Li-Ning could contrast Nike in China?

Shares in Chinese brand Li-Ning rose 10.74% on the Beijing stock exchange in the past week. The growth in the brand's prices follows the 4.2% increase in turnover in 2020 (the only fashion company to record revenue growth in 2020 together with Hermes) and, as the Jing Daily reports, both would be the result of the current 'cotton crisis' taking place in China - explained here.

Against this background, it is thought that Li-Ning could exploit Nike's market problems in China to gain further popularity and take over, in terms of sales, precisely the place of the American brand. Shares in sports brands such as adidas and Nike fell after China blocked imports of their products, while Chinese brands raised their prices. Among other things, the chinese football and basketball sports federations, both sponsored by Nike, which according to FootyHeadlines, in private discussed potential legal actions against the American brand, also entered the discussion. 

Considering Nike's fall in China and li-ning's economic rise, is it possible that the Chinese brand could overcome the American brand in the Chinese market?  

Li-Ning (like Anta) is a brand that despite having worked a lot on its image (also in the Western world: both with the opening in 2010 of a store in the United States and with the sponsorship of two basketball stars such as Wade and Jimmy Butler) failed in China to surpass a giant like Nike. The Chinese brand proposes models at cheap prices and exploits, as far as possible, China's restrictions on Western brands - remember, for example, the controversy between the Brooklyn Nets and China after the New York team had publicly supported Hong Kong: the consequence was the cancellation of a franchise event in China. Given the current situation where Western players are momentarily out of the game, Li-Ning is trying again with new strategies.   

For example, the Beijing-based brand has signed a contract with Xao Zhan, frontman of chinese pop group X NINE, a boy band very famous in China. The brand immediately presented a collection with shooting of Zhan and merch promptly put up for sale: the result was the sold out of the garments after 25 minutes that the collection had been put online.

The operation seems to have been successful, but according to some, this one by Li-Ning would be a bubble. "This dose of patriotism is an excuse (for retail investors, ed) to come in and do some speculation. In a few days, share prices could fall again as investors return to fundamentals," Louis Tse Ming-kwong, chief executive of trading firm Wealthy Securities, told the South China Morning Post.