Hockey pucks and protective gear for the American National Hockey League (NHL) or ski poles for European Winter Olympic athletes: many are manufactured in Xiamen, a coastal city in Southeast China's Fujian province, where winters are mild, with an average temperature of 16 C. Quietly emerging as a production base for winter sports equipment, this warm and humid seaside city is defying climatic expectations.

On the production lines of Xiamen Better Sporting Goods, helmets and gloves printed with the NHL logo and club names are being shipped out in bulk. Founded in 2006, the company produces equipment for almost every aspect of ice hockey, with the North American market accounting for half of its total export volume.

Since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, champions at each subsequent Winter Games have used products from Xiamen Peer Fiber Products. The company now supplies several globally renowned ski brands, including One Way, Swix, and Salomon, with its main export markets being the Nordic and Alpine regions, and a year‑on‑year increase of 20-30 percent in export value for 2025.

Export growth has been influenced by the Winter Olympics cycle. Beyond boosting the consumption of winter sports equipment, the Games have also driven technological innovation. Xiamen Peer Fiber Products invests at least 5 percent of its annual revenue in research and development and upgrades its products every two years. 

The export performance of Fujian's winter sports equipment has also been particularly impressive, with exports totaling 220 million yuan ($31.6 million) in 2025, a year‑on‑year increase of 51.6 percent.