The Michelin on the soles

Michelin, the French tyre maker, decided to let the "tyre man" representing its image appear on Chinese-made sneakers. "We're going to make sneakers grip stronger and more wearable," he said.　　Michelin Lifestyle, managing director of the Michelin Lifestyle company, Aili Hikkeban (Elie Chkaiban) The tone of the sentence, like a TV commentator who evaluates the performance of the F1 car. Pedal sneakers have become a way for people to show their fashion outside the arena, and the scramble for a fashionable race has been fought--in China, where there are more than 200 sports shoes, everyone wants to win the favor of consumers.　　Now Michelin came in again. Li Ning Co., Ltd. (2331.HK) will, for the first time in its 18-year history, allow the trademarks of other companies to coexist with their red-deformed letter "L"--the company provides a unique rubber formula for Li Ning, a specially designed pattern, and a small piece of blue-white "Michelin configured"　　Identify。 At the beginning of March, Li Ning and Michelin jointly announced the news of the cooperation. Michelin Lifestyle Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Michelin Group.　　This is the first time Michelin has cooperated with Chinese sporting goods manufacturers. In China, the target consumer of basketball shoes is usually the athlete, they pursue the outstanding product performance. However, the sneaker manufacturers will not ignore the large number of basketball enthusiasts demand, the majority of the domestic outdoor basketball courts are cement floor, the need for more wear-resistant sneakers and better safety protection. "The rubber formula for indoor and outdoor basketball shoe soles is completely different.　　Said Jianxin, chief operating officer of Li Ning Company. Michelin was originally a factory that made bicycle tires. One day in April 1896, Andrew Michelin The shape of a bicycle tyre, and said to the founder of the company, his brother Edward Michelin, "Look, if it has an arm, it's like a man!" "From then on," Mr. Michelin tires was born.　　In the following more than 100 years, Michelin gradually developed into the world's leading automotive tire manufacturers, the company spared no effort to promote the "tire man" image, from a regional brand in Europe to become a world-renowned brand.　　The Michelin group launched its brand Extension program in 2000 and set up a Michelin lifestyle company aimed at creating an "emotional connection" with Michelin users to enhance their brand image, value and attractiveness through new consumer products other than traditional tyre products. Michelin, the first to apply tyre technology to sneakers, was a partnership with the French Babolat company in 2003. Pauli is one of the world's most famous manufacturers of tennis rackets and badminton rackets, but there were no tennis shoes, and they wanted to work with Michelin to make tennis shoes. "At the first technical meeting, the teams of two companies were talking in completely different languages-they came from two completely different areas-tennis and tires," Aili Hikkeban told Caijing Weekly, "and now heLike a team, they have been working closely together for five years. "Cooperation between the two sides has driven five series of tennis shoes products, Michelin technology so that the performance of the tennis shoes has been improved." Through laboratory tests and comparisons with other brands, Michelin's unique rubber formula has increased the abrasion resistance of the hundred-ball tennis shoes by 40%. Now, the company has become Europe's leading tennis shoes brand, for many ranked front of the male and female tennis stars to provide shoes to wear.　　In the 2005, Roddick, who sponsored tennis shoes and tennis rackets for tennis player Andy Roddick, attracted more ordinary consumers with the help of the star effect. For Michelin, working so closely with third-party companies to share their technical expertise can be a breakthrough in the Michelin tradition.　　Aili Hikkeban said Michelin France's research and Development Center has never disclosed its technical secrets to third-party organizations, and its technical cooperation with Peregrine is "an innovation in Michelin culture".　　Subsequently, Michelin has cooperated with the world's leading sports brands such as Umbro football shoes, Everlast boxing shoes and Cornilleau table tennis rackets, and "Mr. Michelin tires" has also spread the fashion trend along with these products. The Michelin Lifestyle company has adopted a franchise approach and is not involved in the production of specific products.　　Michelin provides technical and brand licensing for Li Ning sneakers, and Li Ning is responsible for the production and sale of sports shoes developed by both sides, and then pays the technology and brand fees to Michelin according to the sales of these sneakers. Michelin brand expansion is mainly aimed at auto parts sports and leisure products. Now, Michelin has gradually made its "franchise" plan perfect. Michelin's technology and "tyre mister" are used in sports and leisure products such as auto parts, tennis shoes, football shoes, table tennis rackets, skating shoes, golf clubs and personal accessories. As of 2007, Michelin Lifestyle Company has developed 75 franchise partners globally, licensed products through more than 30,000 large retail chain outlets and tens of thousands of independent retailers to sell, brand expansion of operating income of more than 200 million euros (about 300 million U.S. dollars). [Page] Although the contribution of the Michelin Lifestyle company is a very small amount of data relative to the Michelin group's annual sales of 16.8 billion euros.　　But from its profit model, this should be a good performance return. For now, Michelin's rubber formula and tread pattern experts have moved into Li Ning's sneaker factory to develop the most suitable lines and rubber formulations for a basketball shoe and cross-country running shoes.　　The two sides have identified a one-year development plan, according to the product preset time to market, will be completed according to the plan development progress. In China, Michelin's brand expansion program has just begun. The partnership with Li Ning is the first time Michelin has shown its "French lifestyle" to consumers in China through sneakers and leisure products. Li Ning Company in a total of 5676 domestic retail outlets, arewill become the "Michelin Tyre man" window that attracts users of non-automotive related products. The initial contract term of both sides is to 2011 years. "The sales of sneakers are the final criterion.　　"Aili Hikkeban said. The first contact between the two sides began in 2006, when a business representative of Michelin Lifestyle company came to China and offered to discuss cooperation with Li-ning company. The two sides saw the benefits of cooperation and soon reached a cooperative intention, but it took a long time to sign an agreement out of caution.　　Li Ning, the company's public relations company, said Li Ning's UK headquarters with Michelin lifestyle, as well as Michelin's Chinese companies in Beijing and Shanghai, "often hold conference calls to discuss details". In Shanghai Nanjing East Road, Li Ning flagship store, already can see a price of 289 yuan of white sports shoes. The sneakers have not been transformed by Michelin, and it is only a "celebratory version" of the launch to announce a partnership. Before the two sides announced a public partnership in early March, the sneakers had been put into more than 5,000 retail outlets in the country to preheat the market.　　Li Ning said that sports shoes containing Michelin technology would have to be based on research and development to determine time-to-market. Michelin has long been known for its professional tyre manufacturing technology. But for Michelin, although shoe soles are also rubber products, it is a challenge to apply tyre technology to sneakers-both touching the ground, but with very large gaps in pressure and friction;　　Whether sports shoes are popular or not depends largely on how users feel. "Sometimes you can just copy the tread pattern to the sole, and sometimes you need to constantly modify it until the pattern is applied to the soles," Aili Hikkeban said. However, because of the requirements of different products, tire patterns can be used very little. When the manufacturer presents the design requirements and provides the relevant data, Michelin experts will first use computer technology to simulate the most suitable pattern, and then according to the pattern to determine the rubber formula of the soles. After the initial testing in the Michelin internal laboratory, the rubber formula and pattern design will be provided to the cooperative manufacturer, which produces a small number of products. Both sides will test the produced sneakers and sometimes send them to independent third-party professional laboratories.　　Finally, the tested sneakers are tried by seasoned athletes, constantly adjusted to the feedback, until all the required performance is achieved. Michelin and Li Ning use the same process. The sneakers will be sent to the Sports physiology Laboratory of the Chinese University of Hong Kong for machine testing and human comfort testing, said Miao.　　Li Ning began working with the lab in 2004 to conduct biomechanical testing of its sneakers and build a Chinese database of foot-type. At present, the Michelin lifestyle of nearly 70% of the turnover from auto parts, sports and leisure business accounted for only 15%.　　Starting in 2008, Aili Hikkeban said, sports and leisure operations will become the business focus of the company.In Michelin's more than 100-year history, it suffered two world wars, undergone a difficult transition, and numerous fierce competitions. "Thinking innovation" is regarded as a good way to maintain fighting power in traditional industries.