Nike and china's homegrown sportswear brand and to have ruled out a lot of sneakers

and the shoes from the chinese company have made appearances alongside Nike not only at the

olympics,

but also on NBA courts.

In 2021 the company's released their latest signature basketball shoes,

which showcased the two brands flagship mid soles that are designed for pro athletes.

So we compare the high performance technology from both companies to see how antes design is

one part of its plan to go global and gain ground on the world's biggest sports brand.

Nike has nearly 30 years on Anta and was founded by people who love to

run a track and field coach and a middle distance runner.

The company,

from its early days focused on designing shoes for professional athletes and on the other

hand,

was set up in 1991 by a father and his two sons to manufacture shoes for other brands.

But after a few years of that,

the company decided to focus on creating its own shoes,

Runs a video channel about basketball shoes on the Chinese equivalent of YouTube and he spoke to

us about anti sneakers which are among the more than 500 Paris he's purchased over the past five

years.

Today,

anta is china's top domestic sportswear brand,

selling not just sneakers but also close and as part of its ambition to go global,

the company has acquired a slew of international brands.

All this has helped make an to the world's fourth largest athletic apparel company by market

value.

So to take on more established brands and has been rolling out signature basketball shoes

like Nike every year,

each sneaker is named after an NBA player.

Lebron is for Lebron James who is considered one of the best players in NBA history,

winning four championships and this is his 19th pair of shoes with Nike

Katie stands for clay Thompson,

a three time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors who's famous for his three point shooting.

And this is his seventh edition from his partnership with anta because the sneakers are designed for

individual players,

the technology inside is different too.

There are three main parts to the shoe and this is where one of the most important feature

sits most of all.

What the mid sole will do is prevent injuries.

Zack thomas is a podiatrist based in pennsylvania

and he told us about the sneakers that he's bought and sliced in half for his Youtube channel.

So a good mid cell phone.

There's a combination of spring back forgiveness and a little bit of support and

stiffness will just make your foot more efficient will make your foot work as more of one unit instead

of a bunch of bag of bones.

And that's especially important when playing basketball because sudden stops can shock the joints.

The Mitzel also gives rebound which allows players to jump higher.

So to make a strong Mitzel,

both anta and Nike have chosen the same ingredient nitrogen but the two companies are

using the element differently.

Nike is focusing on the inert gas itself,

it's pumped into the middle of the Lebron 19 sneaker,

which is made up of two air units in the forefoot and rear foot.

The air max is made from polyurethane and filled with highly pressurized nitrogen that the company

says can absorb shocks.

The zoom air is also a pressurized unit and packed with tensile fibers.

Nike says,

this helps the wear spring upwards after pushing down on it.

And in between these two units is a chamber that connects both so the air flows back and

forth.

So when you compress the four ft down here,

that air will shoot back into the heel and vice versa.

And what that does is it evens out the shoe,

it's almost like ballast on a ship.

And so it's going to keep you a little more even.

But also it's going to produce a little more rebound in the areas of the shoe

where you would need it and to is also looking to create better rebound,

but it's using nitrogen to build a different kind of structure.

The company calls it nitrogen technology and first introduced it with the seventh edition of the

clay Thompson shoes.

So the missile is made up of a lot of miniature bubbles of nitrogen that are glued together.

The company says when pressure is applied,

the bubbles compressed,

then expand,

giving the wearer both cushioning and rebound.

This makes Antas Mitzel very elastic,

but because it's not contained in a pod like Nike's air units.

Zhang says the phone can easily lose shape,

john and thomas both agree that the two missiles perform well on courts and that's because the

shoes were specifically designed for professional athletes.

But that also means these shoes aren't meant for everyone.

And ultimately it's about making the technology go mainstream and having ordinary people buy

and wear them.

Once you develop it.

For one thing,

it's pretty easy to to reverse engineering for another sport.

You just have to then figure out where to put it in the shoe and doing this well has helped Nike

maintain a large slice of the sportswear market.

Since the invention of the air max in the late 19 eighties,

Nike has plugged it into a wide range of sneakers from training shoes that cost around

$80 to basketball shoes that go for $200.

And Nike has developed a fleet of other technologies,

for example,

a really thick Mitzel with a carbon fiber plate inside that has helped runners break records.

But it's also sparked controversies about whether the technology provides athletes with an unfair

advantage.

And Nike also has a lightweight thread material that the company says gives wears a secure

fit.

Nike doesn't disclose its R and D.

Budget.

But investments in these technologies have helped the company's revenue more than doubled in the past

decade.

And anta is taking a similar path,

starting with the KT seven,

which sells for about $150.

The company says it plans to apply the nitrogen Mitzel to 75% of its footwear

products by 2025.

And it's also starting to build a stable of other tech like this material that anti calls the

shock absorption molecule,

which the company describes as bulletproof because it can absorb almost 100% of shocks when

running and jumping.

However,

Nike's continued dominance,

partly depends on succeeding on auntie's home turf.

China is the second largest sportswear market after the U.

S.

And worth more than $50 billion.

But the american company is facing challenges there.

Last year,

Chinese consumers took to social media to call for a boycott of Western brands over

allegations about forced labor in china's cotton rich Xinjiang region.

Nike said its sales in china fell about 20% in its latest quarter,

though it pointed to supply chain disruptions.

On the flip side,

this boycott has created a swell of nationalism towards homegrown products like anta,

which pledged to continue using cotton from Xinjiang.

But this stance has put the company in the crosshairs of President biden who signed a bill that would make it

illegal to import products made with cotton from the region and he declined to comment for this

video.

Meanwhile,

Nike and its latest earnings calls that the pipeline of its innovative products continues to create the

separation between the company and its competitors for now.

And he says China is its largest source of revenue.

And how soon the company can catch up to.

Nike on the international stage,

could rely on more than just tech.

You have to have that foundation of solid technology that

works.

But a lot of times it's not the tech,

it's who's wearing the tech that's going to push it forward.

So besides clay Thompson and has also been working with other NBA players.

But to get noticed by more customers,

the chinese company will need to sign on even more of the bigger names to its roster of athletes and

endorsements.