China’s marathons ditch foreign brands amid Xinjiang cotton boycott

Several marathons in China’s major cities have abandoned foreign brands that had incited outrage on Chinese social media for their discriminating stance against Xinjiang’s cotton, including Adidas and ASICS.

The organizers have replaced the brands with local ones as the provider of the runners’ resources such as t-shirts, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Shanghai Half Marathon, which had originally appointed Adidas as the provider of the players’ resources, told its players on Wednesday that there will be no costume issued at this event, a player told the Global Times on Friday.

The Global Times learned from volunteers and players of the Xi’an Marathon, which is due on Saturday, that the organizer has replaced their one of their brand partners ASICS with Xtep, a Chinese sportswear brand.

ASICS was ditched by Wuxi Marathon, which was held in Wuxi of East China’s Jiangsu Province on last April 11.

Although none of the event organizers gave the specific reasons for replacing Adidas and ASICS, it is widely speculated that it’s due to the companies’ statements that they will not source cottons from Xinjiang.

Adidas has been subject to a wave of boycott in China after making statements discriminating cotton from Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. And the Japanese brand ASICS also enraged Chinese people for its double crossing moves on the issue.

China’s domestic brands are emerging as stronger competitors to global brands and may eventually replace them as major sponsors, Zhang Qing, CEO of Key Solution Sports Co, told the Global Times on Friday.

“In selecting the sponsor for a public sports event, it is key to consider the brand’s reputation,” Zhang said.

“When brands like Nike and Adidas have offended the public’s feeling, they are not likely to be chosen to represent the event,” he said.