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This study aims to investigate Chinese young consumers’ brand loyalty toward sportswear products from a self-congruity perspective. With different performance observed between global and domestic sportswear brands in the Chinese market, this study also aims to examine the impact of country of origin on Chinese young consumers’ behavior toward sportswear brands.

A survey with street intercept method was conducted in Shanghai to collect data for this study. Multiple independent t-tests and structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrap method were used to test the hypotheses.

The SEM results indicate a significant influence of brand self-congruity on consumers’ brand association and perceived quality, which, in turn, influenced consumers’ brand loyalty. The multiple t-test results suggest a significant difference between Chinese and global sportswear brands in terms of consumers’ brand association and attitudinal brand loyalty. No significant difference was found in terms of consumers’ behavioral brand loyalty.

The main limitation of this study comes from the convenience student sample.

First, brands need to strategically design the brand image to represent the largest segment of the target market. Second, while global brands could focus on their pricing strategies, domestic brands need to focus more on maintaining a positive brand association in consumers’ mind.

This study contributes to the growing research on the self-congruity perspective of brand loyalty by empirically confirming the indirect effect of brand self-congruity on brand loyalty via the mediation effects of brand association and perceived quality in the context of the ever-growing Chinese sportswear market.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the personalities that are associated with sportswear brands and tests the applicability of Aaker's brand personality framework in the context of sportswear brands.

This study employed Aaker's brand personality framework to empirically investigate the personality of sportswear brands based on data collected from 420 college students.

Results revealed that consumers perceive seven distinct personality dimensions and 53 personality traits in sportswear brands: Competence, Attractiveness, Sincerity, Innovation, Activity, Excitement, and Ruggedness.

This research developed a valid and reliable scale that measures personality for sportswear products and confirms that consumers do associate particular brand personality dimensions with sportswear brands. The findings would help managers in the sportswear market better understand the image of their brand in the minds of consumers and better distinguish their brand from competing brands.

This paper aims to explore the personalities of sportswear brands and their relationship to brand equity using Aaker’s methodology in the context of sportswear brands.

This paper used Aaker’s brand personality framework to empirically investigate the personality of sportswear brands and the impact of brand personality on brand equity based on data collected from 420 college students.

Results revealed that the personality of sportswear brands can be described in seven dimensions and 53 personality traits: competence, attractiveness, sincerity, innovation, activity, excitement and ruggedness. The study identified that four dimensions among all the seven personality dimensions, namely, competence, attractiveness, Sincerity and innovation, are the positive and significant contributing factors to the creation and enhancement of sportswear brand equity.

This study makes an important contribution to the understanding of brand personality and brand equity in the context of sportswear brands. It confirmed that consumers do associate particular brand personality dimensions with sportswear brands, and certain dimensions of brand personality have a direct impact on brand equity. The study showed that not all brand personality dimensions have the same influence in increasing the value of a sportswear brand from a consumer perspective, some dimensions being more efficient than others. The findings provide insights as to what dimensions of brand personality would deliver the best result in today’s competitive sportswear market.

This study seeks to examine the practicality and applications of a customer‐based brand equity model in the Chinese sportswear market.

Based on Aaker's well‐known conceptual framework of brand equity, this study employed structural equation modeling to investigate the causal relationships among the four dimensions of brand equity and overall brand equity in the sportswear industry. The present study used a sample of 304 actual consumers from China's two largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai.

The findings conclude that brand association and brand loyalty are influential dimensions of brand equity. Weak support was found for the perceived quality and brand awareness dimensions.

Future research needs to be done if the results are to be expanded into other regional Chinese markets in light of the significant gaps between different regions. Further research also could strengthen this analysis by adding performance measurement into the model.

The paper shows that sportswear brand managers and marketing planners should consider the relative importance of brand equity in their overall brand equity evaluation, and should concentrate their efforts primarily on building brand loyalty and image.

This study contributes to the scant literature testing the applicability of consumer‐based brand equity in the sportswear industry. Since China is the world's fastest‐growing market for sportswear products, this study also provides important insights about the understanding of Chinese consumers' perceptions of overall brand equity and its dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically examine a consumer perceived value (CPV) formation model in the context of the US casual sportswear market. The effects of investigated contingency factors on perceived values are empirically determined.

CPV was measured by four dimensions: price, quality, social and emotional values. The investigated contingency factors included gender, age, race, income level, and retailer type. The primary data were gathered by a nation‐wide survey of US consumers and the applied statistical techniques were exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

The statistical analysis of 4,949 eligible survey responses shows that four value dimensions accounted for 77 percent of CPV variance. For the effects of contingency factors, race did not significantly affect the formation of any perceived values. In contrast, gender, income level, and retailer type significantly affected perceived price and emotional values, while perceived quality value was significantly affected by all contingency factors except race, and perceived social value was only significantly affected by age and income level.

Incorporation of gender, income level, and retailer type information in developing marketing strategies can help companies more effectively convey price and emotional values to consumers. In contrast, information relating to gender, age, income level, and retailer type should be considered in marketing quality value to consumers, while age and income level information is more critical for properly marketing social value to consumers.

Companies need to know, more than ever, about how consumers are redefining their values, as the current economic crisis has dramatically changed consumer preference. This study responded to this emerging need and provided timely empirical evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese consumers’ behavioral intention to purchase sportswear products online, by applying the model of goal-directed behavior as a research framework.

An online survey was administered to Chinese consumers (N=475) who have purchased sportswear products online in the past. Using SmartPLS 3.0 software, a partial least squares modeling analysis was conducted on the data.

When it comes to influencing the average Chinese consumer’s desire to purchase a product online, the study indicates that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and positive anticipated emotion are significant factors. Moreover, desire and frequency of past behavior significantly influenced Chinese consumers’ intention to buy sportswear products online.

The findings of this study provide a better understanding, through the analyses of Chinese consumers’ decision-making processes, of consumer intention to purchase sportswear products online.

A two-dimensional (2D) body measurement system was implemented to study the application of sportswear design in measurement garment development. A total of 50 participants were recruited. The basic demographic information and sportswear preference data were collected through a survey to understand consumer preferences and acceptance of the new designs. The body measurements were collected through both the selected 2D measurement system and a commercial three-dimensional scanning booth to evaluate measurement accuracy.

Finding the right size has been a long-existing problem for clothing consumers. Size problem is the most common reason for e-commerce returns and adds a high cost for retailers. One possible solution is to offer consumers an easy-to-use method that extracts accurate body measurements to be used for clothing size selection. The purpose of this research is to apply sportswear design elements on measurement garments to see if consumers’ interest in using the 2D measurement system can be increased without influencing the measurement accuracy.

The results showed that the added design features increased consumers’ interest in using 2D body measuring technology without significantly influencing measurement accuracy.

This research applied sportswear elements to convert a 2D measurement bodysuit to a fashionable clothing product. The solution resolved users’ privacy concerns and increased their acceptance and use of the technology. Other studies have not focused on using aesthetic features to improve the 2D measurement technology.

While consumer preferences for sporting goods have been widely researched within sport management, literature is lacking on aspects of social and environmental sustainability. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the role of social and environmental sustainability for purchase decisions of sportswear and compares them to the role of price and functionality.

Based on a conjoint analysis among 1,012 Europeans, the authors conducted a two-step cluster analysis. First, the authors investigated the number of segments via Ward’s method. Second, the authors ran a k-means analysis based on part-worth utilities from the conjoint analysis.

The authors identified four segments which differ in terms of preferred product attributes, willingness to pay, and sociodemographic, behavioral, and psychographic characteristics: undecided, sustainable, price-focused and function-oriented consumers. Based on this segmentation, the authors found that the importance of social and environmental sustainability is growing, but not among all consumers.

The generalizability of the study is limited since it is not built on a sample representative for the included European countries, it focuses on a single product, and participants are potentially subject to a social desirability bias.

The consumer analysis comprises the uptake of attributes related to social and environmental sustainability. The authors thereby address a literature gap as previous research (thematizing sporting goods) in the sport management field has often neglected sustainability elements despite their rapidly growing importance within the sport sector.

Knowledge of brand awareness and its role is important for the design of an organisation's marketing strategies. This study aims to determine the brand awareness of high‐ and low‐involvement products among Black and non‐Black students enrolled at a South African university.

A self‐administered survey was completed by a convenience sample of 300 students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The focal high‐involvement product was sportswear clothing and the low‐involvement product, coffee.

The results indicated a higher awareness of high‐involvement product brands than of low‐involvement product brands. Advertising played an important role in the awareness of sportswear clothing brands, but seemed unimportant in the case of coffee. The brand name was important for coffee, while the name and the logo played a role in students' awareness of sportswear brands.

This study was limited to students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and to sportswear clothing and coffee product categories. Future studies could comprise larger samples, different contexts and other product or service categories.

The findings suggest that marketers employ different strategies to create and increase brand awareness for high‐ and low‐involvement products.

Previous research found that brand awareness played an important role in low‐involvement products; however, little is known about brand awareness differences between high‐ and low‐involvement products, particularly with respect to the brand awareness of South African students.

This study aims to investigate the effect of brand personality and consumer ethnocentrism on perceived quality and purchase intentions in China's sportswear market.

In order to examine and compare the effect of brand personality and consumer ethnocentrism on the evaluation of product quality and purchase intention toward domestic and foreign brands, COB (the country with which the brand or firm is associated) and COM (the country in which final production takes place) cues were used in this study. Chinese college students represented the sample of 385 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the causal relationships among brand personality, consumer ethnocentrism, perceived quality, and purchase intention.

Results revealed that brand personality has a significant effect on Chinese consumers' product quality perceptions and purchase intentions toward both domestic and foreign brands. Furthermore, it is found that Chinese consumers' ethnocentric tendencies have no significant impact on their intentions to buy either domestic or foreign sportswear brands. However, ethnocentric Chinese consumers do positively evaluate the quality of domestic brands when domestic brands are also made domestically and negatively evaluate the quality of foreign brands when foreign brands are also manufactured non-domestically.

The study contributes theoretically and empirically to research on the effects of brand image and consumer ethnocentrism in emerging markets. The findings from this study will help domestic and international marketers have a better understanding of the role of brand personality and consumer ethnocentric tendencies in influencing young Chinese consumers' product evaluation and purchase intentions. In addition, few studies have simultaneously examined the effects of brand image and consumer ethnocentrism (moderated by COO) on consumers' product evaluations and purchase intentions, which provided new research and managerial implications.