Will China becomes surfing’s new frontier? Don’t hold your breath
Recently, Surfer Magazine ran an article by Jeff Mull entitled “Will China Become Surfing’s New Frontier: an emerging surf industry without any surfers“.
Well, my on-the-ground research to date has shown that the future of surf sales is not going to be China any time soon.
Having a few contests on Hainan does not equal breaking into the Chinese market and the potential “1.2 billion consumers”. The contests are hardly making any changes in surfing numbers and sales of surfing products on the island of Hainan. Have numbers of surfers and sales of surfing products exploded there? Well, no. There has been a small incremental change but that seems more organic than forced.
Yes, in China there are a few surfers on Hainan and in other places like Fujian, Hong Kong etc. The numbers remain very small. Anyway, the areas where surfing is taking place have relatively small populations. The vast majority of people don’t live near the coast and have no interest in anything to do with surfing or even know what it is.
If there is market growth I would put money on there being domestic brands that imitate and then over-run the foreigners, and make it hardly worth the foreign companies’ time persevering in the local market (see the Li Ning sport brand for a case study). Shanzai [imitation/copying] culture is still powerful in China and even celebrated. They took my FCS cover and copied it exactly and put their own label on it without even blinking, all within two weeks. Good luck to the brands wanting to crack the market when Shanzai culture trumps copyright, patents, etc.
Also, people in China tend to prefer domestic brands unless they are blue chip brands (see Gucci et al – but these appeal across a wider segment of the population and for different reasons). The surf brands have no ties to prestige and status here, at all. And purchasing for prestige and status is important here. Otherwise, it’s a matter of buying the cheapest to save money. That is, there is no recognised cultural capital attached to surf brands as there is in the West.
Further, the cultural context of China (responsibilities of single children due to the one child policy) will stifle middle-class young people having the lesiure time to pursue surfing and the culture and so buy surf products for some time yet. There just isn’t the leisure time for vast swarths of the population – even what some are calling the “new rich”.
Further still, the coastal cultures and environment here has been broken down to the point of being completely wrecked in most places, except in some very small areas. And those areas are subject to rampant commercial development for tourism, but not tourism as we know it – group tours and whereby the beach is one of a long list of things to jump off the bus and get your picture taken then back onto the bus. Even Hainan has been hammered in this regard. Most people who actually live in coastal areas are poor, working 7 days a week and struggling to even survive.
Further even still, interpretation of leisure and sport and participation in them is very different. Work and education take priority above all else due to the responsibilities to family etc mentioned earlier.
In other words, China is not simply the next frontier for surfing sitting there like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow like some people suppose and that surfing magazines like to keep suggesting.
Really, people need to go beyond Hainan (which is an exception to the rule). It is not appropriate to extrapolate from what is happening on one small island in China to the rest of this very diverse, complex, culturally different and huge nation. To do so makes it patently clear that the person doing such extrapolation doesn’t know what they are talking about.
Yes, I agree surfing will grow here (albeit slowly).
However, it is important to understand the context and be sceptical of the marketing consultant telling you there are 1.2 billion consumers here. Be wary, the reason why the 1.2 billion consumers line is trotted out is that middle-men want to suck money out of the companies wanting to get into this market and local officials can scam money out of government troughs.
There is a small crew (expats and locals) who have carved out small niches. But a surfing market on a grand scale? I wouldn’t be putting all my eggs in that basket.
You sound (again) definitely right, Clifton.
As for my own experience, i would add that, for cultural reasons, Chinese people in their majority don’t learn how to swim and don’t consider the ocean as a funny place to be.
That shouldn’t lead to an explosion of (the activity of) surfing anytime soon. Indeed there might be an explosion of (the business of) “surfing lifestyle” that could mislead a few victims to think that surfing in itself is easy.
Easy sport > ocean > can’t swim > drown.
Period.
Cheers, anyway
I would have to say this article is nearly spot on.
its screwey logic but i guess one aspect of the holy grail of demographic plenitude is you dont have to be a surfer or like the ocean to become enamoured in surfing paraphenalia. rubber booties for rice paddies, surf wax for votive offerings, go pro for rickshaws its endless really just another instance of warped marketing and the hunt for herds of cash cows
Clifton, Wish i could pass on your on words you know from being “on-site” to all the business owners in the States who eyes fill with $ signs when they discuss doing business in the Middle Kingdom!
Great write up Clifton! The “1.2 Billion potential customers” was the fatal flaw of the original article. Anyone with any business experience understands that market perspective is one of the most common business/startup mistakes. There might be almost 1.5 billion people in China, but a tiny fraction of them live on or near the ocean! And of those that do, how many of them have disposable income and time to surf? (But now I’m just repeating your arguments). A few “sharks” will sucker a number of “businessmen” into investing in the “hockey stick” growth of the surf industry in China because its a “sure thing.” Nothing against China, I’d love to have a go at their surf someday. But surf investor-buyer – BEWARE!
I return for a quick look and first thing i run into is once again surfing being confused with surfing Industry , why not take the angle that China is still an oppressive regime and stop buying products made in China and for surfers that means surf related products which now includes clothes boards and hardware Surf in China fuck that free the Tibet folks free TIBET
Surfing is not being confused with the surfing industry, however it is disingenuous to deny that the surfing industry has an influence on surfing and the points of overlap can be written about, analysed and considered so as to see how it is playing out. On your other points, one could easily counter: how about not buying Australian Made until the various mobs in Australia get their full rights and lands back? (Australia is an oppressive regime for some, USA is an oppressive regime, etc.) I ‘d argue, it is not simply a case of not buying products Made in China, surfing or otherwise. Do we punish everyday people for the decisions of governments? “Here, you starve and go without a job so I can feel good about my politics in another country thousands of miles away”. Isn’t that a simplistic way to deal with the problems associated with oppressive regimes as there are consequences for everyday people and in fact the regimes can even become more successful as people become more beholden to them for basic provisions (in fact, survivial)? Tibet has a long and complicated history of socio-political ties with China. Crying “Free Tibet” doesn’t tend to accommodate how doing anything real about it is far more difficult as one has to reckon with the heavily entwined and confused socio-political ties and the long history of them. Is Australia going to help with education, health care, etc if China were to step away? Who is going to be there to support the Tibetans? What of those groups in Tibet who don’t want separation? I agree, I believe China shouldn’t have colonised Tibet and that the situation should be fixed and the Tibetan people should be given their world back but writing “Free Tibet” and combining that with not buying Made in China surfing products isn’t the way to accomplish that.
Amate of mine workedover there fora while, boatbuider, and one fine day he was travelling through town when he came by a local fellow beating on his wife in the street. Solid kicks and punches, everyone looking on in the China way.
So he walked over and laid the bloke out with one king hit. He left the country not long after, too many to deal with he said.
Now that beats a Free Tibet sticker on the back of a ute.
why ?
guy was probably an off duty soldier .. whatever, he got the smack he needed.
Like some stupid copper on the Gold Coast strip?