With annual sales of 500 million, Anker has another big hit!

A dark horse emerged in the fishing gear category.

Many people think that fishing has always been a sport for men. This is not the case. This sport has become a popular leisure activity for people of all ages. For example, in the United States, 40% of fishing enthusiasts are women, and they often spend a lot of money on various fishing equipment.

Benefiting from this, fishing gear products are experiencing an explosive growth period. As the world's largest fishing gear industry belt, Weihai, Shandong, also has many fishing gear brands emerging. KastKing mentioned in our article is one of them. It was invested by Anker and became the top seller in North America on Amazon in its first year.

It became the leader in North America in one year, and now it has annual sales of 500 million

As we all know, Weihai, Shandong, accounts for half of the world's fishing tackle and occupies a considerable market share, but it is an indisputable fact that most Chinese fishing tackle products are exported abroad in the form of OEM and are basically dominated by foreign brands. However, in recent years, the emergence of fishing tackle brands has gradually broken this situation.

In 2013, Cui Tianshi, a young man from Weihai who had worked in the United States for several years, sensed the potential of the American fishing gear market and founded Eposeidon Outdoor Adventure, the parent company of the fishing gear brand KastKing, in a garage in a small town in New York. The company mainly sells fishing rods, fishing lines, fishing reels and their peripheral products, mainly lure fishing gear.

At the end of the same year, Cui Tianshi returned to China and established Shenzhen Poseidon Network Technology Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen. Initially, Cui Tianshi mainly sold his own brand and other brands of products in the online fishing gear mall he created, while exploring the fishing gear supply chain, and later entered platforms such as Amazon.

After gathering the best talents from multiple leading fishing gear brands, Cui Tianshi began to build his own international supply chain. Braided lines are made in the United States, fishing reels and fishing rods are made in China and South Korea, and carbon lines are made in Japan and Germany. KastKing combines the advantages of various countries and has successfully produced products that are of quality that is no less than that of international brands but at a low price.

It is understood that KastKing products are priced between 30 and 400 US dollars, which is much lower than many big brands, but the quality is comparable. In just one year since its establishment, KastKing has become the largest seller in the Amazon fishing gear category and has become Amazon's exclusive brand supplier . Later , KastKing continued to win the ICAST Best Product Award, the most authoritative fishing gear exhibition in the United States, the AliExpress Sports Industry Most Growth Brand Award, and the eBay Most Influential Brand Award .

KastKing , which has won numerous awards online , has also successfully established itself overseas, gained a large number of fans, and its sales are growing. Then, KastKing is committed to developing offline channels and entering large sporting goods supermarket chains in the United States. After several years of development, the company's sales have soared from tens of millions in 2018 to more than 500 million yuan in 2023, becoming a star brand in the North American market.

Anker's parent company, Haiyi Holdings, has sensed the potential of this track and invested in KastKing in 2018, becoming an early shareholder of the company. In April this year, Poseidon received its second round of capital injection, a 50 million yuan financing initiated by Zhandao Capital and Zhongqin Xinglong.

KastKing's multiple products dominate the BSR list in sub-categories

As one of the important sales channels, Amazon has contributed a lot to KastKing. Many of the company's products, including fishing rods, fishing lines, and fishing reels, dominate the Amazon BSR list of subcategories. Taking fishing reels as an example, 7 products have entered the TOP20 of the category, and the top-ranked fishing reel has a score of 4.5, with an estimated sales volume of 2,604 in the past 30 days.

As shown in the following fishing reel, it has a high speed, reversible handle and left /right search function, and is priced at $27.64. The product has 3256 ratings with a score of 4.5, and sales in the past month were 1000+.

Fishing line is one of the best-selling products on KastKing. Three products are in the top 20 of the category, with sales of 14,850 in the past month. In June, one fishing line even sold 15,000 orders. According to sellers' feedback, this fishing line not only has good wear resistance, but also reduces tangling, and is very popular among anglers.

You may think that KastKing only deals with fishing rods, fishing lines and other products. In fact, KastKing has also laid out a lot of fishing peripheral products, such as sunglasses, backpacks, sunscreen masks, knives, clothing and other scene products. The editor found that a sunscreen mask priced at US$9.99 has also entered the BSR list. It has UV protection function and has sold more than 300 units in the past month.

It is not difficult to see that KastKing has developed related categories based on its original vertical products and has achieved some success.

KastKing has been able to achieve such results, on the one hand , because it has increased its investment in research and development. The company has continuously cooperated with universities to update technology, improve and upgrade products, and ensure product quality without raising prices. On the other hand, it focuses on social media marketing, actively interacting with fishing enthusiasts through platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and establishing a community culture with users; and through celebrity marketing, it combines fishing and scenery to attract high-quality fans.

The 100 billion market has created a business, and the hot-demand products for fishing gear are as follows

In fact, it is not just KastKing. Many fishing gear brands from Weihai, Shandong are going abroad and making a name for themselves overseas, but the markets they are conquering are different. Seasir focuses on the fishing gear category in the Southeast Asian market and took two years to increase sales from 0 to 30 million.

The reason why they can frequently show their talents overseas is that China produces nearly 80% of the world's fishing gear products, and the global fishing gear market has great potential. According to a Statista report, the global fishing equipment market revenue will be US$23 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach US$31 billion by 2028 , with a compound annual growth rate of 6.15%. This data also demonstrates the huge potential of the fishing gear market.

Specifically in terms of regions, the main consumption bases of global fishing gear products are North America, Europe, China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

The United States, known as the "country of sea fishing", has a more prominent demand for fishing gear products. Earlier research data showed that the number of fishing enthusiasts in the United States is as high as 56 million, which means that one in every six Americans is keen on fishing. At present, this number is constantly increasing. As a country with 9 million fishermen, Europe's demand for fishing gear is even more imaginable.

So what are the products that fishing enthusiasts are most in demand for? According to the American Recreational Anglers Association, fishing rods, reels or related accessories are in the greatest demand, with Americans spending $2.5 billion a year on them. Data shows that fishing rods alone account for nearly 40% of the fishing gear market, and are expected to continue to grow in the future.

The demand for lures and fly baits is second, with Americans spending $1.1 billion each year. It is reported that lures are the mainstream fishing method in North America, so this type of product is popular there. In addition, the demand for electronic products including GPS, sonar fish finders, etc. is also relatively large.

Under the current market prospects and demands, I believe that more and more fishing gear brands will go abroad.

KastKing

Fishing gear

Anker