China signals: On’s exec strategy, XHS’ IPO woes, ‘sportcations’ rise, gender-swap trend

Four developments across China’s consumer market. On promoted its Asia-Pacific general manager, Rebecca Cai, to chief global markets officer, handing the executive who built its China business oversight of every region it sells in. Xiaohongshu’s IPO preparations face a compliance test after a former employee’s options dispute exposed contradictions in how the company describes its own corporate structure. Travel platforms are marketing “sportcations” — active weekend getaways — as the next domestic category, though the price tiers suggest a narrower market than the search data implies. And a gender-swap photo trend on Xiaohongshu has drawn debate over whether it challenges gender norms or restages them. On’s executive reshuffle Market intel: On has split its commercial leadership in two. Chief Commercial Officer Britt Olsen departs at the end of September after a one-year transition, and her remit divides between two executives. Rebecca Cai, general manager of Asia-Pacific, becomes chief global markets officer on September 1, taking On’s markets across APAC, EMEA and the Americas along with the global commercial teams; she stays in her current role until a successor is named, then relocates from Shanghai to Zurich next year. Alice Delahunt, previously at Ralph Lauren and Burberry, joins September 7 as chief customer officer, running direct-to-consumer and customer loyalty from New York. On said its Asia-Pacific business grew sixfold during Cai’s tenure as general manager. The region posted net sales of 174 million Swiss francs ($215 million) in the first quarter, up 44.4%, passing 20% of global net sales for the first time. Market indicator: Cai reaches a global commercial role from Shanghai, on the strength of the region that has outrun the rest — Asia-Pacific grew 61.4% in constant currency last quarter, against 17.1% in the Americas. Her predecessor as commercial chief rose through North America. China has supplied On’s growth for several years; it now supplies the executives who run everything else, and that is the part worth other brands’ attention. Delahunt’s appointment points at the harder problem. Shoes still generated more than 90% of net sales in the quarter, and On’s claim to the premium tier occupied by Arc’teryx and Lululemon rests on apparel, which grew 57.5% in constant currency from a small base. A chief customer officer running DTC and loyalty is what a company builds when the first purchase is no longer the problem. Xiaohongshu’s IPO headache Market intel: An options dispute worth about 850,000 RMB ($125,500) has reached Hong Kong’s regulators weeks after Xiaohongshu reportedly filed confidentially for a listing. Chen Hao, who ran direct sales for South China, was dismissed in December 2023 for “incompetence” five months before the first tranche of his 30,000 options vested, his exit papers marked “culled.” Guangzhou courts found the dismissal unlawful and, in what Chinese media report as a mainland first, treated options issued by an offshore entity as labor remuneration — piercing the variable interest entity structure that nearly every Chinese tech company uses to list abroad. Chen took that outcome to the regulators. On June 28 he filed complaints with the Hong Kong exchange’s listing division and the Securities and Futures Commission, later adding the China Securities Regulatory Commission: Xiaohongshu told the court its onshore employer and its offshore options issuer were unrelated, while a VIE listing requires proof of the opposite. He says nearly 50 former colleagues met similar exits. Xiaohongshu has not commented publicly. Market indicator: A Hong Kong prospectus must establish that the offshore listing vehicle controls the onshore operator, the basis on which the accounts consolidate; a court record of the company arguing the opposite generates regulatory questions, sponsor legal opinions and lost weeks. Timing is the exposure. Investors want more than $70 billion for a business that traded at about $50 billion in private secondary deals late last year, per the same reporting — a premium that needs both an open window and an uncomplicated story. Every VIE-structured company on the Hong Kong runway now has an options book worth re-reading. 'Sportcations' gain traction Market intel: Tongcheng Travel reported searches for canyoning, hiking, cycling and climbing up more than 180% month-on-month as of May 15, bookings up more than 70%, and two- to three-day trips accounting for more than half of orders. The platform is measuring a category it also sells, in its own 2026 trend report, under a coinage its users render as “sports-school” travel (体校式旅行). The price ladder is more revealing than the search volume. A survey by Ebrun puts a domestic sporting weekend at 2,000 RMB to 5,000 RMB ($295 to $740) and a five- to seven-day trip at 5,000 RMB to 10,000 RMB ($740 to $1,477), reserving the 20,000 RMB ($2,950) tier for week-long overseas camps — Bali tennis, Sabah trekking. Domestic supply is thinner than the search volume implies: single sessions bolted onto sightseeing rather than coaching progressions, with lodging and meals but rarely recovery or nutrition. Market indicator: Status is the mechanism, and it is migrating. A Europe-based blogger writing as Chang Xiaoyu told Ebrun that what marks someone out now is not the label they wear but their build, their bearing and how they spend their time; when goods stop distinguishing class, she argued, the body does. That is the proposition Arc’teryx and Lululemon already sell in China, moved from the wardrobe to the weekend, and it explains why demand runs ahead of supply. A signal has to be visible, not sustained. Two days of canyoning photographs as well as a season of training are, which is why operators have crowded into the former and almost none into the latter. Gender-swap photo trend Market intel: Women on Xiaohongshu have been photographing themselves in poses coded male — legs wide, hands pocketed, weight thrown back — while men take the inverse, knees turned in and shoulders rounded. Supporters read it as a refusal of the male gaze. The objection is that the refusal arrives in the same revealing clothes and the same hours of editing that the male gaze asks for, which makes it a performance for that audience rather than an escape from it. The trend has racked up millions of views, with even celebrities joining the movement. While many celebrate it as rejecting the “male gaze,” critics argue that participants often wear highly feminine, revealing outfits and spend hours curating photos, suggesting they aren’t escaping the male gaze but performing a different version of it. Market indicator: The gender-swap trend offers a window into how young Chinese are grappling with gender norms. It highlights the absurdity of the poses women are expected to adopt to appear non-threatening and visually pleasing. Yet when men adopt these poses, it’s a temporary performance they can easily walk away from. For women, it’s a lifelong requirement. The debate reflects a deeper societal lag in recognizing female agency — and whether the trend genuinely challenges stereotypes or merely reinforces them. Recognizing the problem is valuable, but the crucial question is whether society can move beyond feel-good spectacles to allow women's bodies to finally breathe.

China signals: On’s exec strategy, XHS’ IPO woes, ‘sportcations’ rise, gender-swap trend

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China signals: On’s exec strategy, XHS’ IPO woes, ‘sportcations’ rise, gender-swap trend

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag