Shanchuanli: Key takeaways
- Adidas breathed life into Shanchuanli’s broad outdoor positioning at a recent launch event
- Shanchuanli expands Adidas’s appeal across competitive sport, recreational exploration and urban wear, while TERREX retains its technical role
- Adidas plans to open an initial eight standalone Shanchuanli stores
In July, Adidas announced it would be giving its outdoor line, TERREX, a new identity for the China market. The new name would be Shanchuanli (山川里) – a summing up of place, and of outdoorism as a lifestyle. Their recent Sichuan launch event tells us more about what Adidas wants Shanchuanli to be, and what it plans for the future.
The new name would be Shanchuanli (山川里) – a summing up of place, and of outdoorism as a lifestyle
The launch was experiential, with close to 100 guests and the options of a 4,000-metre summit challenge and horseriding. Archery was also involved, but those after a slower day could paint, learn to identify wild mushrooms or take a plant walk.
Guests showed as much range as the activities on offer. Olympic snowboarder Su Yiming (苏翊鸣) was there to represent competitive sport, while chef Shanyeli de Hengheng (山野里的哼哼) and botanist Gu Yourong (顾有容) brought food and nature into the mix.
All of this ties into what Shanchuanli is doing that TERREX couldn’t – it’s becoming a lifestyle brand. Adidas wants it to cover everything from competitive outdoor sport and recreational exploration to clothing worn around the city.
TERREX isn’t done for. It will remain a technical marker within the new identity, but it’s there to give the expanded lifestyle proposition performance credibility. The approach also turns outdoor consumers into a much broader category. Someone painting in the mountains, examining plants or eating local food belongs alongside the athlete pushing for those high peaks.
An initial eight standalone Shanchuanli stores will open across China
Adidas now plans to carry that into retail. An initial eight standalone Shanchuanli stores will open across China, with the first disclosed locations including Tianjin MixC and Beijing Heshenghui. A full-category outdoor lifestyle concept store is scheduled to reach Changchun Eurasia in November.
The Dao view: A bigger tent for the outdoors
Performance gives outdoor brands credibility, but lifestyle gives them scale. Shanchuanli lets Adidas keep TERREX’s technical reputation while selling outdoor clothing across many more occasions. A jacket can move from a mountain trail to a weekday commute, and now new customers can enter through sport, food, nature or fashion.
