Almost everything written about Nike that week looked backward. The reset has the right pieces, centralizing the marketplace and localizing product, but perception lags the fix and the margin for error has vanished.
Read on LinkedIn →We advise international brands on Asia, and Asian brands going abroad. Most of it sits in China, Korea, and Japan. The judgment comes from having run brands in this category.
Event-led takes go out on LinkedIn first. Longer cases sit on Substack and Medium. These three are from September 2026, the stretch since the last newsletter essays.
Almost everything written about Nike that week looked backward. The reset has the right pieces, centralizing the marketplace and localizing product, but perception lags the fix and the margin for error has vanished.
Read on LinkedIn →Athletes were penalized for pouring water on their heads to cool down. After what happened on the floor, the thread asked whether those penalties still stand. Same rules for everyone.
Read on LinkedIn →Shanghai staged NikeSkims and Alo openings within 48 hours, half a kilometer apart in Jing'an. Once the red carpet lights go off, the two strategies diverge.
Read on LinkedIn →Wei Kan, founder of Conduit Asia, a sports and lifestyle brand strategy consultancy, is a regular named source on China consumer and sport markets. The placements below are only the most recent. The full record runs longer, across the outlets listed underneath.
“The people setting the pace are the ones who built it. Whether they can hold that when the investors want growth is the open question.”
“My read is [that Nike] is trying to regain pricing power online.”
Named source throughout the FT’s Qiaodan profile, describing the growing clout of Chinese sportswear brands as “a permanent change” in the market.
“It all goes back to how the consumer perceives what kind of value they want to get from a shoe.”
“This is the right thing to do, especially at this moment. Otherwise, the consumer will always expect the discounted Nike product.”
Cited on how local brands build their campaigns around China’s domestic running calendar and win local racers on price.
“Calls to switch to domestic brands tend to be loud and short. The cost that matters is the slower one, a loss of the brand affection Lululemon has been building.”
Founder Wei Kan is quoted on China consumer and sport markets by Jing Daily, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Nikkei Asia, the BBC, Footwear News, and Het Financieele Dagblad.
Journalists and producers: for comment or background on China consumer and sport markets, write to wei.kan@conduitasia.com.
Our clients are brand and commercial leaders.
Most engagements start with one bounded question, answered in writing. The work can grow into a market briefing, a standing retainer, or a full market activation programme. Conduit Asia leads the strategy and regional partners deliver it.
See how engagements work →Institutional investors and research firms consult us on category structure and on the reality behind reported numbers.
Media come to the same ground. The work runs as scheduled consultations or as commissioned analysis.
Read published work →Conduit Asia advises sport and lifestyle brands on Asia. We also publish analysis on the category for institutions and media.
The practice was founded in 2024 by Wei Kan. He ran marketing for Converse across Asia and built categories at Nike Greater China, over twenty-five years in Asia-Pacific brand marketing. His full record is on LinkedIn.
Client work is confidential and is not discussed publicly. What appears here rests on established analytical frameworks applied to information that is publicly available.
Conduit Asia is the trading name of Conduit International Limited, registered in Hong Kong. We work from Shanghai.
Published work draws only on public information and established analytical frameworks. It contains no confidential client information and no non-public information from former employers. Conduit Asia does not provide investment advice and does not issue ratings on securities.