Show Notes

The 966, episode #131, with Reiting Lee, Founder of The Oriental Hybrid, explores the impact of the growing participation in sports and healthy activities in Saudi Arabia on the fashion industry, particularly sportswear and athleisure.

Reiting Lee is deeply involved in the youth, sportswear and streetwear fashion sectors in Saudi Arabia and the region and is the dynamic founder of The Oriental Hybrid, a boutique consulting firm specializing in innovation strategy and intercultural communications, that serves Arab fashion brands and provides market insights and trend analysis for corporates and media outside of Saudi Arabia.

The sportswear athleisure market in Saudi Arabia is currently valued at $1.3 billion and is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2027, with an annual growth rate of 13%. The primary factors driving this lifestyle change and participation include social media influence, health awareness, overseas education, and government initiatives. Soccer, basketball, yoga, and volleyball are popular sports influencing fashion choices in Saudi Arabia.

International brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma, and Fila dominate the market, with Adidas being the market leader.

The Saudi 100 brand initiative, launched in 2021, aims to promote Saudi brands, including sportswear and streetwear.

The sector has tremendous potential for growth, with opportunities for more female founders and female-friendly products. Collaboration between Saudi brands and international brands, as well as investment in localized campaigns and designs, can further accelerate the sector. The boost in tourism in Saudi Arabia is also expected to contribute to the growth of the sector. The conversation concludes with optimism about the future of Saudi sportswear and the potential for Saudi brands to become prominent in the global market.

Takeaways

• The sportswear athleisure market in Saudi Arabia is growing rapidly, with a current value of $1.3 billion and an expected growth to $1.5 billion by 2027.
• Social media influence, health awareness, overseas education, and government initiatives are driving the lifestyle change and participation in sports and healthy activities in Saudi Arabia.
• Soccer, basketball, yoga, and volleyball are popular sports that are influencing fashion choices in Saudi Arabia.
• International brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma, and Fila dominate the sportswear market in Saudi Arabia.
• The Saudi 100 brand initiative aims to promote Saudi brands, including sportswear and streetwear, and there is potential for more female founders and female-friendly products in the sector.
• Collaboration between Saudi brands and international brands, investment in localized campaigns and designs, and the boost in tourism in Saudi Arabia can further accelerate the growth of the sportswear sector.

Titles

• The Impact of Sports Participation on Saudi Fashion
• The Future of Saudi Sportswear: Growth and Potential

Sound Bites

• "The sportswear category has generated $1.3 billion in 2022 and is still expected to grow more and reach $1.5 billion in 2027."
• "The boost and investment into the tourism of Saudi Arabia will also definitely accelerate the sector."
• "Out of the Saudi 100 brands, 34 of those brands are under the category of sportswear and streetwear."

Chapters

00:00Introduction and Background of Oriental Hybrid

03:07The Impact of Sports Participation on Saudi Fashion

05:15The Growth of the Sportswear Category in Saudi Arabia

09:28The Dominance of International Brands in the Saudi Market

11:50The Emergence of Saudi Brands and the Saudi 100 Program

16:21The Most Influential Sports in Saudi Arabia

20:36The Future Potential of the Sportswear and Athleisure Market

23:12Women-Only Gyms and Modesty in Sportswear

26:46Conclusion and Outlook for the Sector

Keywords

Saudi Arabia, sports participation, fashion industry, sportswear, athleisure, Oriental Hybrid, innovation strategy, intercultural communications, market insights, trend analysis, social media influence, health awareness, overseas education, government initiatives, soccer, basketball, yoga, volleyball, international brands, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Fila, Saudi 100 brand initiative, female founders, female-friendly products, collaboration, localized campaigns, tourism, growth potential

Saeed Al-Ansari, Founder and CEO of Tawaref, a Saudi Arabia-based tech investment community that also provides startup advisory, legal consultancy and due diligence support joins Richard Wilson on The 966 to discuss what is needed to establish a business in Saudi Arabia. Saeed and Tawaref bring an extraordinary amount of experience to this challenge. In addition, Tawaref has published a series of invaluable articles in Wamda, a well-known platform, media site and venture capital firm, on how to establish a business in KSA.

The series currently includes 8 articles that, “provide a one-stop resource to answer all the repetitive queries that we see throughout our work. Through insightful articles, Tawaref provides valuable insights and guidance on various topics, such as legal and regulatory requirements, key challenges, tips and tricks, how-to manuals, sector-specific information, and opportunities for growth. Showcasing the key hubs, dos and don’ts, common missteps, incorporation detail, facts that save money. “

The articles include:

Tawaref Series: navigating Saudi expansion

Tawaref Series: an entrepreneur’s journey in Saudi Arabia, from bootstrapping to big bucks

Tawaref Series: A blueprint for foreign investment success in Saudi Arabia

Tawaref Series: The truth behind Saudi landing hard costs

Tawaref series: Categorising Saudi setup partners by soft costs

Tawaref Series: Saudi corporate annual operating costs explained

Tawaref Series: Understanding annual operating cost in Saudi Arabia

“The Saudi Arabian investment landscape has been thriving in recent years, attracting investors from around the globe. With the introduction of business-friendly reforms and attractive incentives by the Saudi Government, the country has become an increasingly potent and vibrant market for entrepreneurs and investors alike. However, navigating the market can be challenging without access to authentic and authoritative content that provides useful and concise information.”

The Saudi-US Trade Group and The 966 strongly recommend the series for anyone looking to establish a presence in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi cinema re-opened six years ago in April 2018 after a 35-year hiatus. The sector has exploded with revenue during that period close to $1b, over 61 million tickets sold, 1,971 films screened including 45 local productions. Saudi-based director, producer and actor Todd Albert Nims joins The 966 to discuss the origins of the Saudi film sector, how it has transformed and what remains to be done. In addition to the recent 10th showing of the Saudi Film Festival, Todd examines other ongoing events (Cannes Film Festival, Red Sea International Film Festival, etc.) including the 2nd U.S.-Saudi Film Forum happening later this month. The 2023 US-Saudi Film Forum Industry Report, is available here https://www.amchamksa.com/us-saudi-industry-film-forum-report.

William Greene, MD, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the Hevolution Foundation, joins The 966 to talk about Hevolution's investment strategy and role as an investor in the emerging field of Healthspan Science. As CIO, Dr. Greene oversees all aspects of Hevolution Foundation’s investment strategy, planning, analysis, and execution.

The Hevolution Foundation, based in Riyadh, is a non-profit organization that provides grants and early-stage investments to incentivize research and entrepreneurship in healthspan science.

Last month, Hevolution announced its first ever impact investment to catalyze the healthspan and geroscience ecosystem and drive transformative breakthroughs in healthy aging.

Dr. William Greene’s leadership positions have included founder, biotechnology executive, investor, and clinician. As CEO, he built Iconic Therapeutics through discovery, clinical development and venture financing, leading to a successful sale of the company. He later helmed longevity biotech company Fountain Therapeutics and co-founded digital therapeutics startup Pear Therapeutics.

Dr. Greene spent 12 years at MPM Capital where he was a Managing Director and member of its Investment Committee, responsible for biotechnology and medical technology investments worldwide. He was also founding Chairman and head of the Investment Committee at the Global Health Investment Fund, a groundbreaking impact-oriented venture fund in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, which successfully scaled both investment returns and health impact simultaneously.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Greene was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and led clinical trials and strategy for a variety of therapeutic areas at Genentech.

Dr. Greene earned his BA from Wesleyan University and his MD from UCSF. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney joins The 966 to talk diplomacy and U.S.-Saudi relations.

In recent years, he was the Acting Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of State’s training center, the Foreign Service Institute, where he had also been Dean of the State Department’s School of Language Studies. He was Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2021, and earlier served on the faculty of the National Defense University.

Ambassador Ratney was the U.S. Special Envoy for Syria from 2015 to 2018, and also served as acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Israel and Palestinian Affairs. He was the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem from 2012 to 2015, where he was responsible for U.S. relations with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. He has been Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Media, overseeing a network of State Department media hubs throughout the world, and was Spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

What is the state of the Saudi labor market today? How do Saudis find jobs, and how are young Saudis viewing their prospects in a changing and modernizing Saudi economy and society? Saudi labor market expert Dr. Hanaa Almoaibed talks with Lucien Zeigler about Saudi Arabia's changing labor force, the job market in the Kingdom, youth and employment, the embrace of technical and vocational training, women in the workforce, and so much more.

Before the conversation, Lucien's One Big Thing is *the* one big thing in Saudi Arabia for pretty much every citizen and non-citizen alike: Ramadan. Lucien shares his initial experience with Ramdan in Riyadh, his first despite being a long-time regular visitor since 2009 and now living in Riyadh. He discusses how his fasting is going and observations on how the city changes during the holy month.

Ramadan Kareem and a blessed holy season to all The 966 listeners and viewers.

In Episode 125, the hosts welcome veteran columnist and analyst Hussein Ibish onto The 966 for his third appearance on the program to unpack the implications of Israel's brutal war in Gaza and the shifting regional and global power dynamics since October 7th.

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and is a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and The Atlantic. He's also a former columnist for Bloomberg, regular contributor to The New York Times and The Daily Beast, and frequent contributor to many other U.S. and Middle Eastern publications.

Hussein discusses the war in Gaza and calls it a "savage war of vengeance" and the Biden Administration's response to it. He also talks about how the war has aligned the U.S. and Saudi Arabia's interests in forming a Palestinian state when the war is over and how the issue has brought the U.S. and Saudi Arabia closer diplomatically.

Abdullah Alshamrani, General Manager of the Digital Entrepreneurship Center at Saudi Arabia’s MCIT join The 966 to talk ecosystem development in the Kingdom, the entrepreneurship scene, and the Kingdom as a future destination for tech.

The conversation comes as the Kingdom's flagship tech event, LEAP, is set to kick off in Riyadh in March.

He also shares his journey to becoming General Manager of Digital Entrepreneurship Center at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, his time in the USA, and more...

The Kingdom’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology works to grow KSA’s digital economy and investment to make Saudi Arabia a global leader in the digital economy.