Taiwan Today

Taiwan continues to develop manufacturing strength and brand-building capabilities in its thriving sporting goods industry.

This past May Taipei City-headquartered VICTOR Rackets Industrial Corp. celebrated the brilliant result of its sponsorship of Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) as she claimed the women’s singles victory at Kuala Lumpur-based Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) Thailand Open. The superstar is joined in benefiting from VICTOR’s patronage by other outstanding athletes like Lee Zii Jia from Malaysia, who clinched the men’s singles title in Thailand. An official supplier of BWF tournaments, the company manufactures badminton equipment ranging from rackets and shuttlecocks to bags, sportswear, shoes and other related accessories.

VICTOR, which started out producing shuttlecocks for domestic distribution in 1968, began sponsoring South Korea’s national team in 2009 and has emerged as a top brand in the international sport. The company is a role model for local enterprises looking to expand into global markets. Sporting goods manufacturers like VICTOR have built up a thriving industry in Taiwan, where production revenues have risen from around NT$38 billion (US$1.29 billion) in 2012 to NT$87.5 billion (US$2.97 billion) last year. Of that total, fitness and home gym equipment and golf gear account for more than 70 percent, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Department of Statistics. Over 90 percent of the products are sold overseas, with the U.S. receiving over 50 percent of exports followed by China, Japan and the U.K. MOEA statistics exclude athletic apparel, braces, footwear and bicycles, as these are categorized separately.

Supportive Ecosystem
The country’s manufacturing prowess was on full display in March at the latest edition of the annual Taipei International Sporting Goods Show held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. Organized by MOEA-supported Taiwan External Trade Development Council in partnership with Taipei-based Taiwan Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (TSMA) and Taipei Sporting Goods Association, the exhibition incorporated themes such as the integration of advanced digital technology and promotion of outdoor activities. TSMA Secretary-General Jane Wen (溫麗雪) said fans can spot Taiwan-made gear at events spanning Wimbledon, the Olympics, the Universiade and the International Federation of Association Football World Cup. “No matter which sports are in season, major equipment providers from Taiwan are involved,” she added. “It’s fair to say the country has never been absent in the global sports arena.” She anticipates the local industry will continue posting impressive growth, citing TSMA figures revealing that exports of camping, fitness, golf, badminton and water sports goods each rose by 50 to 70 percent in 2021 as the world eased pandemic control measures.
As a founding member of Switzerland-based World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, TSMA works to expand the international presence of Taiwan companies. The association comprises most of the country’s more than 400 manufacturers in the eight categories of fitness; golf; indoor sports; outdoor sports and sportswear; sports balls and nets; rackets; water sports; and winter sports, around 53 percent of which have factories in central Taiwan’s Taichung City, Changhua County and Nantou County. The resulting industrial hub allows companies to form comprehensive up- and downstream supply networks, according to Stanley Huang (黃新鉗), who heads the Central Region Campus of state-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) headquartered in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County. These producers also benefit from the high density of machine tool plants in the region, which allow the bulk of components, parts and high-performance factory equipment to be sourced locally, Huang added.

Tech Connection
While an increasing number of Taiwan companies have transitioned to original brand manufacturing (OBM), original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original design manufacturing (ODM) for international brands currently remain the primary focus for sports equipment manufacturers due to their expertise in production, assembly and logistics. In today’s digital era, a crucial factor in the sector’s continued growth is incorporating information and communication technology (ICT), Huang said. To this end, ITRI is conducting R&D on high-tech products like artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted visual recognition systems and physiological sensors designed to provide users with performance feedback that can help them fine tune their training regimens. The PoseFit system, for example, measures the muscular strength and flexibility of older adults, who are then provided with personalized fitness plans.

As Taiwan and many other countries face the challenge of a rapidly aging society, greater emphasis is being placed on the health and wellness sector, Huang said. It’s one of three areas alongside smart living and a sustainable environment targeted for development under ITRI’s 2030 Technology Strategy and Roadmap. “We provide support for established sports equipment enterprises that are cooperating with tech startups to come up with innovative industry approaches,” he said. To spur such integration, representatives from ITRI, other research organizations, academic institutions, businesses and government agencies attended the Strategy Review Board (SRB) meeting organized by the Executive Yuan’s Office of Science and Technology last November.

  Shiang Tzyy-yuang (相子元), professor in the Department of Athletic Performance at Taipei-based National Taiwan Normal University, believes now is the time to combine the country’s strengths in sports and ICT. He heads a sports science team at the Ministry of Education-run Sports Administration’s National Sports Training Center in the southern city of Kaohsiung. The academic also leads the MOVE Sports Technology Alliance (MSTA) headquartered at MOEA-supported Institute for Information Industry in Taipei.

According to Shiang, sports equipment is an ideal field to expand 5G, AI, block chain, data analytics, extended reality and Internet of Things applications. MSTA was formed in 2020 as the result of MOEA-funded cooperative projects aiming to do just that. Guided by the SRB consensus, the alliance is tasked with providing a platform for collaboration between sports service providers and equipment makers, ICT firms, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations like TSMA. Though MSTA initiatives have made encouraging progress on tech for bikes, fitness and golf goods and sportswear, there are still gaps in business cultures and development schedules between the sporting goods and ICT sectors, Shiang said. “Addressing this issue is the raison d’etre of the alliance,” he added. “We want to ensure Taiwan companies stay competitive regardless of whether they follow OEM, ODM or OBM business models.”
  ITRI’s Huang is in full agreement on the importance of cross-sector communication and partnership. Developing ICT for sports purposes requires extensive domain knowledge on each side, and only by unifying expertise can the local sporting goods industry satisfy the diverse needs of professional and amateur athletes, competition organizers and facility operators, he said. In this way, Taiwan companies can pride themselves not only on providing life-enhancing products to the fitness-minded public, but on equipping world champions like Tai with the tools of their trade. 
 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw