Ding Shizhong is passionate about sports shoes. So much so that the self-made billionaire says that he sometimes wears up to three different pairs in a single day when trying out the newest designs from his company, the Chinese sportswear giant ANTA (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 2020-HK).
"My first jobs was in shoes and shoes have never left my life ever since," Ding tells CNBC's Managing Asia .
Ding says that ANTA began as dream he had when he was 16 to lighten his family's financial burden. He first began by selling shoes that his father made at home, eventually starting ANTA in 1994 as China 's planned economy was transitioning to a market economy.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics that were a key illustration of that transformation proved to be a mixed bag for the company. Sportswear brands benefited from the surge in interest in sports and the accompanying increase in purchases of sporting equipment and garb in China.
However, this collective optimism quickly led to an oversaturation in the local sportswear sector. ANTA soldiered through this slowdown in sales with a spate of store closures, shrinking its store count of 8,000 at the time by more than 2,000 in 2009. The company operates 7,000 ANTA stores today.
Nevertheless, Ding says this setback proved to be a catalyst that led to a change in ANTA's business operations. The company crafted a multi-brand strategy to engage the diverse Chinese consumer market and subsequently acquired Italian sportswear brand Fila's loss-making China arm in 2009. The strategy positioned the ANTA label as a mass market brand while Fila targeted the high-end sports market that ANTA had been unable to capture.
The company currently runs 600 Fila stores in China and Ding says his target is to hit 2,000 Fila stores in the future. Fila revenues have been growing at an average of 40 percent over the past five years.
Also part of ANTA's multi-brand strategy is its joint venture with the Japanese brand Descente (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8114.T-JP), which specializes in winter sports equipment and apparel.
The plan is to open 100 retail stores in China. It's still early days but Ding is confident the partnership will bolster earnings in the long-term. "[It] will take time to nurture a new brand so I don't think Descente's contribution over the next three years will be great," Ding says, "But after that, we'll see positive contributions to profits."
More acquisitions are in the pipeline. While no agreements have been made, Ding say that ANTA is keen to explore the outdoor and professional sports gear segments, including yoga and swimwear.