诈捐5000万？濒临破产？鸿星尔克当事方回应丨Erke responded to rumors

导读 

近日，鸿星尔克多次登顶热搜，引发热议，这个平时看起来“存在感不高”的企业在河南遭遇暴雨袭击后，一出手就是5000万物资，令人感动。有人质疑鸿星尔克捐款的真实性，也有不少网友替它担忧，“感觉你们家都要破产了”，在一些论坛上，还出现了“鸿星尔克估计要倒闭了”的帖子。
对此，相关当事方纷纷出面澄清捐款事宜，鸿星尔克董事长吴荣照也通过微博澄清破产传言，称虽然转型很难，但也没有“濒临破产”。

Recently, Erke, a Chinese sportswear company, was trending on social media platforms, sparking discussions about a brand which hadn't received such attention in a while. The reason? Erke donated 50 million yuan to Henan disaster relief after the heavy rainstorm. Many netizens felt touched by this display of generosity, but they are also worried about Erke. "It feels like you're going out of business, you donated so much," a netizen wrote.

This comment represents the feelings of many netizens. If not for this donation, many people may have forgotten this sports brand, which was founded more than 20 years ago.

However, the fact that Erke has suddenly found itself in the spotlight, has caused some controversy. An article, questioning the authenticity of the donation, circulated on the internet.

Subsequently, the relevant parties have made clarifications.

Erke said in a post on its official account that the 50 million yuan donation includes 30 million yuan in materials donated to the Zhengzhou Charity Federation, and 20 million yuan in materials to the One Foundation.

July 25, @Zhengzhou Charity Federation released a statement on Weibo, "Erke has donated 29 million yuan in materials, with 1 million yuan have been transferred to the account."

One Foundation also posted an article on its official Weibo account, explaining the 20 million yuan (in materials and cash) donated by Erke in cooperation with One Foundation.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Xiamen, Erke is a large sportswear enterprise with a collection of research and development, production and sales. Once upon a time, its slogan, "To be No 1," resounded through streets in China, but now, in the eyes of many netizens, Erke seems to have faded out of the social media limelight.

A few days ago, Henan suffered a rare, heavy rainstorm, with serious urban floods hitting a number of cities including its capital, Zhengzhou. When disaster struck, help came from all sides. As the government took prompt measures to help Henan, public figures, enterprises, and people from across China also took action to donate money and materials to the disaster area.

What made Erke's donation so impressive that it went viral is the gift was a huge sum for the company, considering that its business didn't seem to develop very smoothly over the past few years.

What should we do if we are worried about the "collapse" of Erke? Just buy their products. At one time, many netizens entered its live broadcasting room to buy their goods.

On Thursday evening, Erke's livestreaming channel on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform, attracted over 2 million people — a big increase from the usual — under 10,000 viewers. The popularity continued on Friday evening, when its livestreaming channel drew over 7.5 million viewers. The statistics also show that, within 36 hours, Erke sold over 67 million yuan worth of goods across all of its social media platforms.

According to e-commerce giant JD.com, on Thursday and Friday, Chinese sportswear companies' overall sales increased 280 percent year-on-year. Erke saw a 52-fold sales increase on Friday. Many netizens said, "we will keep buying its goods and make its sewing machine smoke".

This also gave birth to a new word, wild consumption.

Speculations on whether Erke is going to "close down" haven't stopped. Erke has a revenue gap compared with other national sports brands.

According to Youth.cn, in 2020 revenue of Erke was 2.8 billion, Li Ning was 14.4 billion, Xtep was 8.1 billion, 361° was 5.1 billion, Anta was 35.5 billion.

This led some netzines to question, "Is Erke going to close down?" "Is it really going bankrupt?"

Just after midnight on Sunday morning, Wu Rongzhao, CEO of Erke denied the rumors about bankruptcy, and posted on Weibo about the company's growth and struggles since it was born two decades ago.

"In 2003, half of our equipment and materials were destroyed by a flood. In 2008, the company went through the global financial crisis. In 2015, a massive fire raged through our factory. Despite all those setbacks, we survived and still believe in bringing out products with craftsmanship," Wu wrote. "It's not true that the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. We've been working hard on changing our marketing strategy and have achieved results.

"It is a total surprise that the company received so much attention from netizens. We are flattered by and grateful for their support. Chinese people are kindhearted and united. We believe in the rise of Chinese enterprises. We can make it." he wrote.

The latest information shows that Erke's inventory is in short supply, and the official account of the enterprise has reminded everyone to pay attention to counterfeit products.

编辑：商桢

实习生：周迎桢

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