On 26 May, fans of the game Genshin Impact descended on Anta’s Sneakerverse in Sanlitun, Beijing for a co-branded pop-up event. The event is to celebrate the release of the hotly anticipated Anta x Genshin collaboration, sneakers inspired by two of the video game’s popular characters, Qiqi and Xiao.
The main event is, of course, the sneakers which both dropped on 24 May. One of them is a skate shoe based on the Aojie model and is restyled with inspiration from Qiqi, the jiangshi playable character with her lilac theme colour and Chinese style tassel, as well as a paper talisman-inspired detail on the tongue pad. A running shoe based on the Mach series has been modified to green and purple to reflect Xiao’s aesthetics with a glow-in-the-dark effect. Both sneakers come with stickers, a badge, an acrylic cut-out and a small plushie. WeChat users can also participate in an online quiz to win stickers.
The pop-up event itself involves cosplayers of both characters, for not only photo ops but also a quiz and posing challenges that can land participants folders for prizes. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Anta Genshin collaboration” (#安踏原神联动#) reached number 39 on the Hot Search list with 24 million views. Many Genshin fans feel the Qiqi-inspired Aojie is cute but the Xiao-themed Mach is hard to style for women, while most of his fanbase are female players.
Anta Sports announced its annual financial report for 2023 in late March. Revenue grew 16.2% year-on-year to 62.4 billion RMB (8.61 billion USD) with a gross margin of 62.6%. The sports giant has been moving towards a higher-end brand image with a greater global presence. The Sneakerverse concept store in Beijing also opened in March, just after the global phenomenon of the Kyrie Irving collab launch. The latest partnership with the international hit video game will likely further establish the brand as a global force.
