2026 Young Textile New Consumption Annual Strategy: Building on Quality Supply, Strength Wins in the End

What brands, retailers, and marketers need to know about China’s next wave of lifestyle led spending

A new upgrade story: consumers are not “trading down”, they are trading towards proof

In 2026, the most reliable growth is not coming from louder discounts or faster trend chasing. It is coming from products that earn belief quickly, products that solve a real problem, fit naturally into daily routines, and feel worth repeating.

That is the report’s central thesis: in a slower growth, stock based market, the next upgrade will not be driven by financial exuberance or price inflation. Instead, it is powered by quality supply, brands that identify emerging needs and build experiences that consumers actively choose.

For marketers, this changes the playbook. The job is no longer to simply “position” a category; it is to redefine everyday items into must have solutions, and to scale that belief through the right scenes, communities, and conversion moments.

Wellness becomes routine: sports and outdoor shift from hobby to habit

China’s sportswear and outdoor market is entering a new phase of maturity, broader, more specialised, and increasingly tied to identity. The report estimates China’s sports footwear and apparel market at RMB 598.9 billion in 2025, and forecasts it will reach RMB 896.3 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, the camping economy’s core market is projected at RMB 248.32 billion in 2025, showing how “outdoor” has evolved from niche to lifestyle.

Participation frequency underscores this change: 48.33% of consumers take part in outdoor activities two to three times per month, while 30.62% do so once per month. Outdoor has become part of the rhythm of modern life.

Outdoor demand is now amplified by travel and holidays. Many purchases are not about extreme sports. They are about better living: weekend escapes, city walks, light hikes, social camping, and light outdoor wardrobes that work from office commute to countryside relaxation.

Brand implications:

• Sell the routine, not the product. Build wardrobes and collections around commuting, weekend hikes, and light outdoor living, not single purpose gear.

• Treat holidays as demand accelerators. Link campaigns to spring outings, summer trips, and National Day travel peaks, but keep the story grounded in function and comfort.

• Turn community into conversion. User generated content, route guides, and real world proof can build credibility and accelerate purchase decisions across social platforms.

  
  

Emotional consumption, but scalable: IP becomes a social resonance engine

Emotional value is not fading. It is becoming more structured. Zhongtai’s report defines IP and cultural creative products as resilient emotional categories capable of turning individual feelings into scalable consumption through social interaction, shared resonance, and repeatable collect share repurchase behaviours.

The winners are not brands that rely on one hit product, but those with a broader IP portfolio, stronger localisation strategies, and an ecosystem that extends beyond single items. Most importantly, the report highlights social as the most effective multiplier of emotional demand: social interaction enables shared meaning, turning niche passions into community identities, and those identities into market momentum.

This model is replicable. Emotion creates desire, social resonance scales it, and ecosystem touchpoints sustain it.

Brand implications:

• Design IP as a social product. Build for shareability, collectability, and repeat engagement, not just aesthetics.

• Build an IP portfolio and cadence. Reduce dependence on one character or collaboration; sustain heat with steady releases and varied expressions.

• Plan for breakout growth. Win within niche communities first, then expand through cross platform resonance.

• Global expansion means local recreation. Adapt content, language, and rituals for each market instead of exporting one universal model.

  
  

The healthy desk era: ergonomic upgrades move from premium to mass adoption

Ergonomic chairs exemplify the everyday upgrade logic: they turn a background need, long sitting comfort, into a mainstream, health driven purchase. The report estimates the global ergonomic chair market at over RMB 800 billion in 2024, with China’s market expected to reach RMB 22 billion in 2025.

What makes this market unique is how education and evidence drive adoption. Consumers do not buy ergonomic chairs for fashion. They buy because the pain point is clear and solvable. Domestic brands have made these features accessible, pulling the price band down from mid thousands to low thousands of RMB, accelerating mass penetration.

It is a rare category where content equals conversion. Demonstrations, comparative testing, and long term use evidence consistently outperform abstract product descriptions.

Brand implications:

• Upgrade from seeding to proof. Use relatable scenarios such as work, study, and long sitting to show real improvements and credibility.

• Bundle the desk scene. Combine chairs with cushions, lighting, footrests, and desk organisers to form a complete desk health kit that drives basket growth.

• Own return to work and back to school moments. These are natural buying peaks; align campaigns with new year, mid year, and academic cycles.

• Reframe mass adoption as empowerment. Tell the story of professional comfort becoming accessible, where functionality meets affordability.

K shaped spending, symbolic value, and the resilience of premium experience

Consumer spending power is increasingly K shaped. Even amid a cautious macro environment, premium demand is not declining uniformly. It remains resilient where symbolic meaning and experience led value are strongest.

High net worth intent data supports this divergence. Luxury goods show a higher willingness to increase spending among high net worth consumers at 33.3%, compared with 24.3% among the middle class. Travel remains the top spending category for this group, with 46.8% of high net worth respondents planning to increase their travel budgets.

Brand data also confirms uneven but improving trends.

Burberry recorded comparable sales in Greater China shifting from a 5% decrease in the first quarter to a 3% increase in the second quarter, while adjusted operating profit turned from a 41 million pound loss to a 19 million pound profit in the first half of 2025.

Moncler reported third quarter revenue of 616 million euros, a 1% decrease year on year, but with sharp regional differences. Asia, accounting for 45% of revenue, was flat year on year. The Americas, accounting for 13%, increased by 5%. EMEA, accounting for 42%, decreased by 4%, attributed to weaker travel spending.

Offline premium experiences are returning as key demand drivers. Taikoo’s flagship properties illustrate this: Shanghai HKRI Taikoo Hui reported a 41.9% increase in retail sales in the first three quarters of 2025, while Qiantan Taikoo Li maintained 98% occupancy and achieved continued positive sales growth. These results reinforce that premium recovery depends on strong brands, curated scenes, and experiential spaces, particularly during travel seasons and destination retail windows.

Three signals matter for brands and retailers:

• Who is increasing spend is clearer. High net worth consumers remain more willing to invest in luxury and travel.

• China’s recovery narrative is strengthening. Demand in Greater China has improved since mid 2025, restoring confidence in the region’s consumption outlook.

• Offline experience is essential. Premium consumers seek tangible, immersive experiences to validate brand and value perception.

  
  

What brands should do next:To translate these signals into action, brands should prioritise targeted segmentation and experience led planning across content, commerce, and travel linked moments.

• Segment strategies by spending power and intent. Separate messaging and conversion pathways for high net worth and mid market consumers.

• Turn experience into content. Design VIP services, destination collaborations, and exclusive retail events for both on site conversion and digital storytelling.

• Use travel and festivals as premium multipliers. Golden Week, Chinese New Year, and summer travel are high impact periods for limited editions and elevated services.

• Lean into destination channels. High end malls, airports, and urban retail hubs are regaining strategic importance as premium consumption becomes experience driven once more.

Going global, and going vision first: the next channel shifts

Two structural shifts stand out in Zhongtai’s outlook for 2026.

First, supply chains are moving outward. After years of intense domestic competition, China’s manufacturing competitiveness is now fuelling international expansion. The report highlights substantial overseas substitution potential, for instance in nonwovens for personal care, offering new growth headroom for export led businesses.

Second, AI smart glasses are emerging as a lifestyle platform. These devices combine technology and daily convenience, with use cases such as real time translation, navigation, teleprompter assistance, and scan to pay functionality. This integration of hardware and scenario makes vision first commerce a potential new frontier for retail and marketing.

Brand implications:

• Travel retail becomes smarter. Translation and navigation overlays can shorten the journey from discovery to purchase, especially in airports and tourist retail.

• Prepare for micro moments. Product education will increasingly occur in motion and in context, not just on product pages.

• Make content machine readable. Structured product data ensures visibility and discoverability across AI powered platforms and interfaces.

Overall conclusion

The 2026 opportunity is not a single trend, but a repeatable set of demand creation mechanisms: quality supply that earns belief, scenes that make products feel inevitable, wellness that becomes routine, emotional value that scales through social resonance, and K shaped spending that revives the importance of symbolic and experiential consumption.

Brands that align product innovation, content ecosystems, and seasonal commerce moments will be best positioned to capture the next wave of lifestyle led growth in China’s evolving consumer landscape.

Reach out to our team for more insights. We can help you turn market direction into a practical 2026 plan that aligns product, content, commerce, and seasonal moments.