45.29 trillion yuan—that is the total brand value of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands in 2026, up 7.76% year-on-year. With the entry threshold rising to 5.089 billion yuan and the number of billion-yuan brands expanding to 146, the textile and apparel industry has secured a place among the top five sectors with over 30 brands on the list, including 8 billion-yuan brands. For an industry long known for manufacturing and OEM, this ranking signals a structural shift in discourse—from production scale competition to brand value competition.
Structural Divergence in Brand Value
Eight billion-yuan brands—Erdos, Hengli, Weiqiao, Bosideng, Jinba, Qipai, Anta, and Yueda—form the backbone of the textile and apparel sector. The category distribution covers raw material manufacturing (Hengli, Weiqiao, Rongsheng Petrochemical), apparel and sportswear (Bosideng, Anta, Li-Ning, 361°), home textiles (Shuixing, Mengjie), and designer brands (Jinba, Qipai), spanning the entire value chain from fiber to consumer. The inclusion of upstream chemical fiber and auxiliaries companies like Sanfangxiang, Tongkun, and Transfar indicates that branding strategies have penetrated from downstream consumer goods to industrial products.
The trend of brand value concentration is also evident. The gap between billion-yuan brands and those at the bottom of the list continues to widen. The rising entry threshold means that small and medium-sized brands without clear positioning and sustained investment risk being squeezed out of top-tier competition. For buyers, higher brand value often correlates with more stable supply chains, stronger R&D investment, and better quality control systems—a hidden credit endorsement in procurement decisions.
AI Influence: A New Dimension of Brand Competition
This year, the World Brand Lab incorporated the AI Influence Index into its evaluation system for the first time—a noteworthy change for the industry. Beyond traditional search engines and social media, AI recommendation algorithms are becoming a new gateway for consumers to discover brands. A higher AI influence score indicates greater brand discourse power and visibility in the AI ecosystem, directly affecting whether a brand is recommended in consumer decision-making processes.
For textile and apparel brands, competing on AI influence essentially means competing on digital infrastructure. Brands that have accumulated structured data and user interactions on e-commerce platforms, social media, and content communities are more likely to gain higher weight in AI models. This explains why brands like Anta and Li-Ning, which invested early in digital marketing, and traditional brands like Bosideng and HLA, which actively built online channels, have maintained stable positions on the list.
The implications for the industry are twofold. First, brands must reassess their digital assets—from website structure and social media content to user review data—as these will become raw materials for AI brand evaluation. Second, the introduction of AI influence means brand competition is no longer just about advertising budgets but about data quality and user engagement depth.
From OEM to Brand: The Path of Value Creation
The underlying shift reflected in the ranking is that China's textile and apparel industry is transitioning from a "world factory" to a "brand matrix." Over the past decade, the industry has faced multiple pressures including overcapacity, trade frictions, and rising costs, making branding a core path for companies to break through growth bottlenecks.
From the strategies of listed brands, four key drivers emerge: technological innovation (e.g., Hengli's differentiated fibers, Anta's sports technology), cultural empowerment (e.g., Jinba's menswear design, Bosideng's national trend collaborations), green and low-carbon practices (e.g., Erdos' sustainable cashmere), and global operations (e.g., Weiqiao's overseas capacity layout). This means brand value is no longer just about advertising spend but a composite of technical strength, cultural identity, environmental responsibility, and global supply chain capability.
For foreign trade companies, this trend suggests that pure OEM orders will become increasingly unsustainable. Overseas buyers are placing greater emphasis on suppliers' compliance, R&D capability, and sustainability commitments—all of which ultimately reflect in brand value. Enhancing brand value is shifting from being a "nice-to-have" to a "ticket to entry" in global competition.