Fifty-plus brands join Shanghai sports market event
Chinese social commerce platform Xiaohongshu hosted a sports-themed “market” inside the 2,000-seat Shanghai Culture Square live performance venue between April 29 and May 1.
The event celebrated the emerging “urbancore” trend, which champions a more low-key and casual approach to outdoor sports-inspired dressing, less technically-driven than "gorpcore", that is suitable for a variety of everyday urban activities, ranging from the daily commute to walks around the city and travel further afield.
Over 50 brands participated, including Puma, Salomon, New Balance, Hoka and Levi’s, all of whom joined in under the market’s “try on first, then go workout” tagline. Activities such as brand and influencer-led cycling, skateboarding, golf, rugby, spikeball and games of frisbee, still very much on-trend among local urbanites, were all on offer, as was an open-air disco and experiences centred on artisan coffee.
The platform, which recently upgraded its livestreaming arm, made a special effort to spotlight related digital content as part of a parallel online campaign which ran between April 22 and May 3. According to reports, the hashtag #UrbancoreSportsMarket brought 730,000-plus views to Xiaohongshu alone, representing a significant chunk of the 1.6 million views the trend has tallied up on the application since first gaining traction in the market.
