Domestic sports shoe and T-shirt makers are less optimistic. A double-digit decrease in sales aside, inventories for seven domestic sports brands, including Li Ning, Peak and ANTA, mounted to 3.24 billion yuan ($532 million) by the end of June, Chinanews.com reported.

Analysts believe that once strong demand for sport shoes and apparel was diluted by fast-fashion brands like H&M and Zara, which aggressively expanded into the country starting about 2008, since the Chinese have never been that into sports in the first place.

A report issued in April by the Social Sciences Academic Press, the China Sports Industry Development Report 2013, showed that the most popular activity for the Chinese is strolling, and the five top activities are similar ones that cost little.

But Plank, who has been "closely watching the market since his first trip to China in 1999", is confident that "a sport culture" can be built in China - not in a year, but in a decade or even longer.

"We saw the opportunities rise at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Everybody jumped in, making sportswear, putting a logo on a shirt, making a (pair of) shoes, paying an athlete. That is not how an authentic brand, or culture, is built," the former college football player said.

Plank said he was inspired to make T-shirts that keep athletes dry and cool after he got tired of having to change his sweat-soaked T-shirts.

"We made a product to make athletes better," and by athletes, he means more than those who compete for medals or in a professional venue.

"We are not the first in China, but I believe we will possibly be the most authentic," he said.