SNEAKERS PUT MEN ON STRAIGHT PATH TO SPENDING POWER

Behavioral differences between the sexes can be a sensitive subject. Whenever you talk about men and women, you need to meticulously parse your words lest you find yourself propagating stereotypes.

One such deeply rooted stereotype, related to marketing, is that you can almost forget men as potential consumers and big spenders. According to this myth, men are a long last on a ranking of who spends the most money, preceded by women, children, old people, dogs and cats.

In some areas this is clearly untrue. Depending on their areas of interest and preoccupations, men and women do tend to have very different priorities in managing their money.

In fact, these days men are demonstrating increasing sophistication in how they spend.

"Before the advent of the internet and social media, because of geographical constraints the consumption habits of major cities in the hinterland and coastal areas were probably quite different," says Guo Xin, a marketing professor at Beijing Technology and Business University.

"Now that social networks have flattened our world, everyone sees the same information on TikTok, Weibo, and WeChat. You can now see synchronicity in fashion trends across the country, especially for men."

Changes in consumption patterns and media environments have been particularly marked among men. For instance, a pair of Air Jordan sneakers can cost from 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan ($283), which means most young men wanting these shoes would have to scrimp and save over a considerable time to be able to afford them. But if you think that this is going to deter these male buyers, think again. They are as lustful as any bunch of young women hankering after a swanky Birkin or Hermes handbag and who will no doubt eventually find a way of buying it.

In the case of limited editions, it is not uncommon for men to preorder online or to queue to draw lots in a retail store, and to be willing to pay a hefty premium for overseas purchases.

XCin, a popular sneaker evaluation channel with more than 500,000 followers on Bilibili, a Chinese video sharing website based in Shanghai, is among many channels that targets the market populated by straight men, in which it sees almost unlimited potential.

"Men essentially want to spend money, but there are not many items on the market that they can take an instant liking to that is powerful enough for them to be able to afford to buy it, says Xu Chi, founder of XCin.

"If they've embarked on some hobby or have a particular area of interest they'll spend more. On the face of it, when it comes to consumption men seem to be very rational, but in fact it's all relative, and they're willing to pay a lot of money on things they really like."

The key to gaining the attention of such men is to give them a reason that matches their judgment of things and values, and they will then be willing to open their pockets widely.

Sneakers are gradually evolving from a niche fashion to a mass market product, a market in China worth more than 100 billion yuan a year, and with increasingly more outlets and platforms from which they are being sold.

"From the perspective of gender differences, men's consumption habits are more targeted, they have less desire to go shopping, and there is little fun for them in 'sharing', Guo says.

"But things such as the rapid growth of live gaming broadcasts and the sneaker culture underline how the internet has enhanced men's market presence. Men today are displaying the same desire to vaunt their identity, and they're at ease and confident enough to complement more varied forms of presence in the consumer arena.

"Generally, men are more loyal to familiar brands and categories than women. For example, there are many types of cosmetics for women. Lipstick alone has many different brands and different color numbers. Young women are willing to try different products. Men pay more attention to comparability, and the difference between yours and mine is particularly important."

According to the 2019 Chinese Workplace Survey Report published by Zhaopin, one of China's biggest job recruitment sites, in 2018 men's income was 22 percent higher than that of women.

To stretch things only slightly, gaming can be regarded as straight men's lipstick. Although quite a few women are into video games, it is by and large a man's realm. The 2018-19 China Online Live Streaming Industry Research Report by iiMedia Group, a consulting agency in the Chinese mobile internet industry, says male users account for 81 percent at Douyu, 80 percent at Huya, China's two leading game streaming platforms.

For the internet company Tencent, apart from mobile games that have emerged in recent years, men have always been their biggest cash cow. Taking the most representative game, League of Legends, as an example, Tencent says 67 percent of its players are male.

Compared with the ocean that is the female-dominated online community, men are a huge market yet to be fully developed.

Hupu, with millions of sports enthusiast users, is arguably one of the Chinese internet communities that understands straight men best. The forum was set up by Cheng Hang and several basketball enthusiasts in January 2004. Initially it was devoted mainly to translating foreign basketball news, something the founders did in their spare time. Today, Hupu has developed into a Chinese male community with more than 70 million registered users, and with investment pouring in it came up with an app called Poison that last year was valued at more than $1 billion.

The street competition the King of Underdogs, hosted by Hupu, has grown into an influential sports intellectual property. Every month 12 city matches and qualifying rounds are held. At present it is the largest independent sports intellectual property on short video platforms with more than 5.2 million TikTok followers, attracting a series of sponsors such as Adidas, Nike and NBA2KOnline.

Last year the makers received 1.26 billion yuan in financing from the Pre-IPO round of Bytedance, a technology company operating a range of content platforms including Tik-Tok.