China’s leading sportswear brand is now in Sri Lanka courtesy of DSI. ANTA Sports Products Limited is a professional sportswear company headquartered in China since 1994 and is involved in the innovation, design, research, development, manufacturing, marketing and retail of sports equipment. In 2013 ANTA was named the “Best Chinese Brand 2013” for the fourth consecutive year by the leading brand consultancy Interbrand.
ANTA Sports always focuses on a mass market-oriented brand positioning. The Company has been the strategic partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee for two consecutive Olympic cycles, and NBA superstars, including Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Luis Scola, Chandler Parsons, Klay Thompson endorsed the ANTA brand and products. ANTA’s brand equity and professional image have been enhancing through these exclusive sponsorship resources together with effective marketing strategies. In addition, the Company emphasizes product differentiation and continues to offer value-for-money products by strengthening its product innovation as well as research and development capabilities.Over 20 revolutionary footwear and apparel technologies such as A-Jelly, A-Silo, A-Glow Tech, Super Flexi and A-UV Fight have been successfully launched with the aim of providing consumers value added professional sports products featuring both functionality and design.
ANTA is dedicated to the application of sports science and innovation in the development of high performance, comfortable sports shoes, apparel and accessories. In 2005, the company established the ANTA sports technology laboratory, which became the first sports technology lab in the sports industry. In order to meet the needs of the international market, ANTA has constructed an international design team made up of designers from China, USA, Italy, France, Belgium, Japan, Korea and other countries.
D. Samson & Sons (Pvt) Ltd is the main marketing and distributing sector of the DSI Samson Group and one of the largest retail networks in the country that provides footwear, accessories and apparel to the local customer. They are the sole distributor of local footwear brands; DSI, Ranpa, Samsons, Jessica, Silviar, Waves, Beat, Supersport and AVI while also distributing international brands such as Reebok, Puma, Fila, Clarks, Liberty, Umbro, Florsheim, Redtapeand Proline Fitness. The network of the organization spans more than 200 company outlets, 4000 dealers and 50 sales representatives island wide. ANTA products are now available at all DSI Premier, DSI XClusive, The Origin and other selected DSI showrooms.
ANTA is one of the world’s most innovative brands with its own unique style and strategy. The company’s value was summed up to USD 3.87 billion and became the 5th largest sporting goods company in terms of market value. It is indeed an enormous advantage for the Sri Lankan sportswear market to have such a brand in the country.