Chapter 30 Chapter 9 Sunrise in the East (4)

"Li Ning" didn't know what the oriental element would bring, but he gradually began to understand what it was. Zhang Zhiyong once mentioned "Shanghai Bund", an international brand originating from Hong Kong and settling in Shanghai, in many interviews with the media. Its store is full of oriental elements, but the price is the standard of top fashion brands.Zhang Zhiyong's conclusion is: "Adidas and Nike are not the only ones capable of producing high-end sports products." Not only Chinese companies, but not only "Li Ning", multinational companies have also seen this trend.In the sporting goods industry, oriental elements have become a magic weapon for competition and often appear on basketball shoes of various world-class brands.Chinese characters appear on Reebok's shoes.In 2006, Nike invited Shanghai designers to design "Xiaolongbao" shoes for them, and launched the "Xun" series of products.Nike designers specially designed a new shoe called "James Four Generations-China Red" for the little emperor James. This shoe is limited to 4,500 pairs in the Chinese market. The emperor's color has become the concept and main element of Nike's design.In order to prove my comprehensive grasp of Chinese elements, except for the shoes themselves, the overall shape of the shoe box resembles the jade seal of the Chinese emperor.There is also a Chinese seal similar to Yuxi in the box, and the word "0086" representing the Chinese area code is also printed on the inside of the sneakers.In short, all the details reveal Chinese characteristics, which is called "the perfect fusion of American basketball shoe culture and Chinese classical culture" by Nike.

The challenge facing "Li Ning" is that it needs to be "more Chinese". "Great sounds are rare, but elephants are invisible. This is our design philosophy." Zuo Zhiyue used Lao Tzu's words as his opening remarks when introducing the Li-Ning sneakers in his hand, "Great wisdom is like stupidity, and great ingenuity is like clumsy." He tried to clarify the design The importance of the Chinese elements contained in this understanding is the biggest difference expected by "Li Ning". In terms of publicity, "Adidas likes to use the runway in its advertisements, emphasizing competition; Li Ning advocates running without rules, without a runway, and recognizes running as an experience of enjoyment, relaxation and freedom. Another example, international brands are usually run by top Athlete endorsement, pay attention to the display of various skills; but we choose O'Neill, want to highlight the basic skills, think that the basic skills are the victory mechanism." Wu Weiguo, deputy general manager of the marketing system of Li Ning Company, once described the essential difference between "Li Ning" and international brands to reporters.Because of these differences, in terms of sports expression, "Li Ning" is different from Nike, Adidas, and domestic Anta.

Li Ning himself admires Chinese culture. He started to learn Chinese painting very early. CCTV also broadcast a documentary about him and his Chinese painting teacher.In a roster of the history department of Peking University, Li Ning's name is lying - after graduating from the law department of Peking University in 2001, Li Ning was going to continue his studies, and he chose his favorite history department.Although in the end Li Ning did not study the history department due to various reasons such as busy work and the need to take care of his family in Hong Kong, this did not affect his love and exploration of Chinese culture.

There is no evidence to show that Li Ning, who only appears in the company once a year or even once, will have any specific suggestions or help for the "Oriental Elements" design this time.But it is conceivable that the founder understands and loves Chinese culture, and understands oriental elements enough to support various large-scale attempts within the company. Zheng Yongxian, Ma Xun and Zuo Zhiyue, the three main designers in the basketball design team of the special department that designed shoes such as "Flying Armor" and "Banpo", are all 100% local designers and are mainly responsible for the design of basketball shoes. Design work. "We are all 100% local designers without a bright background." Zuo Zhiyue said.But they have a relaxed working environment. Ma Xun, a designer who joined Li-Ning Company in 2001, said happily: "The special project only needs to design three shoes a year, and the time resources fully guarantee the quality of design and research and development." This practice is not new, as far back as ancient China. There is a similar "work system" - in ancient times, famous ceramic kilns or other handicraft workshops, the common practice is: there will be a few heavyweight master masters, and only a few pieces or even one high-quality goods need to be produced a year.Until now, this traditional art production rule is still preserved in some art production enterprises.Li Ning can clearly understand that what his brand needs are artworks, not fast moving consumer goods.Therefore, he can give these works of art the best production environment.

The Rise of a Great Power Needs Chinese Elements In the second half of 2006, the documentary "The Rise of a Great Power" aired by CCTV hit the air.For a while, everyone in China was discussing how to promote China's "rise of a great power". At the end of October 2006, the first "Chinese Elements" International Creative Competition at the Kunming China Advertising Festival introduced the concept of "Chinese Elements", advocating the use of ethnic techniques in advertising creativity to promote the rebuilding of national self-confidence.