The textile and apparel industry is undergoing a profound transformation from 'manufacturing' to 'intelligent manufacturing' and then to 'branding.' According to the '2026 China's 500 Most Valuable Brands' report released on June 24, more than 30 brands in the textile and apparel sector made the list, with leading brands like Erdos, Hengli, Weiqiao, and Bosideng entering the billion-yuan club. This is not just a ranking of brand value but also a reflection of the value restructuring of the entire industrial chain—as AI begins to influence brand evaluation, the industry is shifting from price competition to brand discourse power.
Structural Leap in Brand Value
The total value of all brands on the list reached 45.29 trillion yuan, up 7.76% year-on-year, with the entry threshold rising to 5.089 billion yuan. More critically, the number of billion-yuan brands expanded from around 120 last year to 146. In the textile and apparel segment, billion-yuan brands include Erdos, Hengli, Weiqiao, Bosideng, Jinba, Qipai, Anta, and Yueda, covering the entire chain from raw materials (Hengli, Weiqiao) to apparel (Bosideng, Jinba) and sportswear (Anta).
What does this data imply? Brand value is no longer simply a result of marketing investment but a monetized expression of a company's comprehensive strength. The textile and apparel industry has long been labeled as 'low value-added OEM,' but now the list includes both traditional fabric giants (e.g., Rongsheng Petrochemical, Tongkun) and emerging consumer brands (e.g., Beneunder, Ubras), indicating different value growth paths within the industry.
AI Influence: A New Dimension of Brand Competition
A notable innovation in this year's list is that the World Brand Lab introduced an AI influence index into the evaluation system for the first time. Professor Xu Jing from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management pointed out that in the digital intelligence era, a brand is no longer just 'the knowledge structure in consumers' minds' but a complex system jointly maintained by consumers, platforms, algorithms, content, communities, and organizational capabilities. Ding Haisen, CEO of the World Manager Group, emphasized that future brand competition will not only be about capturing consumers' mental space but also about leaving an indelible mark on AI's algorithmic map.
For textile and apparel companies, this change means that the underlying logic of brand building is shifting. In the past, brand value depended on advertising spend, channel coverage, and consumer awareness; now, brands need to be 'seen' by AI—maintaining high visibility in smart recommendations, search algorithms, and content ecosystems. For example, the content density and engagement rates of sportswear brands like Anta and Li-Ning on social media and e-commerce platforms directly affect their weight in AI models.
Branding Progress Across the Industrial Chain
From the detailed categories of the list, textile and apparel brands have formed a clear tiered structure. The first tier consists of billion-yuan comprehensive groups (Hengli, Weiqiao, Erdos), whose brand value is deeply tied to industrial scale; the second tier includes vertical category leaders (Bosideng in down jackets, Anta in sportswear), which achieve brand premium through category innovation and scenario marketing; the third tier comprises emerging niche brands (Ubras, Beneunder), which rise rapidly through DTC models and social media communication.
Notably, the brand value improvement of raw material manufacturers (Hengli, Weiqiao, Rongsheng Petrochemical, Tongkun) breaks the traditional perception that 'raw materials have no brands.' This reflects the industrial logic of chemical fiber companies transitioning to new materials and functional fibers—when polyester filament yarn evolves from a commodity to a differentiated product, the brand becomes a carrier of quality trust.