The foreign trade of sporting goods in Tongzhou district, Nantong, Jiangsu province, has shown a clear resurgence due to people's recent increased focus on health.

Last year, Tongzhou's sporting goods exports reached 250 million yuan ($37.77 million), a 23.7 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.

At Jiangsu Caitong Textile Technology Co Ltd, hundreds of workers are busy producing spring and summer outfits for 2024. "These 40,000 T-shirts are for the Chengdu Marathon, and they will be shipped in the next few days," said Ge Jun, the company's deputy general manager. The company's order backlog extends to May.

Caitong Textile has been in the garment production business for over 20 years, and has been taking overseas sports apparel orders since 2005. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, domestic sports brands like Li Ning and Xtep began outsourcing orders to Caitong Textile, marking the company's shift in focus towards sports apparel.

Ge Jun said that the company has always focused on sports apparel production due to its belief in the potential of this niche market. The company has also established its own outdoor sports brand.

Located in Liuqiao town, Changkang Sports Technology (Jiangsu) Co Ltd is a new enterprise that started operating in Tongzhou in 2020. Its parent company is based in Shanghai and has been producing and selling inflatable rafts and other water sports products for 11 years.

The company is one of the oldest Chinese sporting goods manufacturers specializing in inflatable rafts for water parks, with its products having a global market share of 50 percent.

"We can produce three to four hundred different types of inflatable rafts, with 90 percent of our products sold in the European and United States markets," said Tan Yongping, general manager of Changkang Sports.

"With the increasing emphasis on sports and leisure among young people in China, I believe that domestic demand for water sports products will increase in the future," Tan added.

Inflatable rafts produced by Changkang Sports Technology (Jiangsu) Co Ltd. [Photo/Nantong Daily]