traffic foundation for Liu Genghong's subsequent sports brand layout. Of course, Liu Genghong himself is not an ordinary person. He was not only a singer, songwriter, host, and actor but also Jay Chou's personal fitness trainer. He also served as a coach for variety shows such as "Come on, Get in Shape" and "Lose Weight for a New Life". After his fitness live - streams became popular, many celebrity friends and internet influencers such as Zhong Liti, Ying Cai'er, Chen Haomin, and Wang Yuexin came to his live - streams and took group photos.
However, it is not new for celebrity influencers to transform into brand operators, but few have succeeded. Chen Zhe, the deputy general manager of Ruxing Group, emphasized to us that the greatest advantage of VIVICYCLE may not be Liu Genghong. The brand's advantage lies in its strong focus on the light - sports needs of "women over 25", avoiding the red - ocean market targeting men or advanced sports, and targeting a large - scale group that has been ignored by traditional brands.
Store furnishings
"Essentially, VIVICYCLE's positioning is to find a middle ground between 'the brand image of Lululemon' and 'the cost - effectiveness of Taobao's white - label products', which combines a sense of quality, content, and price. It uses the content - driving power of celebrities to enter the light - sports scenario and ultimately grows together with consumers."
It is worth mentioning that while international sports brands are starting to emphasize "in China for China", VIVICYCLE has already differentiated its products at the regional level. Chen Zhe further introduced to us that a series of locally - featured SKUs have been developed for Hangzhou, considering its climate, urban culture, and consumer taste preferences, including commuting vests and light - compression shaping pants more suitable for urban scenarios. In the future, more quick - drying and breathable fabrics will also be developed to better adapt to the weather in southern cities.
From the influence of its online IP to the real - world establishment of offline spaces, VIVICYCLE is leveraging its three - dimensional advantages of "content + product + experience" to build a new - generation light - sports lifestyle brand in China.