This sportswear DTC brand, which is positioned as "specially made for Asian women", opened 10 direct stores in two years from the first store in April 2065 to 438+09 in 2065, and five stores opened in the first half of 2026, with 5438+0.
The acceleration of offline stores is related to the brand's latest financing.
In June, 2020, 165438+ 10, Maia voluntarily announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan series B financing invested by Huachuang Capital. According to the brand, this round of financing is mainly used for product research and development and the further development of offline stores in first-and second-tier cities.
Two months later, on 202 1 1, Maia ACTIVE opened its first store in southwest China in Chengdu. In April, the first store in Nanjing opened immediately. In late May, the second store in Guangzhou was chosen in Tian Huan.
Prior to this, the brand obtained nearly 10 million Pre-A rounds of financing from Automatic Domain Capital and Datai Capital in June 2065438+2007; 2065438+In May 2008, 40 million yuan Series A financing was completed, led by Sequoia Capital and Chinese Culture, followed by Volcanic Rock Capital and Yuanji Capital.
In 20 16, Maia ACTIVE was established in Shanghai, and chose "Asian women's fitness clothes" as a niche market, trying to fight its way out in the market that has been carved up by established sports giants.
However, although most time-honored brands have established mature female product lines, there are still pain points in the market.
Wang Jiayin, co-founder and CEO of MAIA ACTIVE, told Interface News: "Because the figure of Asian women is obviously different from that of white women in many important proportions and data, the products made by traditional international brands are not the most suitable for China people, such as fitness clothes and underwear."
In the early days, Maia ACTIVE mainly relied on online channel accumulation, and it didn't start to attack offline until nearly two years ago.
Low rental cost and more efficient communication with consumers make DTC (Face to Face with Consumers) the first choice for startups focusing on niche retail market and open channels in recent years.
As for the target group, MAIA ACTIVE is currently dominated by the female market. In addition to joint brand promotion with women's designer brands, community marketing is also carried out by organizing topic activities.
Following the advertisement of "I'm not beautiful" in autumn and winter of 2020, in May this year, the brand invited real users to shoot a new promotional film of 202 1 spring and summer with the theme of "freely choosing she can".
Since opening its flagship store in Tmall, an e-commerce platform in 20 17, Maia has 746,5438+00,000 fans.
During this period, Maia took the initiative to hand over such a report card: in 20 19 years, the average annual growth rate of the brand reached more than 300%, and online sales exceeded 1 100 million RMB. The star products "small waist thin pants" and "Yungan pants" ranked first in the annual Tmall women's fitness pants.
With such explosive products, Maia ACTIVE has gradually gained a firm foothold. In 2020, the annual sales volume of Maia, which is active under the epidemic situation, will still increase by 60% year-on-year, with the sales volume in July-June+10% higher than that in October. 202 1 First quarter performance increased by 220% year-on-year.
In fact, 2020 is precisely the year of the outbreak of minority sports brands at home and abroad.
Allbirds, an American wool shoe brand, completed the D and E rounds of financing in succession last year, and is currently preparing for an IPO.
Almost at the same time that Maia ACTIVE got the B round of financing, another China sportswear brand Particle Fever also completed the C round of financing of 1 100 million yuan.
MAIA ACTIVE and Particle Mania are both challengers of lululemon, a famous yoga brand in North America, in the China market.
The difference is that the product line of particle fanaticism includes men's wear, and lululemon, which only made women's wear in the early days, now extends its product line to men's wear, sports shoes and other fields.
Although offline has become the focus of this stage, Maia ACTIVE does not want to open up dealer channels and immediately expand 50- 100 stores, because "this will widen the distance between us and consumers."
MAIA ACTIVE's next step is also worth pondering.
Talking about the most concerned issues at present, Ou Yirou, founder and design director, said: "How should the brand go in the next five years? When the future crosses 654.38 billion revenue, your guests will be completely different from today. At this time, some adjustments will be needed and preparations need to be made in advance, so I am thinking about such a problem now. "