Key takeaways
- Adidas has given its outdoor business in China a new local name, Shanchuanli, rather than giving Adidas Outdoor a literal Chinese translation
- The move targets consumers moving between technical sport, weekend escapes and city life
- Early online reaction suggests the poetic name is memorable — if occasionally mistaken for a restaurant
Adidas’ rebrand of its outdoor line follows a trend we’ve been covering with interest at Dao for several years: localisation. This isn’t in the superficial pandas for Chengdu, the Great Wall for Beijing kind of way. It’s bigger. Foreign brands are pushing their Chinese side in much richer ways. Adidas has been great at this.
The name implies free movement between city life and nature
Adidas is on good form with this rebrand, too – a China-specific identity for its revamped outdoor business. In China, it will now be known as Shanchuanli (山川里). The new name succeeds Tanrui (探锐), the Chinese name used for adidas TERREX since 2017. It implies free movement between city life and nature. That’s a powerful concept for China’s active urbanites.
The city without, the mountain within
Shanchuanli combines mountain (山), river (川) and li (里) – literally meaning ‘within’. In Adidas’s interpretation, li represents a relaxed state of being among the mountains and rivers. People can run, climb, explore, but also take time to pause, camp, meet friends, and return to urban life.
To convey that idea, Adidas created a campaign film. There are trails and tents, but also coffee shops, convenience stores and relaxed downtime. The intention is to carry TERREX’s technical credibility into a broader lifestyle proposition, spanning specialist outdoor activity and everyday wear.
That makes sense in a sports-lifestyle market now developing in two directions. Running and cycling pull toward the technical with messages of trimmed lap times and detailed product specifications. The other pulls technical clothing – outdoor hiking and climbing gear, for example – towards mainstream urban culture.
Some brands are sitting in the middle. Helly Hansen recently poured a lot of effort into a Shenzhen activation built around a ‘from sea to mountain’ theme: a cruise-based maritime experience followed by a Yangtaishan hike.
Adidas seems to be doing something similar. It has identified a sentiment: that some consumers want function and aesthetics, but aren’t necessarily motivated by hard-edged performance narratives. In that broader lifestyle market, a culturally resonant name may do more work than TERREX alone.
Some Chinese social-media users have said the name sounds more like a Yunnan- or Guizhou-inspired bistro than an outdoor line
The Dao view: Adidas has seized a perfect opportunity to localise with Shanchuanli
Shanchuanli has already prompted a degree of online teasing. Some Chinese social-media users have said the name sounds more like a Yunnan- or Guizhou-inspired bistro than an outdoor line, but this is arguably a good sign.
Online chatter is a strong mark that Chinese consumers are engaging with the rebrand. Engagement is one route to a meaningful connection, and that’s exactly what Adidas was chasing when it coined Shanchuanli.
A consumer in the current Chinese market is much more discerning than the one in the market of ten years ago. Foreign brands can no longer stick a Chinese name on a product line and expect it to sell. They’ll see skin-deep localisation for the pandering that it is.
Shanchuanli is a name that feels culturally native, rooted in a modern Chinese relationship with landscape and nature. With it, Adidas has shown it understands localisation in China needs more than a translated label or a campaign set against a familiar landmark.
