Tanboer submits application for Hong Kong IPO—how can a county-level down jacket brand break into the "outdoor" market?

```

With the domestic outdoor track continuing to heat up, another local brand is riding the wave to enter the capital market.

Chinese down jacket brand Tanboer has recently officially submitted its IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Tanboer originated from a county-level city under Weifang, Shandong, and was founded by Wang Yongping before the millennium. The company was once listed on the New Third Board in 2015, but due to brand aging and lackluster growth, it voluntarily delisted in 2017.

The rise of the outdoor trend and the popularization of online live streaming channels have brought a turning point for this veteran enterprise.

In recent years, Tanboer has actively pushed for brand rejuvenation and category expansion, not only employing younger spokespeople to reshape its target customer base but also fully deploying its online sales system.

In 2024, Tanboer achieved revenue of 1.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28%, ranking seventh in the Chinese professional outdoor apparel industry with a 1.5% market share, and fourth among domestic brands.

In the first half of 2025, revenue growth further accelerated to 84.83%, with online sales achieving a doubling in growth.

However, like many brands that rely on channels and short-term market winds, Tanboer also faces practical questions behind its growth—

After the wave of temporary marketing investment recedes, can high growth be sustained? Can the improvement of brand power truly support a breakthrough in its product pricing?

Winning Online

Down jackets, born for extremely cold environments, naturally have deep outdoor genes.

Skiing, mountaineering, and hiking are all ideal scenarios for the combination of outdoor and down wear. In recent years, down jackets and shell jackets have shown a trend of functional integration.

For example, Bosideng’s "Polar Series" launched in 2018 already began to use the top fabric in shell jackets, GORE-TEX, and the "three-in-one" style with a down liner and shell exterior has gradually become mainstream in the market.

This has brought development opportunities to domestic down brands like Tanboer.

In 2022, Tanboer upgraded its brand positioning to "outdoor quality lifestyle brand," with its strategic focus gradually shifting from winter down jackets to all-season, multi-scenario functional apparel.

The recent rebound in growth is largely attributed to the proactive expansion of online channels.

From 2019 to 2024, China’s professional outdoor apparel online retail sales grew from 22 billion yuan to 52.8 billion yuan, with a CAGR of 19.1%, significantly higher than the 13.9% growth rate of outdoor all-channels and less than 5% for overall apparel.

To seize the online opportunity, Tanboer actively improved its digital business layout, setting up its own live streaming centers in Hangzhou and Qingzhou, and cooperating with multiple MCN agencies and KOLs.

Tanboer’s online operations team has reached 272 people, more than a quarter of its total employees, fully responsible for store operations, platform cooperation, and live sales.

In the past three years, Tanboer’s online revenue increased from 226 million yuan to 626 million yuan, with the proportion rising from 30.9% to 48.1%.

In the first half of 2025, the share of online channels further increased to 52.7%, surpassing offline for the first time.

In terms of growth rate, Tanboer’s online retail sales in 2024 grew by more than 80% year-on-year, the fastest growth among China’s top ten professional outdoor brands.

However, this did not create a significant gap with competitors—Pelliot followed closely with a growth rate of 79%, and Kailas, Montbell, and other brands also grew by nearly 60%.

With the change in development model, Tanboer is facing multiple operational challenges:

An increase in the proportion of online sales has led to greater return pressure; by the end of 2024, Tanboer’s refund liabilities reached 13.11 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48%, higher than the revenue growth rate during the same period.

The previous offline store structure that was concentrated in lower-tier cities in North and East China has begun to fall out of sync with the pace of the brand’s upgrade.

From 2022 to 2024, Tanboer terminated cooperation with 152 inefficient or lower-tier city distributors and closed some self-operated stores with low operating efficiency or poor locations.

As of the end of June 2025, the number of regular stores dropped to 568, a decrease of 40 from the beginning of the year.

At the same time, discounts and promotions for offline channels caused the gross margin in the first half of 2025 to drop to 54.2%, down nearly 6 percentage points year-on-year.

Additionally, to enhance brand influence, Tanboer has in recent years actively invested in marketing, frequently appearing at fashion shows and, within a year, sequentially signing three celebrities—Huang Xuan, Zhong Chuxi, and Zhou Ye—as brand ambassadors.

The intense market promotion drove up sales expenses; in 2024, Tanboer’s sales expense ratio reached 39%, nearly 6 percentage points higher than Pelliot.

Although the two brands have similar gross margins, the relatively high sales expenses directly impacted Tanboer’s profitability.

In 2024, Tanboer's net profit margin was about 8.2%, more than 5 percentage points lower than the previous year, while Pelliot’s net margin reached 16% in the same period.

Unfinished Ambition

Although Tanboer has taken a key step through category expansion and channel transformation, to truly gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive Chinese outdoor market it still needs to further clarify its positioning.

From a strategic perspective, Tanboer intends to make its sports outdoor series the core growth driver, promoting overall revenue through diversified scenarios of wear.

In 2022, Tanboer launched a top outdoor series designed for skiing, high-altitude hiking, and polar expeditions, with prices ranging from 999 to 3299 yuan.

As of the first half of this year, the performance of this series remained weak, contributing only 4.6% of revenue and even showing signs of average price decline.

In comparison, the urban light outdoor series contributed about 70% of revenue and became the absolute mainstay, with total sales reaching 9 million pieces.

According to Xin Feng’s check of the Tmall flagship store, Tanboer's top three best-selling products are short down jackets in the 300-600 yuan price range, without any connection to outdoor scenarios.

This dependence on the affordable series presents challenges for the brand’s upward breakthrough and also reflects that Tanboer still lacks a deep-rooted professional outdoor product image in consumers’ minds.

Tanboer claims that more than 90% of its professional outdoor apparel uses nylon fabrics, on par with international brands like The North Face, Canada Goose, and Moncler, and the price of nylon yarn is 2 to 2.5 times that of the standard polyester mainly used in the industry.

But in the key material area for outdoor gear, Tanboer has yet to establish its own patented technology system.

From 2022 to 2024, Tanboer’s R&D expenditure as a percentage of revenue dropped from 3.5% to 2.8% year by year, showing a declining trend.

To address the lack of professional and high-end product lines, Tanboer plans to strengthen its portfolio by acquisitions or by launching high-end sub-brands, and is actively exploring global possibilities.

However, ambitions for M&A, brand marketing, regional expansion, and peak season stocking all require continued financial support, and Tanboer’s funding pressure is showing.

Affected by the industry's seasonality, Tanboer usually purchases raw materials for cash in the first half of the year and prepares inventory for sales peaks such as the Double Eleven shopping festival in the second half.

In the first half of 2025, Tanboer recorded a net operating cash outflow of 90 million yuan.

At the end of June, the company only had 26.01 million yuan in cash on hand, while inventory value reached as high as 931 million yuan, with turnover days climbing to 485.4 days, equivalent to nearly 16 months of inventory.

With the above operational and financial pressures, the urgency for seeking IPO funding is understandable.

What is controversial, however, is that shortly before submitting its prospectus, Tanboer declared and paid out a dividend of 290 million yuan to shareholders.

Tanboer had never conducted external financing before, and the company has a strong family governance background.

According to its equity structure, the main shareholders are Wang Lili, her son Wang Runji, Wang Runji’s aunt Wang Hong, and grandfather Wang Kaiyuan, among other family members, holding shares jointly through several entities.

Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in the outdoor market, if Tanboer wants to truly gain a firm foothold, it still needs to implement more practical actions that can win market trust.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account the special investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their specific situations. Investing accordingly is at your own risk. ```