Outdoor footwear brand Northside partnered with Shanghai-based Fortune Star International to distribute its brands throughout mainland China.
Northside is owned by Triple T Trading Ltd. and rooted in the Pacific Northwest, recently relocating its headquarters to a new location in the city of Marysville, WA, a small rural community north of Seattle. Triple T Trading has had a relationship with Fortune Star International (an outdoor products trading and distribution company) since 2012 and has been in discussions for over a year to partner on enhancing the availability of the Northside brand in China.
“People everywhere are looking for a dependable, approachable outdoor brand,” said Jack Wolfin, president of Triple T Trading. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to make our footwear available throughout mainland China. This added distribution further enhances our mission: to better service our customers and meet the footwear needs of families and recreational outdoor enthusiasts.”
Among the reasons Northside expanded its availability to China is the country’s burgeoning outdoors market, which continues to see an elevated interest in family outdoor activities. Toward the end of the decade (2018-2020) the Chinese Outdoor Association expects an accelerated growth of the outdoors market somewhere between 12 to 20 percent annually. Those optimistic expectations would mean that the market would reach a volume of ¥32.1 billion ($4.9 billion) by the end of 2020.
“We feel like there will be a growing demand for outdoor footwear as more people in China want to get out and explore,” said Nam Lui, president of Fortune Star International. “We’re excited to make Northside footwear more readily available as people of all ages continue to show an enthusiasm for the outdoors.”
Fortune Star distributes directly into the Chinese outdoor retail channel and presented the Northside brand at both the Beijing and Shanghai ISPO shows over the past year. Starting in fall/winter 2015 Fortune Star International partnered with Sanfo, a domestic outdoor products retailer in China, to offer Northside footwear in their retail locations and online.
