(Yicai Global) Feb. 24 -- Sales of winter sports equipment in China have jumped because of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, and industry sources expect the rapid growth in what was once a niche market to last at least a decade.

“Sales tripled during the Beijing Games compared with before the Spring Festival,” also known as the Chinese New Year holiday, Ye Xiao, head of a Chinese winter sports gear maker, told Yicai Global.

The products of some of the company’s new brands notched up average sales in excess of 50,000 items a day, Ye said. They include urban trendy ski suits priced at between CNY1,000 and CNY2,500 (USD158 to USD395). Overall sales have doubled every month since November, he said.

Chinese ski gear brand Nandn has also been having a busy Winter Olympics season. “Our ski suits, helmets and goggles have all maintained relatively high growth,” founder Geng Shaofeng told Yicai Global.

Sales by Nandn’s flagship store on Tmall more than doubled this month from a year ago, according to figures from Tmall owner Alibaba Group, making the company the e-commerce platform’s “sales champion” for ski goods.

In fact, China’s ski gear sales jumped for the first time after Beijing won the right to host the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in 2015. “Nandn’s sales subsequently surged, with the most obvious change being the significant increase in consumers from south China,” Geng pointed out.

Driven by the games, China’s ski industry is now in a period of rapid growth, which will last for about 10 to 15 years, Wu Bin, vice chairman of Beijing’s ski association, said in a previous media interview.

Beijing hosted the XXIV Olympic Winter Games between Feb. 4 and 20.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Peter Thomas