中产女孩的“新衣” 搜索暴涨1100% 成今年“最热”赛道

This article outlines the currently booming ballet-core consumer trend, with key takeaways below:

1. Origin of the trend: The movement originated from South Korean pop culture, popularized by stars such as BLACKPINK. Millions of middle-class women have taken up adult ballet for body shaping, drawn to the aesthetic of a toned, elegant posture. Searches for ballet-core content on Xiaohongshu and Douyin have skyrocketed, turning what was once a niche art form into a popular daily workout.

2. Current consumption landscape: Ballet-core products are seeing explosive growth across all categories. Global search volume for Miu Miu satin ballet flats has jumped 1,100%, while on Taobao, sales of ballet slouch socks between March and May increased 500%, and ballet flat sales rose 300%. Daily GMV for ballet-core items outperforms the platform average by 20%, with the trend expanding from footwear and apparel to bags and accessories, and diversifying into multiple distinct style subgenres.

3. Shopping guide: Many brands now offer designs adapted for casual hobbyists, adjusting cuts and refining details to fit average body types, addressing the poor fit and lack of practical features common in professional dancewear brands. Casual consumers who enjoy the aesthetic can select products based on their needs.

Ballet-core is now a proven consumer hot trend, bringing new opportunities and challenges to brands. Key insights below:

1. Consumer trends and user characteristics: Adult ballet is rapidly gaining popularity among middle-class women, with the core group of new users being young, entry-level casual hobbyists with no prior experience. Their needs differ significantly from professional dancers: they prioritize cuts that fit average body types and enhanced user experience. Unmet needs ignored by large international brands, such as anti-slip coverage and comfortable, flattering fits, represent a key entry opportunity for new brands.

2. Market growth data: The ballet-core trend is booming across all categories. On Taobao, daily GMV of ballet-core apparel outperforms other products by 20%, sales of performance-focused ballet shoes are 8 times higher than other single items, and multiple niche categories have recorded growth between 300% and 500%. The market has ample room to expand, and the trend is already extending into children’s lines and everyday wear.

3. Competitive landscape outlook: Three types of players have entered the market so far: large athletic brands, professional ballet brands, and apparel brands that incorporate ballet elements. Even after large established brands enter the space in force, small brands that focus on niche segments and stay close to their users will still have room to survive. Ultimately, brands that truly understand their users and invest in refining product details will come out on top.

The ballet-core track is in an explosive growth phase, bringing extensive new opportunities for small and medium-sized sellers. Key takeaways below:

1. Opportunity outlook: The adult ballet boom has driven explosive consumption across categories, expanding from basic footwear and leotards to a diverse range of products including bow bags and tulle skirts, with sub-styles ranging from sweet-edgy to deconstructed to athletic. Currently, more than 700,000 merchants on Taobao offer ballet-core items, and the overall growth rate of the track far outpaces the platform average, leaving room for new sellers to break out.

2. Actionable success strategies: Sellers can build their business around solving common user pain points: adjust sizing and refine product features for casual hobbyists, and iterate quickly on details based on user feedback. Brands can leverage creator IP to drive discovery and customer acquisition on social media, work with specialized manufacturers to ensure quality, and achieve monthly sales of hundreds of thousands of yuan even with a lean operations model.

3. Trend and risk outlook: Niche ballet-core styles will remain red-hot over the next 6 to 12 months, before transitioning to steady growth in two years, and will eventually become a permanent mainstream style. Entry by large industry giants will not fully crowd out small brands, which can still survive by focusing on differentiated niche positioning.

The boom in ballet-core consumption has created new business opportunities and valuable insights for apparel manufacturing factories. Key takeaways below:

1. Market demand opportunities: Ballet-core is booming across all categories, creating strong order demand not just from professional ballet brands, but also from a large number of emerging brands and mass apparel brands launching ballet-core items, leading to ample order volume. Demand is also highly differentiated: there is large unmet demand for both plus-size custom orders for professional dancers, and small-batch, multi-style orders adapted to the body types of casual hobbyists.

2. Evolving client needs: Brands now require much faster product iteration. Small and medium-sized brands need to adjust sizing and details quickly based on user feedback, so demand for flexible production and fast design changes is far higher than for traditional bulk orders. Factories that can accommodate these needs will win more high-quality clients.

3. Strategic insights: Locating near established industrial clusters reduces costs and improves response speed, as seen in the example of brands moving their operations to Guangzhou to be closer to supply chains. Factories can leverage industrial cluster advantages, adjust their production models to serve the needs of small and medium emerging brands, and capture the growth dividend of this booming track.

The boom in the ballet-core track has generated a range of new industry demands, opening new business directions for service providers. Key takeaways below:

1. Industry development trends: Ballet-core has transitioned from a short-term fad to a long-term stable aesthetic, with ballet elements being incorporated into the entire apparel category. As the market size continues to grow and a wave of new brands enters the market, demand for supporting services is rising rapidly, making this a high-certainty growth track.

2. Core pain points of current clients: Most new ballet-core brands are founded by former ballet enthusiasts who lack access to supply chain resources, and struggle to find manufacturing partners that can accommodate small-batch production and fast design changes. Additionally, most new brands rely on social media for customer acquisition, but lack professional operations and marketing capabilities, creating demand for targeted support services.

3. Opportunity for solution development: Service providers can build tailored offerings for the niche ballet-core track, such as supply chain services that connect brands with quality contract manufacturers, matching services for flexible production for small and medium brands, and social media operations and marketing services built for creator-led founder IPs. By meeting the needs of new brands, service providers can share in the growth dividend of the track.

The boom in ballet-core consumption has brought new growth opportunities for e-commerce platforms, and valuable insights for platform operations and merchant recruitment. Key takeaways below:

1. Shifts in user base and market: Ballet-core has become a mainstream national consumer trend, with search volume and transaction volume far outpacing the platform average. The core user base has expanded from professional dancers and experienced enthusiasts to young casual users with no prior ballet experience, and demand has extended from professional dancewear to everyday casual apparel, with the market size continuing to expand rapidly.

2. Proven successful strategies: Taobao added ballet-core to its trend tag library early, allowing it to capture the growth dividend through pre-positioning. The platform also supports new brand launches through initiatives such as its "Trending Hot Items" program to help new brands scale quickly. For example, Alright then sold 3,000 pairs of ballet flats in the first 10 minutes of its launch, and sold more than 20,000 pairs in the first month, validating the effectiveness of this model.

3. Insights for operations and recruitment: Platforms can continue to support new brands focused on niche styles, attract players across segments including large athletic brands, professional brands, and emerging brands to enrich platform product offerings. At the same time, platforms should monitor long-term trends in the track, adjust operation strategies after the trend stabilizes as a permanent style, and avoid wasted traffic from homogenized competition.

The commercialization of ballet-core reveals a number of new industry trends and patterns that hold high value for industry research. Key insights below:

1. New industry trends: Once an exclusive niche art form, ballet has rapidly penetrated mass markets to become a popular daily fitness activity, driven by celebrity endorsements from K-pop stars and social media amplification, spawning an entirely new consumer track. The market now features three categories of competitors: large athletic groups, established professional brands, and emerging new brands, all competing in the same space.

2. Summary of new business models: A large share of new ballet-core brands were founded by former consumers and enthusiasts, who acquire customers through their founder’s social IP, directly connect with user demand, eliminate layers of intermediate feedback, and iterate quickly on product details. This lightweight reverse C2M model has become an effective path for new brands to enter niche tracks, upending the operating logic of traditional brands.

3. Implications for industry patterns: The development of ballet-core follows a clear trajectory: explosive growth → stable growth → integration as a permanent mainstream style, offering a valuable reference for studying how popular culture translates into consumer tracks. It also confirms that even after large incumbents enter a market, small niche brands that stay close to users and refine product details still have viable space to exist, enriching research on industrial competition.