How Chinese brand Anta became the fastest-growing sneaker on StockX

Chinese sportswear giant Anta Sports — which owns the Anta brand, as well as regional rights in mainland China to Fila — is starting to resonate more strongly with North American sneaker fans interested in diversifying their assortments beyond Nike and Jordan Brand.
In 2024, Anta was the fastest-growing sneaker brand on the resale site StockX. There, the brand achieved 1,901% year-over-year trade growth, largely due to demand for its Kai 1 shoe, made in partnership with Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving. Meanwhile, in 2024, eBay users worldwide searched for Anta more than 37 times a minute, on average, according to data supplied to Modern Retail. Globally, eBay searches for “Anta Kai 1” are still going strong, up 30% from their introduction to the U.S. market in March 2024.
Much of Anta’s momentum on resale sites traces back to the Kai 1, which retails for $125 and sells in limited batches. “What drives the resale market is scarcity, and when a brand comes along that makes a very small amount of product, that is the kind of thing that energizes on the resale market,” Matt Powell, founder of the consultancy Spurwink River, told Modern Retail. In the U.S., Anta sells shoes via its online website and retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Anta is growing in popularity at a time in which sneakerheads are looking to broaden their collections. That shift has benefitted mid-tier brands like Hoka, On and Asics, all of which have seen their sales skyrocket in the last few years. Nike and Jordan, long kings of the sneaker world, have also struggled with inventory and newness, and Anta is finding success “in this era of the sneaker industry where Jordan and Nike are slightly out of favor,” Drew Haines, merchandising director of StockX, told Modern Retail. What’s more, Anta is building sales by pushing more into basketball, forming a lineup of products and athlete partners to set itself apart.
Anta’s rise is also part of a larger shift happening in global footwear, Michael Sykes, author of the Substack “The Kicks You Wear,” said. “Right now, there are a number of Chinese brands that are focused on the North American market when it comes to performance,” Sykes, who wrote about Anta in a recent edition of his Substack, told Modern Retail. “There’s a bit of a gap that’s been established [in North America] over the past few years… I think what Anta, in particular, is doing is capitalizing on that.” For example, sales for another Chinese brand, Li-Ning, jumped 113% on StockX in 2024.
Anta is still relatively small compared to other sneaker powerhouses. For the six months ending June 30, 2024, Anta Sports’ revenue hit 33.74 billion yuan ($4.65 billion), up 13.8% year over year. In contrast, Nike’s overall revenue for its second quarter alone — September through November 2024 — totaled $12.4 billion. It’s for this reason that Spurwink River’s Powell calls Anta “not a serious threat to anybody.” High resale numbers, Powell said, “don’t necessarily mean the brand is wildly popular.”
It remains true, though, that Anta is starting to make more inroads with shoppers, largely due to its basketball strategy. Since 2007, Anta has worked with NBA athletes to raise its profile abroad and try to take away some market share from Nike and Jordan. Over the years, Anta’s roster has included Luis Scola, Kevin Garnett, Gordon Hayward, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Terance Mann, Donte DiVincenzo and James Wiseman. Klay Thompson’s KT shoe with Anta, now in its tenth iteration, sold 650,000 pairs in China in 2016 and was, at the time, “the fastest growing amongst all NBA player-endorsed Anta products,” according to a press release.
Nike, Jordan and Adidas have long worked with NBA heavyweights, including Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. But Anta’s basketball approach may best be summed up as, “Let’s get the best of what Nike and Jordan and Adidas haven’t taken,” StockX’s Haines said. Earlier this month, Anta signed three new NBA players: Caris LeVert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Derrick Jones Jr. of the Los Angeles Clippers and Daniel Gafford of the Dallas Mavericks.
In 2023, Anta made one of its most consequential and controversial decisions: to sign a five-year deal with Irving and make him chief creative officer of basketball. Until then, Irving had been a Nike athlete, with an annual endorsement deal believed to be worth at least $11 million. In 2022, Nike terminated its partnership with Irving after he posted a social media link to an antisemitic film. Irving’s then-team, the Brooklyn Nets, suspended Irving for at least five games without pay and said in a statement that Irving “refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.” Irving later apologized in a post on social media.
Some sneaker fans disapproved of Anta signing Irving in July 2023. But working with Irving hasn’t prevented Anta from making money. The Kai 1 continues to be one of Anta’s more popular silhouettes, and there are now multiple versions of the shoe, including Playoffs, Mother’s Day, Playoffs Energy, Green Grails, Garden State and Kai-leidoscope. The newest, Sun & Moon, launched this past week in the Philippines and is expected to launch globally in the coming weeks.
Irving’s sneakers with Nike were popular among sneakerheads, especially young people. When Nike dropped Irving, Sykes questioned whether the hype for Irving’s sneakers was primarily because of Nike or because of Irving and whether Irving could carry the momentum to Anta. While Irving’s shoes with Anta are “not the same” as his ones with Nike, “there’s nothing on the court, in the NBA or WNBA, that looks like what Kyrie is wearing right now,” said Sykes. “There’s a lot of creativity with it, I think, that I haven’t seen from many other brands or many other signature athletes out there.”
Outside of the Kai 1, Anta is doing well. It has other models that are taking off, including the GH5, Bubble Slide and Shock Wave 5 Pro (also an Irving shoe). Anta is also continuing to reap dividends as part of a group that acquired Amer Sports, the parent of Arc’teryx and Salomon, in 2019. Amer Sports went public in February 2024 and most recently reported a 17% increase in year-over-year revenue for the third quarter of 2024.
“If [Anta] can continue to iterate on [the Kai 1], make the technology better and get their products on the feet of high-profile athletes… I think they’ll continue to have a good year [in 2025],” StockX’s Haines said.