People who "dress for the outdoors" are "killing" the outdoors.
Author: Wang Li
Editor: Wang Xiaokun
On the same land and in the same market, two companies have presented opposite mid - year reports.
On one hand, Toread is facing a "severe situation and internal pain", with its net profit attributable to the parent company plummeting by 74% - 81% year - on - year. On the other hand, Sanfo Outdoors is "selecting premium brands and making all - out efforts", with its net profit attributable to the parent company surging by 65% - 144% year - on - year. This contrast of cold and hot is not just about "operational differences"; it seems more like a signal: the growth logic of the outdoor industry has changed.
When the outdoor boom cannot benefit all participants equally, what exactly is the "hot" part of this outdoor trend?
The signals don't stop there. The Ski Industry White Paper shows that the number of skiers has been rising continuously since 2020, but the enthusiasm has not translated into a continuous consumption habit. In the 2024 - 2025 ski season, the average number of ski trips per person at domestic ski resorts has just reached the pre - Winter Olympics level of 1.91 times.
The camping trend is also cooling down. In the first half of 2024, Ctrip data shows that the relevant order volume decreased by 23.6% year - on - year. Snow Peak, known as the "LV of the camping industry", withdrew from Hangzhou in the summer of 2025. Taking a long - term view, from 2021 to 2024, the retail growth rate of outdoor products continued to slow down, which echoes the view on social media that "the three outdoor essentials have all crashed".
Meanwhile, the second - hand and rental markets are experiencing a warm current. The search volume for "outdoor equipment" on Xianyu has doubled. By the end of 2023, there were more than 4 million items available for rent on the platform every month, with photographic equipment and outdoor equipment accounting for the largest proportion.
@Self - made picture
From financial reports, industry data to consumer behavior, all clues point to the same conclusion: the number of people buying outdoor products has indeed increased, but the number of people using them repeatedly has not grown synchronously.
The decoupling of sales volume and usage frequency exposes the misalignment of the "outdoor boom" and gives rise to a paradox: those who "wear outdoor" are "killing" the outdoors.
The Traffic Competition
Before the unexpected event, the Chinese outdoor industry presented a sharp contrast: enthusiastic policies but weak growth.
As early as 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Fitness and Recreation Industry", and the State General Administration of Sports subsequently launched the development plans for "water, land, and air" outdoor sports. While policies were being rolled out one after another, the official also estimated that the total scale of the outdoor sports market in 2020 could reach 90 billion yuan, and a "golden age" seemed within reach.
However, the actual performance of the market was much calmer than expected. According to data from the China Outdoor Association, the scale of the Chinese outdoor market in 2018 was only 5.897 billion yuan, far from the target of 90 billion yuan. Although the number of people participating in general outdoor sports increased to 145 million, the growth rate of the retail sales of outdoor products declined for three consecutive years. This "sunrise industry" encountered a bottleneck before it could take off.
Image source: @IC photo
At the 2019 outdoor forum, industry insiders such as Huang Geng, the CEO of Biancheng Sports, believed that the core problem of the growth bottleneck was the shallow understanding of the outdoors among consumers. At that time, there was a consensus that only by relying on patient offline experiences and community cultivation could the consumption engine be ignited. The upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics was like a shot in the arm. The industry generally expected that this global - level event would activate tens of millions of potential consumers.
Unexpectedly, a "black swan" first solved the growth dilemma of the outdoor industry. Home isolation and health anxiety made consumers bypass the long - term market cultivation and leap directly into the desire for the outdoors. Overnight, the outdoors evolved from a hobby to a spiritual antidote.
Camping was the starting point of the boom. When people could only seek comfort and novelty within a limited geographical radius, urban parks and nearby mountains and fields became new emotional outlets.
From the beginning of 2021 to the middle of 2022, the number of "camping" notes on Xiaohongshu increased from 1 million to 4 million, and the cumulative playback volume of "camping" content on Douyin during the same period exceeded 27.4 billion times.
"The outdoors really became popular overnight." Lin Mingwen, the person in charge of the Arctic Fox brand on the front line, felt this most acutely. By the end of 2021, the number of people participating in general outdoor activities in China exceeded 400 million.
Subsequently, skiing, frisbee, paddleboarding, land surfing... a diversified outdoor sports landscape quickly spread across the country. Stimulated by the demand, the supply side grew explosively. As of September 2024, there were more than 177,000 outdoor - related enterprises in China, with 42,000 new ones added that year, a year - on - year increase of nearly 50%.
Image source: @IC photo
However, what really affects the trend of the outdoor industry is not the practitioners, but the Internet algorithm. It precisely amplifies emotions and hijacks the right to interpret the outdoors, distorting the real experience into a traffic competition.
Under the algorithm logic, a plain hiking trip is far less likely to get likes and attention than a well - retouched camping photo. The direct consequence is that a large number of "standardized visual tutorials" have emerged on social media. Taking camping as an example, a picnic is no longer just a mat and instant food, but has become a carefully arranged "outdoor living room". Everything, from brand tents, hand - brewing kettles to clothing and layout, follows a formula.
This activity that emphasizes experience has also become a "fashion game of buying the right things and taking the right photos".
The threshold for the outdoors has thus been rewritten. It is no longer about the accumulation of knowledge and experience, but has turned into a competition of consumption power and aesthetic imitation. Novices only need to follow the "photo - worthy list" to play the role of outdoor players, even if they have never ventured deep into the mountains and fields.
The Fashion Transformation
To understand this change, the most powerful reference is the workwear that emerged decades ago.
From handmade denim jackets that cost thousands of dollars in trendy stores in Tokyo and New York to mass - market workwear items on the shelves of ZARA and Uniqlo, the labor - specific clothing once exclusive to blue - collar workers now covers the entire fashion market.
This is not accidental but a style revolution that has lasted for decades. Fashion critic Bruce Boyer once pointed out: Workwear is a typical example of "upward mobility".
The turning point came after World War II. When American society was obsessed with the "suit - and - tie" corporate dream, the three - piece suit became increasingly dull and hypocritical. Intellectuals such as writer Jack Kerouac led the defection. They turned to cheap, durable, and function - oriented workwear to express their departure from the middle - class order and the consumerist system.
The media detonated this undercurrent. In the 1953 movie "The Wild One", Marlon Brando's leather jacket, jeans, and work boots firmly associated workwear with rebellion, sexiness, and non - conformity. Jeans have since transcended the definition of workwear and become the symbol of "cool" itself.
Image source: @THE CINEMA MUSEUM
When clothing combines spiritual core and visual impact, popularity is just around the corner. The student group then took over. With limited budgets and a desire for a differentiated style, workwear provided ready - made "fashion ammunition".
In the 1970s, designers such as Ralph Lauren pushed workwear onto the fashion stage. They used softer fabrics and elegant cuts to wash away the hard - work and rebellious connotations of workwear and transformed it into a fashionable symbol representing authenticity and simplicity. And they sold it at a high premium to the middle - class and elites who, although they didn't do manual work themselves, craved the "workwear spirit". Workwear gradually evolved into a new symbol of identity and taste, occupying the fashion high - ground until the next style wave arrived.
The rise of workwear reveals a fashion law: the popularity of clothing styles originates from function and is achieved through meaning.
Back in 21st - century China, outdoor equipment is repeating the development logic of workwear, and at a faster pace. With the help of the Internet, it has broken through the circle in just a few years.
It started with hardcore players. The professional equipment on them, is not just a tool but also a symbol of health, bravery, and self - breakthrough. This authenticity laid the foundation for the later popularity of outdoor clothing.
The desire spawned by the pandemic, magnified by social media, was accompanied by the simultaneous actions of major outdoor brands. They joined hands with celebrity KOLs to fuel the "outdoor boom". During the same period, a large number of enterprises and "white - label" manufacturers were involved in the boom, producing countless substitute products that only focused on design and had sufficient functionality. The market became even more enthusiastic.
Image source: @The North Face
Outdoor sports have also shifted from sports and leisure to a social show - off platform. The protagonists are the new generation of consumers. They grew up in an era of material abundance, chasing fashion trends and being more willing to pay a premium for self - expression and social symbols.
Wearing outdoor clothing no longer depends on where you are going, but on who you want to be.
A professional windbreaker worth tens of thousands of yuan is a "rational investment" in health and the spirit of exploration, and also means taste and status. It doesn't flaunt wealth as directly as luxury goods, but hides the social class behind "professionalism". It can prove consumption power and also claim an "expert" identity.
As Zeng Hua, the founder of Scaler, said in an interview: "Many domestic consumers are attracted to windbreakers by their functions such as rain and cold resistance. In fact, after buying them, they rarely wear them for their functions. The fashion sense and coolness brought by the style, color, and comfort, as well as the display of the 'persona' of loving sports and life, are the real reasons for most people to wear them."
Therefore, scenes of people wearing Arc'teryx while visiting cafes or posing for photos in the park in Salomon shoes are endless. On the Internet, a dressing style called "one bird, two trees, three roads" has also quietly become popular among civil servants.
Zhang Shaobo, the director who filmed documentaries about Gu Ailing and Su Yiming, once sighed on Xiaohongshu: "Among ten people, half are ski coaches, 30% are online influencers and photographers, and only the remaining 20% are consumers."
Image source: @Xiaohongshu screenshot
When the foundation of the outdoors is built on the WeChat Moments rather than the mountains and fields, consumerism erodes the outdoor spirit, and it's only a matter of time before the bubble bursts.
Perhaps some people optimistically believe that this is a necessary stage. They believe that the end of "wearing outdoor" is the beginning of "going outdoors". However, the reality is more cruel. In the contemporary era of scarce attention, the inertia of consumerism is far greater than the determination to explore nature. For most people, the likes on the WeChat Moments are already the end of a hiking trip.
The signs of the ebb tide start with the disappearance of freshness. When new entertainment options emerge, the social value of the outdoors will decrease. Then, there is the inflation of symbols. After Arc'teryx and its substitutes become popular on the streets, their scarcity disappears. Finally, there is the impact of the economic environment. When consumption decisions return to rationality, those who "wear outdoor" will quickly withdraw.
Ultimately, this "outdoor boom" driven by social and fashion factors will gradually cool down and shrink.
As the growth of the demand side slows down, the outdoor market is also accelerating its differentiation: those high - end brands with technological and cultural accumulations can still hold on to the high - value ground with their "authenticity" moat; while many mass brands that have survived the price war need to "break through to the high - end" and try to improve their brand image to escape the low - profit red ocean.
The Brand Divide
In an era of scarce growth, the outdoor industry was once regarded as a "blue ocean", but in the face of China's huge industrial machine, any blue ocean will quickly turn red.
Under the wave of the trend, almost all outdoor brands are caught in the same game: One hand must firmly hold on to technology and core products to strengthen the "moat" of their professional image; the other hand must reach out to the broader general outdoor market to turn this boom into real money.
Anta's strategy is