Brand equity is becoming the new hard currency for the textile and apparel industry. On June 24, the World Brand Lab released the '2026 China's 500 Most Valuable Brands' report. The total value of listed brands reached 45.29 trillion yuan, up 7.76% year-on-year, with the entry threshold rising to 5.089 billion yuan. Over 30 textile and apparel brands were listed, with 8 brands—Erdos, Hengli, Weiqiao, Bosideng, Jinba, Septwolves, Anta, and Yueda—exceeding the 100-billion-yuan mark, forming the industry's brand foundation.
Brand Landscape: Full Industry Chain Coverage, Top Tiers Expand
The listed brands cover the entire chain from raw material manufacturing to garments, sportswear, and home textiles. Hengli, Rongsheng Petrochemical, and Tongkun represent upstream chemical fiber; Erdos, Weiqiao, Shanghai Silk, and Jiasheng Silk represent midstream fabrics and garments; Anta, Li-Ning, 361°, and Xtep represent sportswear; Bosideng, Xuezhongfei, and Yalu represent down jackets; Shuixing and Mengjie represent home textiles; emerging consumer brands like POPMART and Beneunder also made the list.
The number of 100-billion-yuan brands increased from 142 to 146, with textile and apparel claiming 8 spots. This indicates rising concentration of brand value among the top players. Small and medium brands must find differentiated value anchors to break through the 10-billion-yuan threshold. The inclusion of POPMART and Beneunder shows the broadening boundaries of textile brands—cultural IP, functional technology, and lifestyle brands are now competing alongside traditional textile enterprises.
AI Influence: A New Battlefield for Brand Competition
This year's report introduced the AI Influence Index for the first time. Ding Haisen, CEO of the World Executive Group and World Brand Lab, noted that future brand competition is not just about capturing consumer mindshare but about imprinting on AI's algorithmic map. Higher AI influence means greater discourse power, online visibility, and technological presence in the AI ecosystem.
What does this mean for the textile and apparel industry? Traditionally, brand valuation relied on consumer awareness, market share, and financial performance. With AI influence added, brands must actively manage their presence in AI search, recommendation algorithms, and smart customer service. For example, when consumers ask an AI assistant for 'warm winter coats,' will Bosideng or Yalu be prioritized? When AI generates outfit suggestions, are Anta or Li-Ning products included in the knowledge base?
Professor Xu Jing from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management argues that in the digital age, a brand is a complex system maintained by consumers, platforms, algorithms, content, communities, and organizational capabilities. Brand management is no longer about 'how to enhance brand equity' but 'how brands can continue to be intermediaries of trust, meaning, and emotion.'
Industry Impact: From OEM to Brand, Four Drivers Accelerate Transformation
The textile and apparel industry was long synonymous with low-cost OEM. However, the structure of this year's listed brands shows a shift toward four drivers: technological innovation, cultural empowerment, green and low-carbon practices, and global operations. Upstream players like Hengli and Rongsheng Petrochemical enhance chemical fiber value through technological breakthroughs; Erdos and Weiqiao reshape manufacturing brands through smart transformation and green production; Anta and Li-Ning leverage national trend culture and global M&A to boost brand premiums; Bosideng breaks price ceilings through functional innovation and premium positioning.
For buyers and foreign trade companies, higher brand value means stronger bargaining power. Top brands have greater leverage in raw material procurement, channel negotiations, and consumer trust. Small and medium brands must leverage AI tools and content marketing to build cognitive advantages in niche segments.
Practical Recommendations
For Buyers - Prioritize suppliers with high AI influence; they are more likely to be discovered by end consumers in algorithm-driven searches and cross-border platforms, improving product sell-through rates. - Monitor technology investment directions of top-tier brands, such as Hengli's green fibers or Anta's eco-friendly fabrics, as these innovations may become future procurement compliance requirements. - Use brand value reports as an auxiliary tool for supplier evaluation, combining AI influence indices to select partners with long-term competitiveness in the digital ecosystem.
For Foreign Trade Companies - Convert brand stories into AI-readable structured data, such as structured product descriptions, multilingual keyword libraries, and patent citations, to enhance visibility in overseas AI searches. - Optimize brand content for localized AI ecosystems in different markets (e.g., Google AI, Amazon Alexa, TikTok algorithm) rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all global strategy. - Focus on green, low-carbon, and functional technology labels; their weight in AI recommendation algorithms is rising, helping to build trust in European and American markets.
The breakthrough of 45 trillion yuan in brand value is a microcosm of the textile and apparel industry's leap from 'manufacturing' to 'smart manufacturing' to 'branding.' As AI reshapes business logic, a brand is no longer just a name but a set of digital assets that can be identified, recommended, and trusted within the algorithmic ecosystem.