8 NBA stars come to China and want to meet Curry to spend 1,299 yuan to buy products first. Under Armour and Adidas use the "recharge meeting" to fight against Anta and Li Ning

This summer, China seems to have become the NBA's "offseason home court". According to incomplete statistics from reporters from "Daily Economic News", in less than two months, eight NBA stars, including Morant, Curry and Edwards, visited China one after another, with their frequency and scale far exceeding previous years.

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NBA star China tour is no longer just a simple "fan meeting" or "brand sales yard". From Under Armour (NYSE: UAA) joining forces with the Chongqing local government to create a drone show + urban painting around the "Curry China Tour" to To To Bo (06110.HK) as a dealer in-depth participation in planning and execution, NBA star China Tour is evolving into a win-win system that integrates brand marketing, urban promotion and dealer strategies.

Behind the intensive start of NBA stars in China, it is another collective counterattack by international brands such as Nike and Adidas in the Chinese market when facing the rise of Anta and Li Ning.

The dual-line layout of "superstar + new star" must meet Yao Ming when he comes, and for more than 40 years, the "NBA Star China Tour" has gradually established a complete business ecosystem.

According to the "2025 NBA Global and Chinese Market Analysis" report released by the Forward Industry Research Institute, as the largest overseas market in the NBA, China has even surpassed the United States in the scale of fans, with a valuation of related businesses as high as US$5 billion, covering multiple sources of revenue such as copyright, events, sponsorship and franchise.

In the past, NBA stars in China were mostly limited to single forms such as brand store debuts, fan meetings or training camps. Today, Star China Tour has formed four mature models: brand endorsement promotion, commercial organization cooperation, urban cultural and tourism binding, and public welfare project participation (such as "Yao Fund" etc.).

In recent years, NBA star China Tour has continuously broken through the traditional marketing framework and shown a significant trend of commercial upgrading. In August 2023, NBA star James Harden broadcasted goods on Douyin platform live, selling 10,000 bottles of wine in five seconds, and the number of live viewing on Weibo was as high as 270 million times, highlighting the explosive monetization ability brought by the integration of "stars + short videos".

The reporter noticed that during this year's NBA Star China Tour, the brand adopted a dual-line layout strategy of "superstar + new star". While continuing to invite top stars such as James and Curry, it increased the proportion of new generation players such as Morant and Edwards. This new and old dual-track strategy not only reflects the new ideas of international brands to cope with fierce competition in the Chinese market, but also shows that their localized marketing has entered a new stage of fine-grained and cross-generational reach.

"The NBA star is full of water, and Yao Ming is a tough match." This year, after many stars including Curry, Gordon, Edwards and others arrived in China, they all met with Yao Ming public or privately.

This is not accidental.

From the former chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association to the current chairman of the Yao Foundation, Yao Ming has always been deeply involved in the event organization and public welfare undertakings of Chinese basketball. Most NBA stars in China still need support or coordination between youth training, charity games and other aspects involved in the Basketball Association. Yao Ming has also become an indispensable bridge connecting the NBA and Chinese basketball with his unique identity and influence.

Curry brought tens of millions of yuan in three days, and international brands used star IP to fight against Anta and Li Ning. Judging from the situation this year, Curry's Chongqing trip in August was the biggest game among them.

Brand Under Armour broke the traditional NBA star tour model and adopted a new form of training camp + trendy exhibition. He no longer check-in tours in multiple cities like the previous star, but focused on one place and carried out a three-day event.

According to the official news of Under Armour, the tickets for the Curry China Tour are divided into early bird tickets and regular event tickets. Among them, early bird tickets need to purchase a brand-name product of over 999 yuan before you can get one day ticket; regular tickets need to purchase a designated product of over 1299 yuan or 1699 yuan.

For three consecutive days, the Curry training camp scene was packed and the atmosphere was warm. Officials have announced that there are 7,500 tickets for the event that will be launched during the regular event period. Based on the minimum threshold of 1,299 yuan, the brand sales will be nearly 10 million yuan in three days. The in-depth participation of the Chongqing Municipal Government and the cultural and tourism department has become a highlight of this trip to Curry China. During the event, the local area carefully planned a series of creative content such as 5,000 drone aerial performances, night tours of Liangjiang cruises and monorail train theme paintings, making this trip to Curry China beyond the scope of general commercial activities and upgraded to a highly integrated urban brand marketing event. The event not only brought direct economic benefits to Chongqing, effectively driving the growth of local tourism, catering, accommodation and other consumption, but also relied on the influence of sports superstars to significantly increase the city's international exposure.

This trip to Curry in Chongqing can be said to have created a win-win situation for stars, brands and cities.

Compared with superstars, the new generation of stars often adopts a multi-city tour model, with a relatively streamlined scale and focuses more on in-depth interaction with fans, such as training camps, small-scale meetings, and creating topics through social media.

For example, this Edwards China Meeting organized by Adidas adopted this model, and the admission tickets also adopt the "goods for purchases" method. Any Edwards designated product that costs over 888 yuan can receive a free ticket.

In the view of sports industry observers, facing the strong rise of domestic sports brands such as Anta and Li Ning, foreign giants represented by Nike and Under Armour are relying on their long-term resource accumulation in the NBA field to launch a precise "high-end counterattack" through the Star China Tour.

Financial report data shows that international brands are currently facing growth pressure. In fiscal 2025, Nike's annual revenue fell by about 10% year-on-year to US$46.3 billion, the first annual decline in recent years. The revenue in Greater China fell by 13%, and both footwear and clothing products experienced double-digit declines.. Under Armour's revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 fell 4% year-on-year to $1.1 billion, and has not reversed the weak sales trend despite a sharp narrowing from $305 million in the previous year.

In the face of challenges, international brands are adjusting their strategic direction. Nike launched the "WinNow" plan and the "SportOffense" strategy, emphasizing the strengthening of brand differentiation in the core sports field; Under Armour is committed to increasing brand premium through high-end products and innovation. Both of them regard creating popular single products in the market as a key breakthrough to drive growth.

Under this background, NBA star China Tour has surpassed the scope of traditional "selling tour" and upgraded to a three-dimensional marketing campaign that integrates brand power, product power and experience. With top star IPs such as James and Curry (brand symbols with huge commercial value), international brands directly drive sales through limited-time consumption and ticket-free models, and also use the influence of superstars to convey professional and high-end brand image to consumers, reshape market voice, and establish differentiated barriers with domestic competitors from the "brand height".

This brand marketing, focusing on the behavior of NBA star China, has become one of the key strategies for international brands to maintain their market dominance.

The role of dealers has changed: From the channel to the "in-depth trader" of the star China Tour "compared to the past 'only providing venues', this year's cooperation with the brand is more in-depth. We have participated in the entire process of planning and execution of the NBA star China Tour store station." The Tobo revealed to the reporter of "Daily Economic News".

As the most important retail partners of Nike and Adidas in the Chinese market, Tobo has participated in five NBA star tours this year. In addition to the previous tours of Morant and Harden in China, he will also participate in the tour of James China, which will be launched in September.

海海 told reporters that his role has changed from the past passive provision of venues to the comprehensive dominant store link design, event planning and implementation, such as fan meetings, signature sessions, and the integration of local cultural elements.

Harden checked in to Adidas store in China and interacted with fans on site. Pictures

After becoming Nike's CEO, Donaho accelerated the promotion of the direct sales channel priority strategy. Nike's competitors quickly occupied the vacant dealer shelf space: Adidas, Puma... A large number of running shoe brands suddenly found themselves gaining more exposure, many of which were sports upstarts, such as HOKA, On Amps, etc., which once eroded Nike's market share in its most important category.

In October last year, after Nike's new CEO Elliott Hill took office, he made it clear that he would repair his relationship with dealers. At the end of last year, Hill visited China and one of the stops chose to meet Nike's core dealer in China.

In the Chinese market, Nike mainly opens brand stores through dealers such as Tobo. Since the establishment of a cooperation between Tobo and Nike in 1999, Tobo has been Nike's largest retail operation partner and customer in China (based on purchase amount). According to Tobo Financial Report, Nike and Adidas, as their main brands, contributed more than 85% of total revenue for many years.

"Good brand, naturally good sales." In Taobo's view, participating in the NBA Star China Tour event not only directly stimulates ticket and limited product sales, increases store customer flow, but also continuously strengthens Taobo's strategic position as a core dealer of Nike and Adidas. From Nike's perspective, restoring and deepening relationships with dealers is a key step in its global strategy.

Insiders in the industry told reporters that this business model has achieved stable profits. From the brand, operator to the dealer, each link has undergone accurate revenue calculations. "No one is doing business at a loss. Today's trip to China is a win-win situation."