HANGZHOU, China, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — On June 14, 2025, the 3rd Global Sportswear Design Award officially launched at the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. Jointly organized by ANTA Group and Tsinghua University, this year’s competition is themed “MovEmpower – Motion Beyond Limits,” and aims to integrate global innovation resources through an industry-academia-research collaborative framework. Key figures including Lai Shixian, Executive Director and Co-CEO of ANTA Group, and Lu Xiaobo, Director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum and Senior Professor of Humanities, attended the launch event. At the ceremony, the Tsinghua University–ANTA (China) Co., Ltd. Joint Research Center for Sports Fashion also released the “Design Innovation Trends in the Sports Fashion Industry” report, offering strategic guidance for technological transformation across the global sportswear sector.
Key Visual of the 3rd Global Sportswear Design Award
World-Class Collaboration Engineered for Innovation
As a benchmark for industry-academia-research cooperation in China’s sportswear industry, the partnership between ANTA Group and Tsinghua University leverages a “multi-disciplinary synergy” model to establish a dynamic platform that integrates idea incubation, talent discovery, and industrial transformation.
“At ANTA, innovation is the foundation of our growth. We are committed to advancing from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China,’ empowering Chinese brands on the global stage,” said Lai Shixian.
Lu Xiaobo emphasized, “Innovative design is a driving force behind sports culture and a key contributor to our national cultural soft power.”
With two successful editions, the competition has attracted over 4,000 submissions from more than 270 universities across 30 countries and regions, making it one of the most influential incubators in sportswear design worldwide.
Global Innovation Network Empowering Industrial Transformation
The 2025 edition expands in both scope and scale, offering diverse competition tracks across four key domains: technology, culture, nature, and AIGC (AI-Generated Content). Seven university roadshows will take place worldwide, inviting students, independent designers, design enthusiasts, and institutions from over 25 countries and regions. The competition expects to receive over 2,500 submissions, with total prize offerings worth several million RMB.
A global panel of over 100 experts from both academia and industry will form the jury. Through a robust mechanism—call for entries, expert review, and industrial transformation—the Award aims to unify innovation resources and contribute to the sustainable development of the sportswear industry.
Nurturing Global Design Talent and Building a Creative Knowledge Hub
ANTA Group’s talent development model, cultivated through this competition, is already producing results. Several top finalists from previous editions have joined ANTA’s multi-brand design teams. The Group continues to build an international platform that empowers young designers and accelerates progress in sportswear design innovation.
Looking ahead, ANTA will continue to champion the principle of “Innovation Drives the Future,” leveraging its global open-innovation ecosystem and integrated academic-industry matrix to infuse the industry with technological vitality and aesthetic inspiration.
The competition will run from June 2025 through March 2026, with global roadshows and submission phases. For more details, please visit the official website at https://design.anta.com/works or follow the Tsinghua University–ANTA Joint Research Center for Sports Fashion on WeChat.
