Owner Of Reebok, Brooks Brothers, Dockers Expects Brisk Growth, Hiring In Asia

Canadian businessman Jamie Salter first arrived in China in the 1980s in the early part of the country’s reform era. “They were just building the highways. I would stop and go to McDonald’s and get a bunch of burgers” because there were so few restaurants with Western-style food, Salter recalled in an interview in Shanghai last week with Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of Forbes. Since then, factories along the roadways have been replaced by condos and apartments, and “you have every name-brand restaurant and all these fancy hotels,” he said.

Salter’s career, which started in the sporting goods business, has taken off, too. The New York-based brand licensing business he founded in 2010 and chairs, Authentic Brands Group, has expanded into what it calls “a multifaceted lifestyle, sports, entertainment and digital platform” for world-renowned names, such as Reebok, Shaquille O’Neal, Brooks Brothers and others. Authentic’s portfolio generates more than $32 billion in global annual retail sales, according to company figures. Shareholders in the privately held business include CVC, Brookfield, GIC, Temasek and General Atlantic.

Salter, 62, was back in Shanghai earlier this month to announce that the city had become Authentic’s new headquarters for an Asia-Pacific region that he expects will be a big source of new revenue in the coming years. “I always said that I truly believe that the Asia-Pacific — and specifically China — will be the biggest consumer market in the world. And I still believe that to this day,” Salter said. The region currently accounts for nearly 15% of Authentic’s business yet “should be almost as big as the United States, (which) represents roughly 60% of our total turnover,” he said. “So the upside in the Asia-Pacific is probably 5x of what we are doing today over the next three to five years.” Optimism about the Asia-Pacific’s economic outlook is underscored by recent International Monetary Fund forecasts. Growth for the Asia region is projected to be 3.9% in 2025, double its prediction of an 1.8% gain in U.S. GDP this year.

Salter picked Shanghai as its regional hub because “we think it’s sort of the capital of where all the business is going be done,” comparable in clout to the role of New York. “To me, Shanghai’s New York City. That’s the way I think about it. I’ve been coming here for a long time. I used to spend a lot of time in Hong Kong. I actually went to Shanghai every year. I just got busier, and there were more people to see. I found myself not running back to Hong Kong to do the business. I was doing all the business in Shanghai.” Salter is particularly upbeat about China in part because of improvements in the quality of goods made in the country. “What I’m really excited about is (that) the product continues to just get better and better. It’s far superior, actually, to the product that is sold in America today” and similar to Europe, he said.

Looking ahead, Authentic’s overall approach to business in Asian markets won’t differ much from elsewhere. “Think global, act local — that’s really important,” Salter said. Japan, South Korea, China and the Philippines are “all very different as far as the cultures go,” including their social media influencers, he observed. Success requires “making sure that we understand those cultures and invest in each region, in order to make sure we’re making the right product for the consumer and to make sure that we have the right marketing behind that.”

“And that means that you need people,” Salter noted. In the U.S., Authentic has an “asset light” business model with 400 employees. In the Asia-Pacific, however, it currently has only 60, “so you’re going to see the headcount go up dramatically in Asia-Pacific compared to other markets. We’ll be adding a lot of people over here.”

Salter expressed optimism about the future of the Dockers brand recently purchased by Authentic from Levi Strauss for $311 million. With about 44% of Dockers’ business coming from the U.S., the larger share of revenue is already from international customers, he said. Levi’s, best-known from its denim business, didn’t want to introduce denim pants to the Dockers brand; Authentic believes it can grow that segment globally. “We believe that Dockers is a very underutilized brand,” he said.

Salter also was upbeat about the Asia-Pacific potential of Sports Illustrated, a media Authentic purchased from Meredith Corp. for $110 million in 2019. Sports Illustrated has since expanded beyond media through SI Tickets, a fan-first ticketing platform, and SI Resorts, marketed as destination for active lifestyles and sports enthusiasts. “There are markets that we truly believe it will expand quite well — Japan, because it’s got a very big sports franchise business out there, Korea and of course, China,” he said. Forbes China licensee Yingli Investment is an affiliate of Advanced Regent, the Greater China licensee of Sports Illustrated. Advanced Regent launched the brand in China last year.

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